Wood burning stove - keep or remove?

[Noeggsontoast]

We have bought a house with a wood burning stove in the lounge and are considering removing it and blocking the chimney and placing an electric fire in the hearth instead. No idea how much this would cost or whether we should just keep the wood burner for occasional use. Anyone have went experience of removing a wood burner? Thank you in advance

Again, glad of ours today

Its not what you would think real cold, certainly not cold enough to put the heating on, but its been grey, damp or right wet for the past four days after some good warm weather, it feels so cold ( fingers have been numb most of the day ) that the fire got lit at 5pm and has been allowed to burn out

TBH, if we had mains gas, I wouldn't have the stove.

the dust, dirt, insects in the house

The amount of work required ( ringing, chopping, stacking logs )

The outside space given up for seasoning

I would loved to have just switched on a gas fire for a couple of hours

Agree with this.

Urban area - get rid. They're awful. So ugly.

Ugly? I think they’re lovely to sit in front of on a winter’s night. Absolutely works with the character of our 300 yr old farmhouse.

ridiculous comment

”ugly” is very much in the eye of the beholder. I think our stoves are lovely to look at and are a focal point of the rooms they are in. Flickering flames are incredibly soothing to watch.

The modern ones are far more efficient, far more attractive and have less environmental impact than their predecessors. I don't know about electric fires, so I couldn’t say how pleasing to the eye they are.

I do think they’re a good back up if you live in a large or draughty house, or in an area prone to power cuts.

I would also live with it a while before you decide . Ours is one of my absolutely favourite things when the weather is colder.
We do have to pay for logs but live in a village location with no mains gas and most of our neighbours also burn wood.
We live in a very old farmhouse.

I would never remove a woodburning stove. Its always a good backup to have.

We have a gas stove. We don't need to use it much as we have central heating but it looks lovely as a focal point in the room and is there as back up heat when there is a power cut unlike an electric fire.

Even with central heating when the temperature falls way below 0 and the condensate pipe freezes up meaning your boiler doesn't work you'll appreciate it. I probably use mine less that 20 times a year but I wouldn't be without it.

I have a log burner in the living room and a solid fuel Rayburn in the kitchen that does the central heating and hot water. And I hate the log burner but I wouldn’t advise taking one out. Keep some fuel in so if there’s a power cut or an extreme cold spell you can use it. When you’re not using it put some pine cones and fairy lights in it so it looks pretty.

there may be problems with old wood burners but the new ones are very good. No one will ever come between me and my wood burning stove

I would definitely keep it. We're putting one in at some point.

The modern ones are far more efficient, far more attractive and have less environmental impact than their predecessors. This is comforting but not true. A fire or wood burner creates particulates. Some go direct into the room, some into the air around your house. The impact of burning wood is known, it causes respiratory problems and a whole host of other health issues. The most affected house is the house with the wood burner, but of course they are crap for neighbours too.

I had a large burner that heated water and radiators in my last house. I've moved to gch now but there is a small burner in the lounge. I've got battery operated candles in it to give a flicker and warm glow. I haven't needed to light it yet but wouldn't remove it

I think you’re probably right. My friend’s asthma was terrible- and cleared up when she stopped using her woodburner. But I still couldn’t stop having a fire in our old, draughty, rural house. And we don’t have any neighbours anyway.

We've just fitted a new large wood burner, which we used last winter rather than the central heating – it's lovely, keeps the house warm (single storey), it's cosy to sit in front of and the cats love it.

We live in an urbanisation so no very close neighbours, and the house is kept well vented, so I haven't noticed an issue with air quality.

Personally I'd live with it for at least one winter and see how you go. I order about 2 batches of logs throughout the winter, which the log man delivers and stacks, which costs about £100 each time so not exorbitant. Electric fires are expensive to run unless you have solar panels.

I wouldn’t be without ours. It’s wonderful in the winter.

If you have a cheap or free source of logs they are great, if the logs are expensive not so good except for a nice centre piece for a dinner party.

I'd keep it. Next house will be getting one if it doesn't already have one. After a twelve hour power cut in the middle of winter I want to be a bit independent of the electricity network.

A useful back up in power cuts. We are keeping ours. We don't use it much but everything relies on electric these days. Our boiler, hob, oven, shower all need electric so we have lost alternative heat sources like gas stoves. So the wood burner is staying.

Gosh, I am about to spend thousands of pounds on getting rid of the ugly electric firplace and open up the plastered chimney and have a logburner installated.

I think electric fireplaces are so cheap looking - even the super expensive don't look like a real fire. I'm having a hard time understanding who would think it's nicer than a real log burner.

Also, as pp said, once we lost electricity in our town due to a huge storm. We were lucky, as our house wasn't affected, but our neighbours went 2 weeks without electricity during the winter. The cold house caused all sorts of issues - bursed pipes, etc...

i love mine - I watch the flames more than the TV in winter. We are electric only and get power cuts fairly regularly and I am always grateful for it. Warms the whole (small) house, I’ve made an omelette on it before as well as filled hot water bottles during a particularly long power cut which made the electric blanket useless and it reduces the likelihood of damp.

I honestly can’t imagine living in a house without one. What would your furniture be pointed at (to paraphrase Joey)?

I'm having a hard time understanding who would think it's nicer than a real log burner.

Decent electric fires look good. But you have to pay the money, not get a cheap £200 one that will look tacky.

vs log burners electric fires are far less locally polluting (inside and out), less hassle to operate and maintain (no chimney sweeps necessary and no hauling and cutting logs). They are more expensive to operate, but if you hardly use them as a backup heat source to your main heat source then the expense of electric it isn't really an issue.

The good points of log burners are that they are a good backup source of heat and cheap if you don't value your own time cutting/hauling/messing about with wood, are actually physically capable of doing it and are prepared to burn any old nasty stuff you find. Most log burners I see where people are preoccupied with costs are "any old shit I can fit in it" burners rather than log burners.

I would keep one as a backup if I lived rurally and didn't use it much. If I had to use it a lot then I would be thinking of getting a better alternative main heating system like LPG or heat pumps.

There isn't really enough info in the OPs original post to make any sort of statement as to whether a log burner would be better for them than an electric fire. But to me it would be best to try it and find out rather than replace it straight off.