Woodburners do you agree with this?
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Towser
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This month three of Britain's Big Six energy providers have announced inflation-busting hikes that will hit millions of customers from 15 November.
So, with another cold spell on the cards, is it worth households investigating the potential for cheaper ways to heat their homes?
Stoves provider Chesney’s thinks so.
It has reported record sales figures, up 35 per cent from 2012, as Britons choose to switch to woodburning stoves.
According to Hetas, the industry regulatory body, at least 175,000 households are installing a woodburner each year, which is five times more than in 2007.
But booming woodburner sales may be as much about home fashions as energy effiency.
Most homes that have them fitted do so without the means to spread the warmth through the property, meaning that they only heat the room they are in.
Nonetheless Paul Chesney, founder of Chesney’s, reckons a stove could save you money on your bills.
He says: 'Burning wood costs an average of 4p per kilowatt hour, which is considerably cheaper than gas, as the average new gas tariff will rise to 6p per kilowatt hour from 15th November 2013.
'With gas prices rising by up to 11.1 per cent, the average household could save more than £300 a year by installing a wood burning stove.'
This should be substantially less than the cost of gas that would have been used.
It may also allow the gas central heating to be switched on later as autumn approaches and to be turned off earlier in the spring.
However, a standard wood-burning stove is only going to heat the room that it’s in, making it hard to estimate potential savings.
Those with smaller homes that have a relatively open-plan layout do say that a wood-burner can heat a whole area rather than just one room.
But if you want to heat your entire home you are likely to need more than one woodburner and if you want hot water from it you will also need to have a back boiler installed, see below.
The height of the ceiling, the room’s insulation and the current heating arrangements are all factors in determining savings.
Some stove retailers suggest you will save an average of 10 per cent on your current heating bills, but that’s not a widely accepted figure and for individual homes the savings could be higher or much lower.
But with an average dual fuel energy bill now hitting £1,434 a year, according to uSwitch, you could be making potential savings of more than £140 a year.
Using these figures, if you paid £2,000 for a log stove, it would take nearly 15 years to claw back the cost of the installation.
Chesney's however, calculates potential savings as much higher - up to a third. It believes Energy Saving Trust calculations are on the cautious side.
Using the most expensive fuel type (kiln dried wood, see above), which costs an average of 4p per kilowatt hour, and comparing it against the new average 6p per kilowatt hour gas tariff, it has worked out that with gas prices rising by up to 11.1 per cent, the average household could save more than £300 a year on fuel with a wood burning stove.
On the other hand, uSwitch.com, a comparison site, puts the average cost of gas at 5p per kilowatt hour for households when the price increases have been taken into consideration, which works out at an annual cost of £765 - a saving of around £100 for the average household, rather than around £300.
Although the difference between gas and wood at this price is very little, households not connected to the gas grid stand to make huge savings by switching to wood-fuelled heating systems. The annual energy bill savings for electric-heated homes, for example, could be around £630.
So, with another cold spell on the cards, is it worth households investigating the potential for cheaper ways to heat their homes?
Stoves provider Chesney’s thinks so.
It has reported record sales figures, up 35 per cent from 2012, as Britons choose to switch to woodburning stoves.
According to Hetas, the industry regulatory body, at least 175,000 households are installing a woodburner each year, which is five times more than in 2007.
But booming woodburner sales may be as much about home fashions as energy effiency.
Most homes that have them fitted do so without the means to spread the warmth through the property, meaning that they only heat the room they are in.
Nonetheless Paul Chesney, founder of Chesney’s, reckons a stove could save you money on your bills.
He says: 'Burning wood costs an average of 4p per kilowatt hour, which is considerably cheaper than gas, as the average new gas tariff will rise to 6p per kilowatt hour from 15th November 2013.
'With gas prices rising by up to 11.1 per cent, the average household could save more than £300 a year by installing a wood burning stove.'
This should be substantially less than the cost of gas that would have been used.
It may also allow the gas central heating to be switched on later as autumn approaches and to be turned off earlier in the spring.
However, a standard wood-burning stove is only going to heat the room that it’s in, making it hard to estimate potential savings.
Those with smaller homes that have a relatively open-plan layout do say that a wood-burner can heat a whole area rather than just one room.
But if you want to heat your entire home you are likely to need more than one woodburner and if you want hot water from it you will also need to have a back boiler installed, see below.
The height of the ceiling, the room’s insulation and the current heating arrangements are all factors in determining savings.
Some stove retailers suggest you will save an average of 10 per cent on your current heating bills, but that’s not a widely accepted figure and for individual homes the savings could be higher or much lower.
But with an average dual fuel energy bill now hitting £1,434 a year, according to uSwitch, you could be making potential savings of more than £140 a year.
Using these figures, if you paid £2,000 for a log stove, it would take nearly 15 years to claw back the cost of the installation.
Chesney's however, calculates potential savings as much higher - up to a third. It believes Energy Saving Trust calculations are on the cautious side.
Using the most expensive fuel type (kiln dried wood, see above), which costs an average of 4p per kilowatt hour, and comparing it against the new average 6p per kilowatt hour gas tariff, it has worked out that with gas prices rising by up to 11.1 per cent, the average household could save more than £300 a year on fuel with a wood burning stove.
On the other hand, uSwitch.com, a comparison site, puts the average cost of gas at 5p per kilowatt hour for households when the price increases have been taken into consideration, which works out at an annual cost of £765 - a saving of around £100 for the average household, rather than around £300.
Although the difference between gas and wood at this price is very little, households not connected to the gas grid stand to make huge savings by switching to wood-fuelled heating systems. The annual energy bill savings for electric-heated homes, for example, could be around £630.
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Comments
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When I moved into my current house which is 300 years old and so comes with a stove everyone who visited told me how it would save me loads of money! The reality is logs are just far too expensive to compete with gas. And even with free wood you have a roasting living room, cool kitchen and cold bedrooms and a freezing bathroom.
It's great fun though
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i was working this out earlier to see if i have benefited from installing the stove. i had a little irish lottery win so my actual cost of installation was £250 (£1450 total) but i was looking at getting it before the win i have spent around £245 on logs, smokeless & heat logs and prob another £40 ontop for kindling which i will buy as and when.
Last year in same property i was putting £30pm in the gas meter increasing that to £40 in nov to march maybe even £50 when it got really cold which i think my gas cost about £450 that was also just o central heating with rads in front room kitchen & bathroom (why anyone would put a radiator in these room is beyond me and there was no way to turn them off they had not control on them). I was paying all that money to heat 1 room as my boiler and system is that old it would heat the bedroom also but neither would get properly warm so i made he decision to get the stove rather than replace the boiler as id still be paying out for all the gas as well, and it never got hot in the front room often i was wearing a dressing gown
my room is 4m x 4m its toasty at 26c and the stove has been on for 2.5 hours, burnt 2 small logs an 2 heat logs and i have finished burning for the night. this room will still be warm in the morning and when i get in from work about 18c there will also be a noticeable not warm but taken the chill off the bedroom.
All in all i think i made the right decision, it was not about saving money but looks like im going too it was that i wanted to get warm and not throwing money away into gas. i now use nearly 0 gas only whatever the standing charge is and a few pence to do the dishes with hot water.0 -
According to Chesney's, the cheapest way to buy logs is from your local tree surgeon. These logs will need to dry out thoroughly in a shed or wood store.
- A 900kg (3m cube) bag of logs costs = £50
- 10kg of logs provides = 45 hours of burning time at 1kw hour
- The average home will use their stove at 2kw hour for three hours an evening = seven days log burning for 51p.
If you don’t have room to dry logs then it’s best to buy the more expensive kiln dried logs, which cost 4.1p per kW hour- A 300kg (1m cube) bag of kiln dried logs costs = £139.00
- 10kg of logs provides = 45 hours of burning time at 1kw hour
- The average home will use their stove at 2kw hour for three hours an evening = 7 days log burning for £4.63
I am struggling finding all this locally0 - A 900kg (3m cube) bag of logs costs = £50
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the logs only need to dry if they are unseasoned or partially seasoned i got my seasoned logs for £40 per bag but they were still 30 to 35% moisture but a few months drying and a week or so indoors and they are all less than 25 most less than 20. a good firewood merchant will only sell seasoned logs with about 20% moisture (something i only found out about after buying mine) also buying in the bag you can never be sure exactly how much logs you are getting as the wetter they are the heavier and the bigger they are cut the less in the bag (i have to split most mine in half to get in my stove its only small 5kw) there is a forum arbtalk i think which i have read people advise to visit to find a good firewood dealer0
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Do you have to write it so fr!gging big?0
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Sure my work mate has a burner that heats the central heating, and he swears it wil heat the whole house when living room door is left open, does have a big burner mind0
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It's rubbish and typical of the 'churnalism' that passes for news reporting these days. A hack gets a press release (usually from a 'charity', a company or a pressure group) and recycles it as a 'news' story.
Origination costs these days are sky high. Due to the high price of stoves and the virtual monopoly on installation by HETAS, getting started has a high entry barrier and it will take a long while to amortise that cost, even if you get your wood for free.
If you don't get free wood, logs have shot-up in price in recent years (even assuming you can find any that have been properly seasoned - in my experience very few have been) and the price will only climb as more and more people are suckered in by the glossy lifetsyle image of wood burners and the myths spun about 'cheap heat'.
Running a wood stove may be cheaper than using oil or LPG but wood burners, for all their nice aesthetics, are far more costly to run that mains gas appliances, assuming you have to buy wood at market prices.
As I've said here before, I love mine and wouldn't have a home without a real fire in it, but I would no more believe the industry's fairy stories about running costs than I'd start worrying about how Santa is going to get down my liner in a month or so's time!.0 -
Fuel
A woodburning stove can be fed with logs, pellets and smokeless fuels. Although the price of wood fuel varies considerably, it is often cheaper than other heating options.
Seasoned hardwood (dried for at least a year) costs about £80 to £110 per 1m3, including delivery, which could last a 5kW woodburner a couple of winter months. It’s cheaper to buy unseasoned logs and ‘season’ them, but you need storage space.
If you live in a city, be aware of a couple of points. Wood prices can be higher in urban areas, so some people choose multifuel stoves, which burn wood and fossil fuels. Supplementing wood with smokeless fuel - while not as environmentally friendly - can keep costs down. Find out if you live in a smoke control area as your stove will need to be approved for use.
For a lucky few that can gather their own wood, fuel for a wood-burning stove will be free.
Regardless, logs are generally cheaper than pellets, but costs depend on the wood suppliers in your local area, as they cost a lot to transport. If you have room for a large fuel store that will accept several tonnes of pellets at a time, delivered in bulk by tanker, you can keep the cost down to around £190 per tonne in most parts of the UK.
You can also buy a log maker for around £20 that turns your household paper waste into denser logs for your stove, with a burn time of as long as an hour.0 -
Is this trolling?0
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3m cube of unseasoned logs for £50?? Tell me where to send the cheque!?0
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