Wood burner or more practical spending?

Derby2

Hello there, I just wanted a bit of advice and opinions.

I moved into my house nearly four years ago and have always wanted a wood burner and planned to get one. We have recently been flooded and I was thinking now might be the perfect time to have it installed before the new carpet goes down.

The burner we would need is about £890 (Dovre 500CBW), and installation has been quoted as £1300 including lining. It's a lot of money in a tricky economic climate and I don't know whether to be sensible or not. I have enough money in my savings with some left over and have paid off my credit card and have no other debts and will probably be able to replace my savings in 6 months.

I work in construction so there is a chance of redundancy although I work for a very large firm and have been told by my boss that I would be sent to another region rather than be made redundant.

There are other DIY things around the house which could be done instead, but I have my heart set on a wood burner. We were going to move house soon, but now the housing market is in trouble we shall be staying even longer and I want to make the house as somewhere I would enjoy and a wood burner has always been top of my list.

I have been ringing around firms and they all say delivery is 8-10 weeks but this morning I had a call from a firm that has it in stock. It can be installed in a couple of weeks so I would have it in time for Christmas (although we will probably still be flood damaged anyway).

Sorry if this seems like a bit of a pointless post, but I would just appreciate opinions of other people. I'm a worrier and would probably regret not getting it if I talk myself out of it.

debbie42

I have no regrets whatsoever about purchasing my woodburners. They are absolutely brilliant. One replaced an old, worse than useless gas flame effect fire which let more heat out of the chimney than it ever gave into the room. We did think about replacing it with a more modern gas effect fire, but the cost of the actual fires, for the sort we liked, was often more than a woodburner. (The installation costs were admittedly more for the woodburner.)

Have you got somewhere to store the logs? This is pretty essential. Also a good supply of logs and kindling. I buy mine in bulk, and get free kindling, so it's pretty cheap to run. I use mine in preference to putting the heating on as I work from home and only need one room heating in the day. I've never needed both on at once as they are so effective at heating the downstairs of my house.

Also, if your fitter is HETAS registered, then make sure you get a certificate of compliance for the building regs. Otherwise you'll need to sort that out with the council. (Sorry if you know all this already!)

thriftychick

It's a trickly decision but only because of the initial outlay. What type of heating are you on and do you have access to cheap wood/coal? You need to factor in the reduction in your heating and the cost of supplies.

We have been looking at installing a woodburner for ages and when we recently got the quote through (£1600 + £880 for the burner) we decided against it but only because my OH has been made redundant and things are too uncertain. We worked out it would save us alot of money in the long term as we could reduce our oil bill and have access to free wood.

If it were me and I had the money and were semi confident about my job, I would get one.

savemoney

They are expensive and they do kick out a lot of heat however a lot of the heat will remain in that room from my experience and it doesn't spread much around the house despite having doors open, it may take the chill off around the house

In the room we a have it installed its a through lounger with double open doors and dining room is also a kitchen diner we can get 25c easily

You also still have to pay from fuel ie seasoned logs and someone where to store them, they can be outside but need a cover over the top

Derby2

Thanks for your replies!

We currently have central heating and a living flame gas fire in the living room (but it's just not the same!). Our brother in law owns a farm so we can get lots of cheap wood from them, and we have a space in the garden that we have reserved for logs (although we would have to make a cover for them).

I think I am definitely swaying towards getting it.

Thanks Debbie42 for the tip about the compliance certificate. I hadn't even thought about that yet!

debbie42

HETAS website has some useful info and links.

ema_o

Derby2 wrote: »

a wood burner has always been top of my list.

It sounds like you have thought it through really carefully. Whether it is the right thing to do in this climate will only be answered by time, there will always be other things to spend money on.
To me it sounds like the right thing for you to do. If it is something you will get a lot of pleasure out of I think life is too short to always go for the cheapest thing (sorry :money:)

eilidh_s

I would definatly go for it. I live with my parents just now and we have an open fire in our living room and it is great. We put the heating on for an hour in the morning to warm up the house and the water and then in the afternoon the fire goes on and it does warm up the entire house. I am in the process of building a house and there is going to be a woodburning stove in the living room, the room is double height and the flue will go straight to the top and it will radiate heat onto the upstairs landing as well. They are definatly worth it. If you have a forestry or a saw mill near by then go and order piles of off cuts, they are usually quite thick lumps that can be used for the actual burning and the thiner bits are good for kindling and you can get a couple of tonnes for the half the price it would be if you bought "firewood" from them!

kaya

buy it, think about how much good all those cosy evenings in front of it will do for your soul

windym_2

Just something to bear in mind. Do you really need 7kw. For building regs (which your Hetas fitter will cover) you will need an airbrick in the room. Go for a more efficient heater with lower kw and you may not. We have a 5kw Danish fire (Westfire) which did not need an airbrick. It belts out heat in our open plan barn conversion.

I did a quick Orange search on your fire and on the first page, the search shows this

traditional stoves : Online fires fireplaces stoves firesurrounds uk
Dovre · DOVRE 500CBW WOODBURNER, £1049.00 £839.00. 7kw woodburning stove. Matt black. Choice of clear door or lattice door. Cleanburn system. ...
www.onlinefireplaces.co.uk/index.php?cPath=5_32 - more results from this website

If you click the link it says price on application, but the front page link, suggests it could be £839. So it may be worth further investigation if you do set your heart on this fire.

Remember, your supplier does not have to install. It may be worth negotiating with local Hetas firms for installation.

lowbrim

Out of interest how much would the wood be for a full winter.

I actually have a wood burner but fortunate enough to live in the country and so far managed without having to buy any but i would have thought it would be quite expensiveto run if I had to buy the wood as we get through wood at a quick rate and we only use the burner as back up.