Wood burner advice

mega9

Wood is not often free, and if it is, there is a good reason for it! Try not to burn old funiture, fence posts etc that are painted / treated, especially in a smoke controlled area. Not good for you or anyone around you. Try to avoid any 'soft' wood, ie pine, conifers, leylandii etc. Especially if you have an open fire. All wood is ideally seasoned for at least 18 months - 3 years depending on species. Undercover, and off the ground, on palletts or equivilant, but with plenty of good airflow. Hornbeam, when seasoned for 2 - 3 years burns about as hot as coal. Oak, ash, beech and most fruit woods also burn very hot. You can get away with most woods on a woodburner. Seasoned split decent quality wood should be between £50 - £75 per cubic meter at the moment, best to buy in the summer when cheaper if you have the room. Beware of cheap wood, it will often be un-seasoned conifer. Also, please don't just help yourselves to wood you spot when out for a walk or something, and you think it's a branch down from a tree or just some deadwood on the floor. At the end of the day, it isn't yours to take. It's the quick way to cause pointless arguments. Ask though, and you will often be given. Having woked as both a tree surgeon and a land / forest manager, I never mind as long as people ask. I hope some of this advice has been helpfull to some of you. Woodburners are definatley a good investment, and soon pay for themselves, especially if they are linked into the heating system.

wilroda

Hi
Apologies for tagging onto the end of this thread but we are looking for some advice with regards to buying a wood burner.

We have been advised that we need an 8KW one( no back boiler) and on visiting a local wood burning shop we were told that Clearview is the one to go for but they are very expensive.

Confused now, we are wondering which wood burners you would recommend.

Thanks in advance

A._Badger

One of my local suppliers recommends Town and Country stoves (British made) as a better-priced alternative to Clearview and, on paper at least, that seems quite a good alternative.

My advice would be to avoid rushing in. Shop around and look at as many alternatives as possible. If money is tight, consider either Yeoman or Hunter - again, both British steel stoves and very functional.

To a degree, with wood burners you can pay whatever you like - and if what you happen to like is ornate cast iron, you can pay an awful lot of money. But in the end, a stove is a semi-sealed metal box and so long as the designer gets the basics right and the manufacturing is good enough, a lot of what you are paying for is the cosmetic aspect.

Hope that helps.

Igol

Villager another UK make and mine with a boiler is doing a great job heating the house for almost free

bs0u0128

does anyone buy their wood online? any recommendations if so

welda

Igol wrote: »

Villager another UK make and mine with a boiler is doing a great job heating the house for almost free

Have to agree with Igol, I purchased villager chelsea duo, no back boiler. I went for this one due to it's depth, I couldn't afford the space of some deeper stoves protruding into room, it's a wee belter, I rarely have my mains gas on to heat house.

As many have stated, there are a multitude of stoves out there, just a case of finding the one that ticks the boxes for you.

W.

MRSCARNEY

We had a Dunsley Yorkshire fitted a few months ago and it has been great. They are suitable for smoke free areas and they do a multifuel although we got the wood burner one.

We paid £135 for a van load of fuel but we have gots lots of free wood (and no we haven't stolen it). It is amazing how much you can get through but we've only had the heating on a handful of times (mainly to dry washing) so our gas bills should be greatly reduced.

TigersEye

Would love to have one of these fitted

QTC

mega9 wrote: »

Wood is not often free, and if it is, there is a good reason for it! Try not to burn old funiture, fence posts etc that are painted / treated, especially in a smoke controlled area. Not good for you or anyone around you. Try to avoid any 'soft' wood, ie pine, conifers, leylandii etc. Especially if you have an open fire. All wood is ideally seasoned for at least 18 months - 3 years depending on species. Undercover, and off the ground, on palletts or equivilant, but with plenty of good airflow. Hornbeam, when seasoned for 2 - 3 years burns about as hot as coal. Oak, ash, beech and most fruit woods also burn very hot. You can get away with most woods on a woodburner. Seasoned split decent quality wood should be between £50 - £75 per cubic meter at the moment, best to buy in the summer when cheaper if you have the room. Beware of cheap wood, it will often be un-seasoned conifer. Also, please don't just help yourselves to wood you spot when out for a walk or something, and you think it's a branch down from a tree or just some deadwood on the floor. At the end of the day, it isn't yours to take. It's the quick way to cause pointless arguments. Ask though, and you will often be given. Having woked as both a tree surgeon and a land / forest manager, I never mind as long as people ask. I hope some of this advice has been helpfull to some of you. Woodburners are definatley a good investment, and soon pay for themselves, especially if they are linked into the heating system.

Spot on. Even at £75 / cu. m, wood is probably the cheapest way to heat your home..certainly cheaper than coal..

A._Badger

Not here it isn't (Kent). I carried out a close comparison last winter and wood was definitely more costly. It may have evened-out this year with the recent price rise in coal, but I still very much doubt wood is cheaper unless you are getting it for free or from a very cheap source.