Wood burning stove - pros & cons.

savemoney

First thing I suggest, dont think you can save much money if at all using one if you have gas ch and or have a free source of wood/coal. You may if you use other forms of fuel LPG etc.

They usually dont heat the whole house either, and the heat can be quite high sometimes but the heat usually doesn't go very far

Wood isnt cheap I currently pay £130 (just ordered some for next week) this may last me all Winter but I still have gas ch on and I also subside the burner with other wood I get. I dont have it every night or I would run out of wood come late Jan/fen from end of October. You need space to store wood, as I order a whole load for Winter I have mine in a old garage where I built a storage space for it.

Also you need chimney swept costs around £30

They also need cleaning, they may be cleaner than old fires but you do get dusty and the glass on stove need cleaning every now and then despite it saying clean burn

gamston

also you need to factor in the dust that seems to be around when u have a wood burner
we have one, but that because we don't have gas in village, and i will not pay for bottled gas

pinkmami

oohh well done you for winning one! They cost a small fortune don't they!?

We have installed on in our cottage were renovating & I'm yet to use it properly. We make a fire every now & then so "it looks nice" but the place isn't habitable so can't really enjoy it. Mine will take a while to heat up the room as I have a very large inglenook to heat up before the warmth reaches the rest of the living room. TBH I don't think its gonna heat up the room as much to turn off the radiators but is an 1800's traditional cottage & it was crying for the "hiodden for 60yrs" nook to be shown off in its glory. It would have been criminal not to make use of the original feature so mine is for feature & cosiness rather than heat but we have felt some heat from it & that was with a concrete floor & no internal dopoprs & out plumber commented on the warmth........so we'll see when I move in.

Anyhow enough of me rambling on. Get a quote from your nice HETAS man & see what he says before making any decisions you might regret later on.

muckybutt

I have to say ours is +++++++++ all the way
We've had various stoves for the last 15 years and have never really had a bad one, in fact we've just invested in a new one which is next week being linked into our central heating system :j.

Some folk say they are hard work and are dirty etc, I can honestly say that we've never found either to be a problem, yes the glass gets mucky but with a proper stove glass cleaner it cleans up new every time, same as the ash I suppose - the new one we have we expect to empty it maybe twice a week.

Cost wise for us its going to be a damn site cheaper than the old electric boiler we had @£200 per month !, cost we expect to be around the £60 per month area, a tonne of wood usually lasted us on our old stove 6 - 8 weeks @£110 for hardwood on really cold days we would top up with coal and same at night to keep it in.

Cant beat the feeling and atmosphere of a stove, we often sit at night with the lights off watching the flames dance, and its so nice to come home to the lovely warm glow of a stove on a winters night.

Bleg

A very interesting and informative read.
We are undergoing huge renovations at the moment and the first stage of lining the fireplace and laying the hearth is being done next week. For me the pros outweighs the cons considering we originally had an open gas fire.
What I am yet to decide is on the make of the stove to get. There seem to be load out there. I would like one that is contemporary and free-standing. At the moment I have a bit of a bias to the Morso Brand, the prices of which seem quite steep.

What I would appreciate is some advice highlighting the pros and cons of the varius brands and models that faithful MSE users have.

All comment appreciated.

aeb_2

Mine heats the kitchen and some upstairs radiators and hot water, very old gravity type and the big fat radiators. The kettle is always on and it cooks stews, soup and milk puddings, etc. The oven only goes on once a week to do the roast, baking and Yorkshire puds. So that saves loads. My problems is that I become a hermit, living in only the kitchen then dashing upstairs to the bedroom, as its so toasty warm. I'm too mean/poor to put the 'proper' heating on
Yes, it takes time and a bit of effort but it sort of gets built into the day like other daily tasks such as washing up, hanging out the washing and cleaning the loo. I collect about 50% of my wood but do buy one ton and make it last.
I have a 'home-made' stove in the garage/barn which keeps the chill off with just one log every morning and evening with the vents closed - just on tick over. It's one made from an upside down old gas bottle - looks awful but does the job

deano72_2

the pros outweigh the cons for me.
it aint cheap to run if you dont scrange/scavage for wood,i spent £300 on logs alone the first year & still had to have the ch on at times as it dont heat the whole house.
the second yr i cut up some free pallets & bought a small chain saw & went wooding enough to fill a transit van & spent £100 on logs.
this year i got loads of timber from my shop fitter mate & got about .5 ton of logs from the woods.iv found that logs dont really give out much heat but if i mix it up with timber & logs it kicks it out.
say it cost 1k to install,you got to think long term about energy prices rocketing,so if you can get the most of the wood its got to be a winner

Bleg

Any recommendations of brands? Or please just tell me what brand you have and the good and not so good points about it. Thanks.

pinkmami

I have the Charnwood Country 8. Saw it in our installers house (when he invited us over to see it) & he had a country 12. Beautiful. He also got a 10% discount from a local shop so we went for that.

DaftyDuck

I can't say I had any success with paper logs and mine, aside from various fingers getting cut, newsprint staining clothes and buckets, and new swearwords learnt by all.

Having said that, for a clean fire, they can't be beat. For a small amount of wood you can generate a great deal of heat, and the mess is neatly contained. You can (as I know you're a keen gardener) burn your own faggots if you want... all sorts of twigs tightly bound and dried make a good burn - not as long as an equivalent log, but you can burn them far more effectively in a burner than on an open fire, as you control the air flow.

Paper logs? No, no, no, just don't try it. Too much mess, too little success.

Edit: hadn't noticed this is an old thread, raised by some spamming t055er