Wood Burning Stove - Is it really worth it?

wukfit

@martinthebandit
Thanks for the reply - how old/well insulated is your house and how modern is your GCH?
Do you burn wood or other fuel? If it's wood where do you get it from/how much do you pay?

Thanks again for your input - its interesting/confusing as some will say you'll save money whilst others say you wont... it all appears to hinge on the cost of wood/fuel.

E.g. to run the stove is maybe a couple of hundred pounds a year (kindling, chimney swept twice a year)... I guestimating that I might save £350 off my gas bill when running the stove but all of that is going to get eaten up buying fuel/logs and maintenance etc...

A._Badger

wukfit wrote: »

@martinthebandit
Thanks for the reply - how old/well insulated is your house and how modern is your GCH?
Do you burn wood or other fuel? If it's wood where do you get it from/how much do you pay?

Thanks again for your input - its interesting/confusing as some will say you'll save money whilst others say you wont... it all appears to hinge on the cost of wood/fuel.

E.g. to run the stove is maybe a couple of hundred pounds a year (kindling, chimney swept twice a year)... I guestimating that I might save £350 off my gas bill when running the stove but all of that is going to get eaten up buying fuel/logs and maintenance etc...

It isn't just the cost of fuel. You have to add in the cost of the stove plus the price charged for installing it. That's where so many posters go astray.

Mains gas CH remains, for most people, the cheapest form of heating. You might find it soulless (I do) but pound for pound it's the way to go - assuming cost is the only consideration.

grahamc2003

A._Badger wrote: »

It isn't just the cost of fuel. You have to add in the cost of the stove plus the price charged for installing it. That's where so many posters go astray.

Mains gas CH remains, for most people, the cheapest form of heating. You might find it soulless (I do) but pound for pound it's the way to go - assuming cost is the only consideration.

Regarding the cost, whether it overall saves money depends on what factors you take into account. The installation cost is very high (done legally), but you can offset this by the rise in your house value, which may be realised if you sell.

In my case, as well as adding something attractive in my house, I've also removed something pretty horrible, which was an ugly 30's tiled fireplace. The stove now sits in the original Victorian opening, and looks very attractive both in my view, and in everyone who visits (unles they're just being polite!).

But I can't think people install these purely for financial reasons do they? It's the welcoming, homely, friendly ambiance which I like, which is hard to put a price on. They do involve quite a bit of extra work over gas ch, even if you buy in wood, which rarely seems to get a mention.

mark_j

Interesting reading

I am having a Aarrow log burner delivered on friday and installed in the next couple of weeks. Only reason i am having one is that i get plenty of seasoned hardwoods for nothing and hoping to not use much GCH. If you are buying logs at the going rate it is not cheap and is bloody hardwork, i would stick to the GCH. Problem is like previous people have mentioned, people are seeing pictures of beautiful log burners in magazines and on the internet and believe that they are going to save £100s and £100s on gas and electricity. I speak to a few chimney sweeps and log burner installers and they tell me that i would not believe how many people are opening up their fire places and having open fires again amd also have log burners fitted. Im not sure where they think all the firewood is gonna come from, and all i can see is the price of firewood/logs rocketing.

Just my 2p's worth

oldtractor

Is it worth it? Well definately yes. We burn wood and coal on ours, we have 2 stoves. I boil a kettle on the kitchen one and heat up pans o water for washing up and even cook food on top. We burn rubbish, we get rid of meat bones and other detritus. We buy wood and source free wood too. We enjoy the whole process, collecting,storing,sawing,gathering,carting into the house,feeding the fire. We nearly have a winters supply in stock and will have a full winters supply by october. You cannot stockpile gas [unless its lpg]. We enjoy being "off grid". We are not reliant so much on oil as others are. We enjoy the lifestyle. Yes, definately worth it.

mark_j

oldtractor wrote: »

Is it worth it? Well definately yes. We burn wood and coal on ours, we have 2 stoves. I boil a kettle on the kitchen one and heat up pans o water for washing up and even cook food on top. We burn rubbish, we get rid of meat bones and other detritus. We buy wood and source free wood too. We enjoy the whole process, collecting,storing,sawing,gathering,carting into the house,feeding the fire. We nearly have a winters supply in stock and will have a full winters supply by october. You cannot stockpile gas [unless its lpg]. We enjoy being "off grid". We are not reliant so much on oil as others are. We enjoy the lifestyle. Yes, definately worth it.

You have raised some other good valid points, i too love all the felling,carting,sawing. Not to everyones taste though, as it involves alot of hard physical work

alleycat`

mark_j wrote: »

Interesting reading

Im not sure where they think all the firewood is gonna come from, and all i can see is the price of firewood/logs rocketing.

Yeah you'd think it just grow on trees... o wait

Most people who think about it will hopefully be buying from sustainable / properly managed forestry.

Supply and demand will put the price up mind you.

Cardew

A._Badger wrote: »

Yes - and it's one of the best things I've ever bought. After years of fiddling around with useless Zip-style firelighters, paper, sticks and all the rest, about four years ago I finally bit the bullet, paid a small fortune for a Grenadier and haven't regretted it. It will even quite quickly light notoriously difficult to get started smokeless fuels like Maxibrite and Taybrite.

Sadly, I was not paid for this unsolicited advertisement!

How about this for one-up-man-ship! I have two of them!

One belonged to my late mother-in-law and it is 50 years old. They used to be called Best Matchless Firelighter.

Not only are they great for lighting(and reviving) a fire, but they are excellent for lighting a barbeque

23rdspiral

thanks mark_j and oldtractor for showing the other side of things. i think we'll all into that category. we had an open fire at our old house and it wasnt any trouble to find, cut and season the wood even with a tiney shed and open courtyard 'garden'.

the house we've moved into now came with an impressive wood burner... but on servicing we found it was condemned as the back piece was almost off due to too high heat.. too big a wattage in too small a space and not run correctly we believe. we were so upset. they'd sold it to us 'as working' but as it wasnt tested before sale we had no legal come back... even though they had to have know it was damaged due to the amount of smoke it would have released into the room and also the aparant age of a bad repair job. oh well, we move on...

so we're looking to install. my OH is a forrestry manager so wood isnt a problem and we enjoy the whole process. simply put, i dont think this house will feel properly like our home untill it has a fire in it to curl up infront of with a good book.

mark_j - is that a vintage Lister? (sorry im not too hot on which is which re vintage tractors)

martinthebandit

wukfit wrote: »

@martinthebandit
Thanks for the reply - how old/well insulated is your house and how modern is your GCH?
Do you burn wood or other fuel? If it's wood where do you get it from/how much do you pay?

Thanks again for your input - its interesting/confusing as some will say you'll save money whilst others say you wont... it all appears to hinge on the cost of wood/fuel.

E.g. to run the stove is maybe a couple of hundred pounds a year (kindling, chimney swept twice a year)... I guestimating that I might save £350 off my gas bill when running the stove but all of that is going to get eaten up buying fuel/logs and maintenance etc...

Our place is a 1970's bungalow with cavitywall and 6" of loft insulation, both the wood burner and the gas central heating were installed less than a year ago.

During the worst of last winter we were spending about £60 a month on logs. Currently our combined gas and electric bills are £40 a month.

We plan on having our flue swept once a year and so far have never bought kindling.

I expect our running costs for the wood burner to be a lot less this year as I have built up a stock of free or cheap wood and the good lady has been busy making briquettes out of newspaper etc


I think our decision to have a log burner installed was one of our better ones and the fact that it does save me a bit of money is a bonus