Wood burning stove or Gas fire

Boba_Fett

Hi all

i am currently renovating a 1930s house and stripped out the old gas fire and ideally would prefer to fit a stove, which is the better/cheaper to run option??

could i install either, do i need to contact someone to check this??

regards

J

Leif

It depends on availability of fuel. Firstly, the stove will only heat the room it is in, although some heat will escape. Secondly you have to refill the stove, so it needs work to keep going. If you have a supply of cheap/free wood, then a stove is best. If not, then I suspect gas is cheaper though that is a guess.

If you fit a stove, you must have the installation done by a qualified person, such as a Hetas qualified engineer, or have it checked by the appropriate person, I think it is the Building Controls Officer, but your council will tell you. You will probably need to line the chimney, and be careful about what you burn e.g. seasoned wood only.

There is a better forum for this question ...

Ectophile

It depends whether or not you can scrounge free firewood.

If you can't, then bought firewood is slightly more expensive than gas - see http://www.nottenergy.com/energy_cost_comparison/

The normal procedure is to get a Gas Safe fitter to install a gas appliance or a HETAS fitter for a solid fuel one. Technically, you could fit your own, but would need to get it inspected by the council's building control department (which you would have to pay for) to make sure it is compliant. I wouldn't recommend doing that - leave it to the experts.

Personally, I think a wood burning stove is much nicer than a gas fire. But it's a lot more effort - you can't just turn a knob. I manage to scrounge some of my firewood, which keeps the cost down.

Taadaa

You can also get wood burner that hook up to the boiler to heat water. Yeah you need to replace the boiler, but you could buy the right wood burner now and fit the rest when you need a new boiler. I think stoves are much nicer and would have one over a gas fire. You need to make sure you buy the correct size to heat the space that you want - there is advice on how to do this available online.

Ben84

Ectophile wrote: »

It depends whether or not you can scrounge free firewood.

If you can't, then bought firewood is slightly more expensive than gas - see http://www.nottenergy.com/energy_cost_comparison/

The normal procedure is to get a Gas Safe fitter to install a gas appliance or a HETAS fitter for a solid fuel one. Technically, you could fit your own, but would need to get it inspected by the council's building control department (which you would have to pay for) to make sure it is compliant. I wouldn't recommend doing that - leave it to the experts.

Personally, I think a wood burning stove is much nicer than a gas fire. But it's a lot more effort - you can't just turn a knob. I manage to scrounge some of my firewood, which keeps the cost down.

That is a useful link - but I want to highlight that the cost per kWh given for gas there does also include the associated costs for standing charges and such. Presumably the OP is already paying these anyway with no plans to stop as they have gas in the house for other appliances? If so, using gas for a stove is very likely to add less to their fuel costs than spending more money to bring in another fuel source to their house that comes with it's own costs for delivery. Once you've decided to pay the standing charges for gas delivered to your house and the account admin fees, gas gets cheaper the more you use so you might as well use it when you want a new heating source. So, I believe the cost difference for many people in using a wood burner is greater than this site initially seems to suggest.

Good gas stoves are also potentially very efficient and with gas you get rapid easy adjustment, so can use as little or as much as you want and turn it on and off very quickly. Having it inspected once a year when the other gas appliances are done is also likely to be cheaper than having someone else come in to sweep the chimney.

Anyway, there's a number of ways the economy of scale is in favour of using gas for further heating needs when you already have it supplied to your house, rather than getting a stove that uses a whole new fuel source.

FireGirl01

A lot depends on if you intend to use the appliance on a regular basis. I have a gas fire which is very in-efficient in my lounge but it looks amazing! With central heating there is not the need to use the fire all the time, but it is nice on very cold evenings and when we have guests. There fore the fire is not on for a long time.

On the other hand you have to think of the time you have to clean around the stove, as wood storage and using the stove can cause dust and dirt therefore regular cleaning is involved. Some people have time and others don't.

As mentioned before in a post, if you don't think that it will be used very often then there a lot of Gas Stoves that look very authentic and can be switched on and off when required. You can still stack some wood logs at the side to create a more authentic look.

ListysDad

Tis odd isn't it. I read the link as Gas being more expensive! 22.4 p per kilowatt and seasoned timber being 19p for over 4KW of energy! Yes a gas fire is more efficient but not 4 times!

There is of course one other little consideration. Sustainability. Trees grow... on trees and the Russians will have us by the short and curlies for our gas needs faster than Martin's made his fortune ;-)

Ectophile

ListysDad wrote: »

Tis odd isn't it. I read the link as Gas being more expensive! 22.4 p per kilowatt and seasoned timber being 19p for over 4KW of energy! Yes a gas fire is more efficient but not 4 times!

There is of course one other little consideration. Sustainability. Trees grow... on trees and the Russians will have us by the short and curlies for our gas needs faster than Martin's made his fortune ;-)

I think you're reading the CO2 emissions, rather than the price.

Gloomendoom

ListysDad wrote: »

There is of course one other little consideration. Sustainability. Trees grow... on trees and the Russians will have us by the short and curlies for our gas needs faster than Martin's made his fortune ;-)

Trees do grow but, if everybody in the UK switched to burning wood, Russia would still have us by the short and curlies. We haven't the space to grow food and trees so we would have to import one or the other.

Also, the higher the demand for wood, the more it will cost. If you have to buy it, it's not a cheap way of heating a whole house (of average construction) at the moment... despite the theoretical figures on that website.

ListysDad

Ectophile wrote: »

I think you're reading the CO2 emissions, rather than the price.

Yes the prize for biggest clot goes to ME!!

Jaynne

ListysDad wrote: »

There is of course one other little consideration. Sustainability. Trees grow... on trees and the Russians will have us by the short and curlies for our gas needs faster than Martin's made his fortune ;-)

<cough>shale gas</cough>