Wood burning stove/central heating

boydE

I have no idea about wood burning stoves, how much do you think it would cost to install one, I could get someone to line our chimney with a flue, cheaper the better but obviously would have to be reliable and safe, it would have to do our heating, currently we have gas central heating.
we pay £80 per month for gas, so £960 per annum.

A._Badger

boydE wrote: »

I have no idea about wood burning stoves, how much do you think it would cost to install one, I could get someone to line our chimney with a flue, cheaper the better but obviously would have to be reliable and safe, it would have to do our heating, currently we have gas central heating.
we pay £80 per month for gas, so £960 per annum.

If your source of fuel is going to be wood or smokeless coal that you have to buy at normal prices, you currently use mains gas and your aim if to save money, then forget it.

The belief that stoves save money over mains gas is an urban myth - particularly if you factor in the purchase and installation costs.

.

muckybutt

As Badger says, unless you have a decent supply of cheap or free wood then you are barking upthe wrong tree and gas would still be cheaper.

I get quite a bit of free wood, but when we do have to buy in its normally in the £60 - £90 region per load, depending how cold it is and the size of stove needed to heat your house will determine just how quick and how much its going to cost you.

An alternative option for you would be to get a wood burner linked into your existing gas heating system, it is do-able as I have seen it done via a dunsley neutraliser. So you would have the conveiniance of gas ch with the added option of topping up the gch with a wood burner.

Another option would be a renewable fuelled stove such as a wood pellet stove / boiler. We are currently looking at a 24Kw biomass boiler for a new build we are doing at the back of our house, the boiler install would be in the region of £7500 - £8K but with the RHI payment it would pay for itself in 5 years and that would also more than cover the fuel costs for the next 5 years too.

A._Badger

You're a brave man, Mucky! Just last week I read somewhere that Drax is talking about converting one of its coal fired power stations to biomass.

Who knows what the price would be if biomass products started to be used on a serious scale?

Look at the price of hardwood in recent years, since the stove craze took-off.

Just a thought...

hethmar

Id also agree that the wood burner would not be a cheap option. Wood prices are going up and the cost of a decent stove and lining would be perhaps twice your yearly gas bill.

Our gas bill was double yours and we do use a wood burner to cut down the cost dramatically but then OH is a stove and liner installer and we have a large number of trees on our land.

Stick with your gas CH and see if you can get free cavity wall and loft insulation. If you have those already, put on extra jumpers

I take it you have done a price comparison on your gas supplier?

wrightk

just thought id have my two penneth. im suprised noone here talks about coal. we never ever use logs (apart from kindling) in our stove. they EAT them and you get half the heat output from logs as opposed to coal. coal is dearer but then you use a fraction compared

wrightk

our costs per month are currently around £40

PaulF81

Coal (smokeless) way forward for me too. Wood looks pretty, costs a fortune unless you have a free supply (like me).

wrightk

we learnt a harsh lesson when we moved here with the stove, it was eating at least a whole net of logs per day. phoned our stove manufacturer and they said to use welsh blend anthracite as woods heat output isnt good enough, we get a delivery every fortnight of coal from our local coal merchant, use about 2-3 shovels of coal per day and keeps the heating system warm throughout the house all day, we never use logs anymore unless we get some for free and then we use it with the coal to reduce the amount of coal we use even further

Greenfires

I'm not surprised it was costing so much if you were buying logs in nets - it's by far the most expensive way of buying, and those available from the likes of B&Q are usually rubbish that no decent firewood guy would sell. The reason? Those nets that B&Q put out for about six or seven quid - they pay about a pound a net for them. No firewood guy is going to put good dry timber into nets, that he also has to pay for - for a quid a chuck.

wrightk

i dont know what makes you think i would buy nets of logs from bandq let alone for 7 quid a pop!! when we used to buy them they were from a local reputable dealer close by, even though they were very reasonably priced i would never go back to logs.they just dont produce enough heat compared with coal