Log burners - worth the cost and hassle?

Emmala

My boiler isn't working again, and even though we have no snow round here, it's freezing!!!

We don't have chinmeys in our house (previous owners had them removed). We do have the chimney breast in our living room though and could install a log burner in this......but it would mean running the pipe up through our bedroom and out through the roof (and I assume re-building a chimney breast in our room to hide the pipe).

Can I ask those who have done something similar or who have log burners already, do you think it's worth the costs and upheaval involved in doing this?

sonastin

We've been doing a major house renovation so we've got plenty of spare wood lying around. We installed a wood burning stove about a month ago and have been heating the house for free ever since. An additional plus has been the disposal of junk mail - we seem to have reached equilibrium with the paper needed to start the fire and the junk dropped through the post box each morning!

Installation isn't cheap - my partner is extremely practical and even with him doing all the work (we're under building regs at the moment so no need for heatas installer), we've had to pay for the flue, chimney pot, materials to build up the hearth to a compliant size, open the chimney up, etc. However, as I said, the heat is now free!

If you have the flue pipe uncovered as it goes up through the house, that will help to warm each room it passes through. However the building regulations will be different to putting it through a chimney so make sure you us an installer who gets you properly signed off.

Other thing to think about is where you're getting the fuel from. We have 3 years worth of "rubbish" to burn from our work on the house and after that, my partner will nearly always be working on some sort of woodworking stuff so we'll have a fairly steady supply of wood. If you have plenty of places where you can source it for free, its definitely worth the investment and upheaval. If you have to buy the logs, you need to do your sums more carefully. I think that it still works out cheaper than running central heating but not so convenient so becomes a slightly less attractive proposition.

We've spent the last 2 winters without any form of central heating in the house so the luxury of being able to stoke the fire up to get the house hot enough to wear a vest top and shorts while its freezing outside has to me at least been priceless over the weekend!

[Deleted User]

Hi RAE we were lucky enough to buy a modern house that had been extended and while they were building the extension they added an open fireplace in the lounge, albeit with a living flame gas fire in it. So we started from a better place than no fireplace at all. We had a multi fuel burner installed a few years ago and had to have the chimney lined again all of which was quite costly and we had some problems with the installation, the stove kept kicking forward onto the hearth, but persistence from the very good firm who installed it paid off and finally it stopped moving. It is without doubt the very best improvement we have ever made to any property. We no longer use the central heating system to heat the house, just for hot water. The stove is in the lounge and the main bedroom is overhead and the chimney pipe runs up through a corner of the bedroom. We are toasty warm, the gathering and cutting of logs is so satisfying and we have an eye open for spare wood wherever we go. People locally know we have the stove and donate us all the odds of wood they don't want theirselves including on one occasion an entire redundant garden shed. A local builder gives to us rather than paying to go to the recycling centre, and many gardeners phone if trees or big branches are being pruned, we have made many lovely new friends as a result. The satisfaction of setting and lighting the fire, and sitting near it in the colder months is beyond price, and I'm sad enough to even enjoy clearing the ashes every morning to go on the compost heap and building the new fire ready to go the next evening. It becomes a way of life and is something I would not be without ever again, Cheers Lyn.

Gloomendoom

Perceived wisdom is that if you have mains gas, using wood as fuel doesn't make financial sense... unless you can get it for free. Even then, don't underestimate how much fuel you will need if using a solid fuel stove as a primary source of heat.

Other things that need to be considered are fuel storage, the mess (although that is really subjective) and also, if you live in a built up area, there is a good chance that it may be a smokeless zone which means that, to keep within the law, a DEFRA approved clean burning stove must be used.

Edit: If you are into "boys' toys", using wood as a fuel is a wonderful excuse to start a collection of chainsaws. I've got five now.

My new baby. A birthday present from an understanding wife... who likes to be warm.

MrsCrafty

I have spent yesterday learning how to use our chainsaw. We run after tree cutters to get logs, skip search and are always on the lookout for wood. Pallets only make good kindling once sawed and big logs need chain sawing into little ones to go into the wood burner.

You can use coal. Very cheap if from a coal man, burns hot. You need to find somewhere to put the ashes.

I love mine but its hard work to keep us in fuel.

Seakay

I use pallets on my woodburner because I can get them for free. They burn fast but very hot. The pallets are also good because the wood is untreated - you do not want to burn wood that has been painted or treated with wood preserver or creosote bucause the deposites will make your chimney fur up faster and make it more liable to catching on fire. I suppose if you had your own chimney cleaning brushes and did it every month or so that would be ok. (I had a very stern talking to from my chimney sweep when he came to do the annual clean after I had been burning all sorts from skips the first year that I had my stove! I am more picky now!) When sawing pallets with an electric saw make sure that you choose blades that are for wood AND metal because of the nails. You don't have to remove the nails before burning.

Dukesy

We live in a very rural area and are miles away from mains gas. We also didn't feel we really had the space to install an oil tank in our garden.

As a result, we installed a multifuel stove with a back boiler into our house. It runs all the radiators in the house as well as providing hot water (we have an immersion as well, but this cuts out when the fire is lit). For us, as we were carrying out major renovation work, and we had to do some pretty serious structural work to the chimney anyway, having this put in was no biggie. It's also ideal as OH is a carpenter, which means we have an endless supply of wood. He also has a tree surgeon friend who we have struck a very good deal with, meaning we get logs super cheap. We do also buy coal, but not a huge amount.

Basically, for us it's the most sensible option (and frankly a home doesn't feel like a home to me unless there's a fire). You need to ensure that you will not be spending stupid amounts of money after installation as well as on installation.

pws52

Seaway....I was told not to burn wood with nails in as there is a risk of the nails shooting out and cracking the stove glass.
Have I been wasting time extracting nails from wood when I don't need to?

katep23

Bear in mind if the chimney runs through your bedroom it will also warm up in there so you can warm two rooms for the price of one!

We have our chest of drawers in front of the chimney in our bedroom with a cat bed on top and it's a bundle every night when we have had a fire to see who gets prime location! (We just have an open fire though).

Emmala

Thank you all for taking the time to reply, all helpful advice! I hadn't thought too much about the costs of wood for burning, and thinking about it, old friends of ours burn coal in their burner which I hadn't thought about. We had an open fire in our first house, which I love, and if we ever move from this house it would be top of my wish list!!

seeking_happines

with the rising cost of oil and fosil fuels due to run out :eek: we wanted to be as independant of the energy companies

so our home has a solid fuel range in the kitchen and a parkray in the lounge, we burn logs and any thing woody that we can lay our hands on i do keep a coal skip for those days when we are out all day or are ill andits and emergcy , we are finding that as each year goes by its more and more economical ....hope that helps