considering wood burner option for heating/water - Your thoughts

thickbloke

My boiler packed in mid December and not having the cash to replace it straight away I struggled through the winter with a couple of electric convection heaters until I could do something about it. I knew this would increase the electric bill but at the time it was the best option available.

Now it is July and I have started looking at a replacement but when I do the figures I am wondering if central heating/water using gas is the cheapest option! I know, according to the Which guide, that mains gas is the cheapest Kwh to buy but when you take into account the additions such as standing charge, boiler service and protection cover charges I found I was paying nearly £300 a year before even turning the gas on! Also, you do not have to be an oracle to know that gas prices will continue to rise as we head into the future.

For around the same cost as a new boiler and system (and installation charges) I could go for an option of a DEFRA approved wood burner with back boiler which would be capable of running my five radiators and provide hot water. Buying kiln dried logs in large quantities (several cubic meters at a time) would work out similar to my current gas usage costs so the running costs will be similar and I would not be 'tied in' to the demands of the energy companies. I work from home quite a bit now and as I age and fall to bits at an ever faster pace I will be working from home on a more regular basis so I really do not need the requirement of remote heating or timer control as I once did.

Would be grateful for any thoughts or your experiences on this please.

:wave:

A._Badger

As you age you will also feel less like hauling and chopping wood.

As for costs, much as I love my stoves, there is simply no way they are cost effective compared with mains gas. Moreover, while you are not tied to the energy companies, you are tied instead to suppliers of a commodity which is becoming harder to find and more expensive with every passing year, as more and more 'lifestyle' types glom onto stoves as the latest 'must have' accessory.

If you go for a wood stove, do it with your eyes wide open as to the costs, fuel unpredictability and labour involved. They are aesthetically far nicer than central heating (IMO) but they do have genuine downsides.

Ectophile

The main downside of a wood burner is that you have to keep shoving logs into it at regular intervals. This is more of a problem with smaller stoves; with a bigger one you can put bigger logs in.

In addition to that, once you've got the fire going, you're going to just want to curl up in front of the fire, rather than doing any useful work.

Robwiz

I'd say you have sound reasons (avoiding the standing charges and fixed costs) for changing away from gas so go for it. Our experience of surviving without central heating bear out your ideas.

Gas heating should be more efficient, but just like cars never achieve their quoted mpg figures, I don't believe that gas systems achieve theirs either. It's know that installers over-size boilers which results in high return flow temperatures which prevent the boiler operating in condensing mode. A Carbon Trust project showed that installed boiler efficiencies averaged 5% lower than the manufacturer's claimed figure, putting them in Band C.

I'd suggest you run your stove on briquettes as their moisture is guaranteed around 8%, their heat output is consistently high and they can be bought for around £250/tonne.

When I couldn't use my gas heating due to a catastrophic leak, I found that our 8 kW stove heated the whole house. When I had the DHW and CH re-plumbed to operate upstairs rads only we found that the heat produced for the gas burnt was uneconomic so we turned it off and allowed the heat to rise from downstairs, topping up with occasional electric convectors when absolutely necessary. This worked out a lot cheaper than using the gas CH. We have made a few other changes (led lights, replaced some windows, eliminating draughts) and have just about halved our gas and electricity bills.

markmead

and what about Gallery Firefox 4.9kw? Sturdy and fairly good price deal.

michaelgordon

I was in a similar position last year i had a little irsh lotto win so was looking into either replacing boiler or getting a stove installed, i was nearly put off by the amount of articles and forum posts i was reading about the cost of logs, wood, kindling but as i always wanted one i got stove and was willing to absorb the extra costs.

To heat my front room only as it would only warm if the bedroom rad was also on all other rads off apart from kitchen and bathroom as no control valve i was putting £30 pm in the gas every month going upto £40 in the winter months totaling about £400 to £420 a year.

last year i paid £80 for two cubic meter bags of logs (not the best and half were still wet) so only used the dry ones. and bought 25 packs of 10kg heat logs for £125 of which still have 12 packs left. Also spent £30 on kindling plus a few broken down pallets. My total outlay for the fuel was about £240 inc firelighters and i roughly have half of it left (also got some smokeless ovals 50kg bag £18 but didnt like it not getting anymore). This was also just heating front room an at time got very hot

I did burn a little conservatively but was never cold but probably could have been a bit warmer at times and waiting a bit too long to top up but i didnt want to run out of fuel. i have just bought another 25 pack of heat logs, blazers this time and will maybe get another 1 meter bag of logs but cant think i will need them as the wet from last year have dried nicely but always nice to keep the store full. also bought a lot of branches £7 and have processed them down for this years kindling.

What i would say is i may be the exception that proves the rule but its not always more expensive inc the cost of a sweep i saved nearly £120-£150 and if i dont buy more logs will save even more this year. There is also a bit of work cutting logs down to size but i enjoy it.

i tried to work it out that i would use 1/4 of the logs and 6 packs of heat logs each month thats in the 5kw firefox stove

SG27

Personally for me if I bought kiln dried logs it would cost me about double the amount as it would to just use gas. I buy my logs about 2 cubic meters at a time all unseasoned. Then stack it to season for a year. It costs much less that way. This summer I have also had a great find on ebay and picked up about another 2CM unseasoned hardwood for £30 so I am quids in for the winter of 2015/16 when that's seasoned

Smiley_Dan

Yeah, I think wood prices vary even more than gas prices. From infinitely cheaper (your own forest) to pretty expensive (posh kiln dried stuff).

Don't discount the effort of refuelling a stove. If you have other stuff to get on with during the day then it can be distracting.

thickbloke

Thanks to everyone's comments and thoughts on this. I have decided to go for both.

A combie boiler and a wood burner with the ability to heat water. This will give me the best of both worlds and have an option to ditch the gas if prices are raised beyond belief in the future.

Your input has been valuable, thanks guys. :-)

captainhindsight_2

Have you considered wood chip or pellets, will be much cheaper to run than a gas boiler and you get the rhi income to cover the capital costs of the install

Davesnave

captainhindsight wrote: »

Have you considered wood chip or pellets, will be much cheaper to run than a gas boiler and you get the rhi income to cover the capital costs of the install

The income comes over 7 years, however, and so far I've not seen a capital cost that would be completely paid off by the RHI, but maybe I'm choosing expensive gear.

I know chip is cheap, but it may not be practical for many, and I thought bagged pellets worked out about the same as mains gas. By all means correct me if I'm wrong

I don't think any of us can accurately predict fuel prices in the future, beyond saying that they'll be higher than now.

At present, I'm still swaying between installing a new oil system with thermal panel back up + woodburner, or going pellet boiler + woodburner, but by that route I can't afford the panels for summer hot water.

Finally, is having your own forest really 'cheap' as stated above, given the capital cost of buying it and the machinery needed to extract the wood?