Cheapest heating? Wood burner???

dearlouise

I want to install a wood burning stove in an outbuilding, where currently my cats are living, but after that it will be a "den" or second living room if you like. I need heating in there that isn't going to cost a fortune.

I thought a stove would be good because it can be left unattended providing heat overnight. When it becomes a second living room, it will be a nice atmosphere in the cooler months.

However after asking on other forums, apparently they're not cheap to run?????? So what would be the cheapest thing for an outbuilding that could be left on overnight?

SG27

Gas is cheaper than a woodburner. If you want to overnight it you need to burn smokeless not wood. So a multifuel stove. Depends how much it would cost to install gas?

tired_dad

When i researched this, gas was cheapest. Wood burning only comes close if you have a sustainable source of free wood.

However, atmosphere wise, wood burning is ace

Jonesya

tired_dad wrote: »

However, atmosphere wise, wood burning is ace

They don't do much for the local atmosphere with all the smoke and particulates they put out.

Ectophile

If you want to compare different fuels, you could check out this web site http://www.nottenergy.com/energy_cost_comparison/

Wood is only cheap if you can scrounge it for free, and trying to slumber a wood burner overnight is a recipe for a tarred-up chimney, followed by a chimney fire once it gets too bad.

dearlouise

Ectophile wrote: »

If you want to compare different fuels, you could check out this web site http://www.nottenergy.com/energy_cost_comparison/

Wood is only cheap if you can scrounge it for free, and trying to slumber a wood burner overnight is a recipe for a tarred-up chimney, followed by a chimney fire once it gets too bad.

I can get cheap/free wood. Wood burners are meant to burn until they naturally run out of fuel... You wouldn't douse it before bed in a house! That'd be madness

dearlouise

What would be the next safest to leave on overnight?

Davesnave

dearlouise wrote: »

I can get cheap/free wood. Wood burners are meant to burn until they naturally run out of fuel... You wouldn't douse it before bed in a house! That'd be madness

Maybe the free wood was a piece of information that should have been in your first post, though it's still not clear how much wood this might be.

For example, I have access to free wood, but it's not firewood until dead for two years and I haven't enough to be self-sufficient. I could probably run my stove for a month of evenings in every year. Even then, it's not really 'free' when the capital costs of a chain saw, chains, fuel etc are factored-in.

What Ectophile meant was that slow-burning overnight tends to tar-up your chimney. However, I have been doing just that for 5 winters and my chimney seems to be fine.