Open fire or wood burner

MGolden

On Sunday my OH and I went into a fireplace shop to price up replacing our fireplace. We live in London and currently have an open fire although can only burn smokeless fuel. The people in the shop did a hard sell on a wood burner and it appears that if we buy one we can burn wood despite living in London!

I was swayed but am wondering if we should stick with what we've got. I've heard wood burners are messy but so is an open fire. We may need to get the chimney lined although we have it regularly swept so that may not be necessary. It seems that a wood burner would cost about £1000 more than replacing the fireplace but we really don't know what to go for and it seems that all advice (other than on here) is from people who have something to sell!!

So any tips, advice, ideas or thoughts gratefully received!

Happy New Year!

in_the_Cotswolds

I have an open fire however I'm thinking off changing to a wood burner. The reason is our house is tall (4 storeys) Victorian house and with a wood burner you can close the door/s and leave it in overnight hopefully to heat the house when the heating is off. And I think they are safer, no danger of sparks etc on carpet when no one is in the room.

My sister in law has one and burns coal as well as wood maybe that's what the shop meant.

MGolden

Thanks in_the_cotswolds. I think we could burn both although I don't understand how we can burn wood in London just because we have a wood burner as presumably the smoke still comes out of the chimney! The heat given off by the wood burners in hung showroom was impressive and to be honest even with our fire lit we have the heating on as the open fire really only heats the living room.

We live in an eot 1930s house which we've insulated well but we can't depend on the open fire to heat anything more than the living room, if a wood burner gave out so much heat we could turn the heating down that would be a real bonus. We'd be looking at a 5kw one.

Robwiz

You can install a wood burner in London provided it's DEFRA approved - there's something clever with the way the stove routes the combustion gases to burn off the soot.

An enclosed stove is way more efficient than an open fireplace - about 70% compared to 30-40% efficient. With a fireplace most of the heat goes straight up the chimney.

It's not good to attempt to leave a wood fire to burn overnight - the fuel would smoulder not burn efficiently.

It could be that your chimney doesn't need lining but most installers attempt to upsell customers to lined flues (even when not a Building Regs requirement).

From our experience, a wood burning stove is just as messy as an open fire. You still have to empty out the ash, and whether you burn logs or briquettes there's dust and general mess.

savemoney

I dont get that much mess with mine sure a little. Clean ash pan out once a day if I light every day. Rub some ash on glass to clean some slight soot. Dust pan and brush to clean a few bits of ash on around log burner.

The main issues are one of cost of buying and installing, this usually isn't cheap and buying of fuel and storage of said fuel. I think some people have perception that is cheap way to heat your home, unless you have a endless supply for free fuel its not cheap.

You also have costs of maintenance ie chimney sweep around £50+ probably more in London.

Like all fuel its not cheap everything has gone up and people jump on bandwagon some thinkings is a cheap way to heat your home.

With that in mind a fuel burner usually doesn't heat a whole house either may take the chill off and nice and cosy where wood burner is situated even when using a stove fan.

Its nice to have one though but I dont use mine daily and I will use GHC it only supplements it for me

I store my fuel in a workshop (old garage) and I use to burn seasoned logs but now use briquttess I buy in large load £220.

captainhindsight_2

With the wood burner you want to have the flue lined, this is not an up sell but a requirement for the stove to work as it has been designed to.

A pellet stove may be quite good if you don't like the mess, just fill it up with pellets and turn it on and off with a remote or even a timer. A real flame etc similar to a log stove. Check out the piazetta or MCZ it may be worth a look.

MGolden

Thank you all. I now understand why we can burn wood, which is great. We don't have a ready supply of free fuel (ironically we could have had for the last 10 years but it's just stopped!) but we do burn smokeless fuel so if we get to keep more of that heat then we would probably save some money as we would at least keep the living room warm!

We get the chimney swept every year and are used to the mess in the grate anyway, luckily the children are old enough to clean the grate so doesn't cause me that much grief.

As far as storage if fuel is concerned we already store the coal I our garage so can store pallets there and any other fuel.

Ectophile

In addition to woodburners, you can also get multifuel stoves. These cost a little more, but can burn either wood or smokeless fuel.

savemoney

Mines a multi stove but only use wood, or wood briquettes. Have used it once for coal and heat was enormous

YORKSHIRELASS

We have both, open fire in lounge and multi fuel stove in the kitchen/diner. The stove is far more efficient in terms of the heat output and economy. Be sceptical about anyone telling you the stove will heat the whole house but it should enable you to have the heating on less.

Friends of ours bought one of those stoves that fits into an existing fireplace which might be something to think about.

Cardew

All these advocates of wood burners replacing open fires have no consideration for Santa Claus.