Open fire or wood burner

Cardew

chickens11 wrote: »

Cardew....Thanks for the info on the Grenadier electric fire lighter, I will check out the pries on flea bay tonight , I do have to pay for kindling wood , but it may well work out cheaper to buy the Grenadier in the long run , have you used one of those ?.....Thanks....:D

I inherited an electric firelighter that is over 50 years old and still in use.


I bought my daughter one for her holiday cottage and use it when I am there(they have two log burners)


They are very expensive, but the sheer convenience of having a fire already laid with just coal, or logs and having it lit with no effort is great.


They are also very good for a Bar-B-Q.

chickens11

Just checked flea bay and @ £129.99 im going to burn the stash of kindling I have before I invest in a Grenadier ........Also purchasing in the summer may result in a cheaper one ....MSE ..:)

A._Badger

Cardew wrote: »

I inherited an electric firelighter that is over 50 years old and still in use.


I bought my daughter one for her holiday cottage and use it when I am there(they have two log burners)


They are very expensive, but the sheer convenience of having a fire already laid with just coal, or logs and having it lit with no effort is great.

They are also very good for a Bar-B-Q.

Cardew and I are in the Grenadier tag team, I think - we've both posted about them several times. I have had one for some years as well and certainly wouldn't be without it. Whether it has paid for itself is a moot point, but some conveniences are beyond price.

alleycat`

The one thing that puts me off the idea of the grenadier, apart from the eye watering price, is that it relies on that new fangled elastictrickery.

Part of the reason i have a stove is for when the electric is off and it seems a bit counter intuitive to invest in something that won't work when i need it the most

I will concede they do look the knees of the bees mind you.

Cardew

alleycat` wrote: »

The one thing that puts me off the idea of the grenadier, apart from the eye watering price, is that it relies on that new fangled elastictrickery.

Part of the reason i have a stove is for when the electric is off and it seems a bit counter intuitive to invest in something that won't work when i need it the most

I will concede they do look the knees of the bees mind you.

How often do we have power cuts? A pack of firelighters in a cupboard will solve the issue.

alleycat`

Four or five over the Christmas period in our locale.

I admit none impacted me directly but Northern Power Grid are not exactly doing a sterling job recently.

I admit they aren't helped by the idiots trying to steal live cables but even when that isn't the case they still haven't had a good run over the last 12 months.

howardtog

A wood burner is far more efficent and no more work than an open fire.Some provisos:
You must line the chimney as smoke can be corrosive to the chimney and the liner ensures the stove draws correctly
Have a multi fuel grete so you can burn 'coal' or logs. The former very efficent but rather smelly and dirty.
a stove can be left in complete safety. It wont heat the whole house but you will have at least one room as warm as you like.We close the door of the room where the woodburner has been on and it is appreciably warmer the next morning
If you are buying wood buy kiln dried.Burns most efficently and takrs less storage space.( I am given wood by my landowning friend and only have to transport it home,saw then split into logs and season for a year or so so even if free theres a lot of satisfying work involved)
In summary if you envisage occaisional use thenprobably cheaper to leave the open fire. If you use every evening or more for 5 months of the year then a wood burner is worth the outlay. The cheaper you can source the fuel the more worthwhile it becomes
Stay warm

Greenfires

Kiln dried is a rip off. Most people view it as the "best logs you can buy" and pay through the nose for it. The reality is that most commercial kiln driers work to an average moisture content of 20% - and in a decent drying year, naturally air dried logs from a decent supplier will be drier AND a good deal cheaper.

And of course briquettes make kiln dried logs look positively soggy - and a tonne of them will occupy a tiny fraction of the space of the equivalent energy of any type of logs.

A._Badger

howardtog wrote: »

A wood burner is far more efficent and no more work than an open fire.Some provisos:
You must line the chimney as smoke can be corrosive to the chimney and the liner ensures the stove draws correctly

Not necessarily. Some unlined chimneys function very well. Get advice from a properly experienced installer and/or sweep.

Chimney_Sweep_3

Stove everytime, more heat for less fuel also when openfire is not alight there is still a lot of heat being lost up the flue, a well designed and fitted open fire is at best 30-40% most are no where near that good. Another consideration is open fires in town have a limited life I think there may become a time that they will be banned as they are getting more common again, even with smokeless fuels, Paris has already started the process places further afield have been bringing in strict conditions on the emissions of stoves, New Zealand banning certain age/dirty appliances in certain cities. So at least with a good DEFRA stove (after initial lighting/warm up very little smoke will be visible when burning wood ) it would be more future proof. The lining part is down to each situation, if yours a pre 60s property then a liner will be required as the flue is most likley old soft bricks and lime mortar also incorrect size, even later claypot lined flues are often too large or poorly installed with large gaps between each section or upside down, so have it swept first and if pot lined CCTV it also.
PM me if you want a good sweep there are one or 2 in London I would recommend to give sound advice.