Value added by wood burner

Davesnave

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I wasn't thinking of a focal point.

Woodburners/multifuel stoves are quite a cheap way of heating, particularly in the spring and autumn when you don't need to turn the central heating on and heat the whole house.

There's nothing wrong with having more than one method of heating and being flexible if the secondary source is there already. Having a welcoming focal point is just a bonus.

Focal point or not., a decent gas log fire will put out about 3.5kw, roughly the same as a small woodburner running at 2/3 max output, but the woodburner takes a lot more organisation and storage space to function.

As I type this, our wood burner is keeping the whole middle section of our bungalow warm, just as you say. The wood it's burning was harvested 2 winters ago from our own land, so that's almost free, although there are chain saw costs etc.

Yes, the wood burner works for us, but only because we have free/cheap wood and somewhere to stack it out of the wet for a couple of years. I don't think many people in a more suburban environment have these advantages.

happy35

i think it depends where you live and the lifestyle you have. Personally I think they look lovely when they are lit, a friend has one but she lives in the middle of no where so no gas and is at home most of the day

I work long hours and live in the middle of a housing estate and have a gas supply. A log burner would hold no attraction for me as it just doesnt fit in with my life, by the time I got a woodburner sorted it would be bedtime, I need to be able to flick a switch

I have lived in properties with open fires, parkray and a woodburner over the years and for me nothing beats gas heating/fire with only the effort of flicking a switch. I used to freeze when I came in from work when we tried to not use the radiators and use coal/wood on the fire

adandem

I think a woodburner may make your house more appealing but I certainly wouldn't pay more for a house if it had one.

dirty_magic

Either way it's not going to have much of an impact, it's personal choice. I don't think it would really add much value, it might just make it more saleable so do what you want, it's your home.

Wood burners are in fashion at the moment; I've been to a fire showroom today and they said they're selling more of them than anything else. That's not to say that they'll still be in fashion in 5 years though when you're looking to sell. People are fickle, they'll probably all be ripping them out by then.

jellie

happy35 wrote: »

I work long hours and live in the middle of a housing estate and have a gas supply. A log burner would hold no attraction for me as it just doesnt fit in with my life, by the time I got a woodburner sorted it would be bedtime, I need to be able to flick a switch

I have lived in properties with open fires, parkray and a woodburner over the years and for me nothing beats gas heating/fire with only the effort of flicking a switch. I used to freeze when I came in from work when we tried to not use the radiators and use coal/wood on the fire

I'm with this. A wood burner has no attraction for me whatsoever and unless I was moving to a rural setting with access to plenty of low cost wood, a wood burner would put me off buying a property.

muckybutt

Ouch ! 2K ? far easier and cheaper to self install and get it signed off by the council.

I self installed our new inset stove in our new extension last year, all you need to do is follow doc J of the building regs and away you go.

Stove cost £350 off ebay and if anything it's better and more economical then the £900 stove that does the central heating.

Poppy9

muckybutt wrote: »

Ouch ! 2K ? far easier and cheaper to self install and get it signed off by the council.

I self installed our new inset stove in our new extension last year, all you need to do is follow doc J of the building regs and away you go.

Stove cost £350 off ebay and if anything it's better and more economical then the £900 stove that does the central heating.

Yes all I need to do is get a sledge hammer and remove existing grate then make good the whole area, plaster etc. get an extra long ladder to access my chimney to fit the cap. Then fitting the liner and fire is a doodle. You installed in new extension, most people are installing in existing fire places so have alterations to make etc.


If you can afford £2k and not worried about whether it adds value or not much easier to get someone in to do. I would, just like I pay a decorator as I hate DIY

Davesnave

Bad installation, or installation without correct consideration of the conditions, is possibly to blame for the very variable reviews that many wood burning stoves receive. How else would people installing new stoves have such different experiences? Maybe the fitness of the fuel used, perhaps, but little else.

My preferred seller/installer told me that when they set out in business they sub-contracted the messy part, but there were many complaints and problems, which took up time and money and ate into their profits. So, about 20 years ago, they began doing their own installations and things improved.

Obviously, there are going to be physical constraints in some houses which will make the installation of a wood burner easier or harder, so a bit of expertise applied to the difficult ones could make a considerable difference to the end result and longer term costs.

seven-day-weekend

We have just moved into a suburban, two-bedroomed bungalow and have had TWO inset logburners fitted . One in the sitting room and one in the kitchen-diner.

We have a large garden , so plenty of room for woodshed, and although we have to pay for the wood, we get some of it subsidised by the Government (OAP Winter Fuel Allowance. We have just spent this year's. ).

We had them because we love the focal point, we love being even slightly off-grid, we love being 'involved' with the stove and to us a gas fire is no comparison. In fact we took out the perfectly serviceable gas fire that came with the bungalow and sold it . Also the stove gives out more heat, imho, than a gas fire would.

As missbiggles says, in the spring and autumn it is all you need (in our case you only need one of them, I can't think when we would ever use both at the same time).

We got both stoves half-price (one was end-of line, one was ex-display), and paid about 2.5k to have them both installed. One was more expensive to install than the other because the chimney had to be built up as it wasn't tall enough.

We do have gas central heating as well.

Each to their own, we didn't really want a gas or electric fire as our focal point, ewe love woodburners.

wrightk

we have a 15kw multi fuel stove which does the central heating and hot water,we are off grid.

personally if i had gas central heating i would be mad to install one,it would take me years to recoup the 'savings' in gas.gas is far more efficient and cheaper than any stove.
there are a lot of variables also depending on how your system is set up.mine is set up like a conventional heating system,it is just heated by solid fuel which brings additional problems of power cuts etc meaning it is almost impossible to run/dangerous when there is a power cut (despite what people may think)

If you want a roomheater stove with no additional plumbing it will have to be under 5kw else you will be needing to install additional through wall ventilation.once you sit down and work it out,its likely to work out cheaper to buy a cheap electric panel heater of the same kw once you take into account the installation cost,running costs of fuel (which are extremely high compared with gas or electric)

as far as value goes i dont think it makes any difference.dont use that as justification to buy one.
if your well off,want a nice focal point not bothered by additional costs,or have an unlimited supply of seasoned wood then go for it.if not consider carefully