Do woodburners save you money?

Jonty37

I have been informed that wood burners or multi fuel stoves can save you money on your heating bills, is this true and if so is it a considerable amount?
Thanks

Alter_ego

If you have a source of free wood - yes

Jonty37

This is what i was thinking, as I have looked in to it and some will cost a couple of thousand by the time they have been installed. I may do alittle more research. Thanks

silverwhistle

It depends on a few other things too, like where you are in the UK.. If, like savemoney, you are in Scarbados with the wind whistling off the North Sea you may well need the GCH on overnight. In sunny 'Ampshire last year I didn't and my annual gas bill was less than £70 (electric cooking and most hot water). I didn't bother heating the upstairs as the heat wafted upwards anyway. My bill would have been less but aged parent visited for Christmas so I had the thermostat up higher!

I think it looks great too, and such a focal point in my now snug lounge. I've even tried cooking on it (e.g. steamed some Charlotte potatoes yesterday!) so it is a good back-up too.

Swipe

Too much hassle
Too much mess
No instant heat
Wood is getting more and more expensive now they have become fashionable
As a stove user for over 25 years, I'd kill for gas central heating

Ectophile

Swipe wrote: »

Too much hassle
Too much mess
No instant heat
Wood is getting more and more expensive now they have become fashionable
As a stove user for over 25 years, I'd kill for gas central heating

If only my gas central heating gave me instant heat. Combine old radiators with microbore pipes, and you have something that takes ages to heat up.

edwink

Hi

If the cost of purchasing one is putting you off you could always look at buying a second hand one maybe. Just a thought.

I personally would say that if you know you can get the wood then go for it. You could buy one that has a cooking ring on the top as this would save you money if you made use of that.

You can buy stoves that are designed to heat the room and to heat your hot water. Plenty of money saved with that option because you would probably light the stove most evenings and throughout the day at the weekends during the winter. Obviously you would save money by not having to heat your hot water for washing etc.

Or you could get one that heats the room, your hot water and heats various amounts of radiators too or just the radiator in your bathroom. There are different sized models with regards to heat output that can handle different amounts of radiators.

The many types of stoves are not just for heating the room they are in. We have one in our living room that heats that room, all of our hot water and heats 10 radiators throughout the house.

We went for gold when installing ours and went for a wood burning cooker too. This heats our kitchen and cooks all of our meals. In the winter when it is alight constantly we use it for making endless cups of coffee. Our electric kettle is never used throughout the winter at all.

It certainly cost us to have them both installed but they paid for themselves within around 4/5 years. After 5 years we are reaping the rewards of having spent out on them. We had our gas switched off when they were first installed. So obviously we do not have any gas to pay for and haven't done for the past 7 years. So that is a huge saving.

I would say maybe do a few calculations and more before you decided whether to install or not. Have a look around to see if you can find one second hand. Certainly do your homework on all the makes and models you can because it will pay off if you do. Don't just go out and buy one because you like the look of it.

Yes we are a great fans of them in our house and haven't got bored with them yet. We had one in our previous house too but that one was not as efficient as the ones we have now. We are so pleased that we made the decision to install them both.

Hope that is of some help.

A._Badger

The short answer is - almost certainly not. Stove retailers often lie about this, IME.

Smokeless fuel continues to rise in price, as do logs, stove prices have gone up way faster than inflation as stoves have become 'lifestyle accessories' and installers have followed suit.

As has been said, unless you can get free wood of a quality suitable for burning forget it as a source of 'cheap' heat. There is no such thing as cheap heat in this country and certainly not from a stove.

Whether they are nice to have is a different question altogether.

skivenov

Yes, but only if you have a free fuel supply.

mumf

I would say no. All fuel in whatever form costs. If you can get wood for nothing, that is cheap. But it takes TIME and WORK to process. That may be your work and your time, but it is still a cost of sorts.

We have had a wood stove for ever, but I don't kid myself it is cheap.

Peapods

For us, yes. We do have a few mitigating factors though.

We didn't have to pay for the cost of installation as my husband fitted it. So that was just the cost of the multifuel stove at £600 including the flue. We also didn't fit a liner (on recommendation of two chimney sweeps who said we didn't have to have one and would have made sweeping our chimney very difficult.

We have a lovely coal merchant just up the road who sells ovules at £18 per 50k in winter months, and £13.50 if you stock up in summer.

The heat of the fire downstairs heats our bedroom above, so its toasty warm up there too.

Importantly, we have also learned how best to run our fire at its maximum performance, so no fuel is wasted.

We have saved a lot of money on our gas bills. We dont scrimp on turning on the CH if we need to, but due to the held warmth (our fire is in a large black brick surround) it radiates heat for hours after the fire is out. If we were burning wood alone it would not be cheaper, but since finding our local coal merchant I wont go back to a gas fire.