Do woodburners save you money?

Gloomendoom

Peapods wrote: »

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.

If you fit it yourself, you would normally need to factor in the additional cost of getting building regs approval. It's not just the cost of stove.

We have saved a lot of money on our gas bills..

I would have thought that this would be inevitable, but have you saved money on your total heating costs... gas plus solid fuel?

wrightk

not at all. running a solid fuel stove here for a 3 bed semi (7 rads and hot water) is about as expensive as if i had storage heaters,let alone gas.

maybe if you have access to free fuel yes.but saving money is either;
-something someone invents to justify buying one thinking they can actually run a stove on scavanged wood from the local woodland
-something the salesman tells you

wrightk

Peapods wrote: »

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

even at optimal efficiency stoves are still only around 60% efficient at best .gas is far more efficient and cheaper

macman

Impossible to answer unless we know what fuel you are currently using for heating and hot water. Assuming you do not have free source of wood, then the savings will obviously be greater vs say LPG or oil, than vs mains gas or electricity.
If you do have free wood, then it'll be effectively free once you have clawed back the capital cost of the install.

matelodave

Not really - we had one fitted two years ago and have managed to get hold of about 18 month supply of free wood. Needed to get a chain-saw to cut it up (unless you are ever so fit with an axe).

We also use Verdo logs (£2.79 for six from Home Bargains) - used about £60-£70 worth last year to supplement the wood.

It cost about £2k to be supplied and fitted (we don't have a chimney - so needed a flue & hearth). I suppose we could have got a cheaper stove but we like the one we've got.

I had to build a log store for the wood, the Verdo logs have to be stored somewhere dry like a shed, garage or in our case the utility room. Next year we'll have to start buying wood so the costs will increase.

All that said, we enjoy having it and it's probably shaved the cost of the Verdo logs & chainsaw off my electric bill but it certainly hasn't saved us any money.

alleycat`

As pretty much everyone else has said. The chances of it saving you money are pretty slim.

Even with a free source of wood or coal, i suppose you could have your own mine , the time involved in processing the fuel / storing, etc. just means it doesn't tend to stack up against any of the other major fuel sources.

I think they are well worth having but they are "work" and not some easy our in regards to money saving.

edwink

wrightk wrote: »

even at optimal efficiency stoves are still only around 60% efficient at best .gas is far more efficient and cheaper

Most stoves that are about today range from 70% to 82% efficient. Maybe an older stove would be in the region of 60% but most these days are much higher than that.

A._Badger

None the less, unless you are getting free wood, mains gas will still be cheaper.

Gloomendoom

macman wrote: »

Impossible to answer unless we know what fuel you are currently using for heating and hot water. Assuming you do not have free source of wood, then the savings will obviously be greater vs say LPG or oil, than vs mains gas or electricity.
If you do have free wood, then it'll be effectively free once you have clawed back the capital cost of the install.

I have "free" wood. Free if you discount the cost of my chainsaws and associated PPE. Petrol, both for the saws and vehicles needed to transport the fuel from its source. I also spend a not inconsiderable amount of time every year, cutting, splitting and stacking.

I still use gas central heating though as I like my whole house to be a comfortable temperature without the need to stoke up a boiler when I need the heat... particularly first thing in the morning.

edwink

A._Badger wrote: »

None the less, unless you are getting free wood, mains gas will still be cheaper.

We are getting all the free wood we need!!

Luckily we have 6 lots of builders that drop off their unwanted wood and new offcuts to us. We back on to a common/woods. A local firm drops off all their broken pallets to us every month throughout the year. Anytime a neighbour takes a tree down we get all the logs, the whole lot. A tree worth of logs is a fair bit.

We have roughly four years supply of logs at the moment and a whole winters worth of off cuts etc.

So for us it is certainly cheaper than gas.