Wood burning stove?

Locornwall

I am in the process of buying a new build house. It has central heating throughout.

I would like to get a wood burning stove in the living room. This is more for the look during those cold winter months.

Does anyone have any thoughts on putting a wood burning stove in a room with central heating already? Can’t help but think I’m wasting my money, although I’d like that traditional living room.

Tom99

Is there a working flue?

Locornwall

No, but I understand this can all be done.

brewerdave

Locornwall wrote: »

No, but I understand this can all be done.

We installed a small log burner in our lounge ~ 2 years ago, in an existing fireplace. A metal liner was dropped down the existing chimney to connect. It is rated at 4kw and certainly warms the lounge and the hall up in the Winter, when the radiators were struggling to cope.

HOWEVER, we didn't see much of a drop in our gas usage and we are spending ~ £160 pa on kiln dried logs.
Furthermore, we were told that,if we hadn't had a chimney in working order, the installation costs would have been almost doubled!!

Locornwall

How much did it cost you, plus installation costs?

Loanranger

Don't underestimate the mess and the dust they create and, if the flue is exposed, how ugly they are. Where will you store the logs to keep them dry? I had one for fourteen years and it was nice to sit in front of during the winter months but the work it created outweighed that.

I would not buy a house with one installed.

They are a bit like decking, Belfast sinks and other fads. Soon go out of fashion when the downsides are lived with.

savemoney

Expensive to have one installed, and fuel is now expensive. I have had one for 10 years and this year decided I no longer will buy large qualities of wood in summer when its a little cheaper because the price is now silly due to demand. Nice to have one I admit but I will only use mine now maybe once a week rather than 4-5 times a week. You also find you still need GCH on as the heat doesn't travel much and mine is in dining room open plan and have two stove fans going

Locornwall

Ok so sounds like it’s not worth it considering the amount of mess. I thought it being all internalised there would be minimal mess.

FreeBear

Locornwall wrote: »

How much did it cost you, plus installation costs?

I had an inset cassette stove fitted a couple of years back - This replaced an existing open fire, so just needed a liner installed in the chimney. For just the liner and commissioning the stove, it was abound £1200 from memory. I still had to do all the brickwork, plastering, and hearth which would have added another £600 or so.

if you have the right sort of property and lots of space to store the logs, a stove is worth having. But do not underestimate the amount of wood you might get through each winter. I have a 10'x6' shed packed to the roof with firewood. During a really cold winter, this might just about last. Also have a similar sized pile outside, but under cover, slowly drying out for winter 2021.

For just a focal point in a room, have a look at a flueless gas (or alcohol) stove.

brewerdave

Locornwall wrote: »

How much did it cost you, plus installation costs?

For almost the smallest model available ,we paid £2200 inc installation - because we already had an unused chimney there wasn't really any mess.

We toyed with the idea of a bigger stove but because it wouldn't fit within the existing fireplace footprint , it would have more than doubled the price in extra installation and making good.:(
As per other posters - nice to have not cheap to run!

matelodave

we had a free standing stove installed about six years ago into our bungalow.

As far as I can remember the stove was around £900, the twin-wall insulated flue which goes up through the living room ceiling and straight up through the loft space cost about about £1600-£1800. I would think that installing one into a house would be even more expensive due to the extra height, even if it was located on an outside wall. Add the cost of boxing in, if it has to go through a bedroom. The slate hearth was around £100.

Add to that the cost of fuel, we've had several years when I've managed to get most of it free (just the cost of a chain saw & axe to cut it up) but since then it's cost around £200 a year to run it, usually just for 3-4 hours an evening between October and March. The log store cost me another £100 to build coz we need somewhere to store all the logs.

As our central heating is derived from a heatpump it's probably only reduced our leccy bill by around £100 a year.

We don't find it particularly messy although the extra dust it causes is noticeable. The glass needs a wipe over every day and the ashpan needs to be emptied about once a week or less.

Even though it sits on a 1 metre square slate plinth we've managed to get a couple of burns on the carpet where embers have fallen out, missed or bounced on the hearth and landed on the carpet when the door has been opened.

We'll still use it coz it's nice, but the cost of fuel is rising, especially kiln dried stuff or briquettes, I reckon the cost of logs has increased by around 50% since we've had it.

Dont forget if you can get free wood, you have to season it for at least a year before you can use it so you need enough space to store about two years worth.