Woodburner or not?

ProDave

I love our wood burner.  Plenty of free wood here. A decent well fitted stove does not dirty the glass. Ours is room sealed so takes it's combustion air in from outside, not from the room.

We live in a low density rural part of the Highlands, so it's not a nuisance to the neighbours and most houses have one.

I would not have one in a town or a city or if I had to buy wood for it.

Fishoutofwater

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Hi FooW.

Air source heat pump? Cool. That's going to be your biggest seller come resale. If the new owner wants a wood burner, they can fit one.

So, I'd suggest you make this choice for you, and nothing else.

Having said that, I'd have one like a shot   You really cannot beat a  real fire for awesome cosiness.

Out of curiosity, what sort of sum are they talking about for the fire? If it isn't 'that' much, then perhaps stretch yourself a bit to have it, even if you only use it twice a year, or even never. They are still great focal points, and every visitor will go "Ahhhhhhh..." when they see it. Lit or no.

It’s around £1600 from memory. The other factor is that a bedroom is above and so if I have the woodburner, the chimney space for it eats into the room size above. 

youth_leader

I had a woodburner and during bad storms smoke would blow back into the room, nightmare.

Are you having a 'Quooker' or similar 'hot tap' in the kitchen?  I've just bought a bungalow and am investigating ways of making it attractive to buyers so my kids don't have difficulty selling it when I've gone. 

ComicGeek

Don't do it. They won't put in a controlled supply air duct for that money, so will be just a draughty vent in the wall for the majority of the year.

The heat output is also way over the top for a new well insulated and air tight house, so won't be pleasant to have on. I've seen living rooms where they've put in a 7 kW wood burner, and where the maximum heat requirement is less than 1 kW.

So you will be cold when it's not on, and too hot when it is!

FreeBear

SameOldRoundabout said: I do clear the ash out and wire wool the glass maybe once a week in winter.

Noooo... Wire wool on the glass will scratch it. If you have stubborn deposits, wait until the stove is cold and spray a bit of oven clean on the glass. After a few minutes, a quick wipe with a damp sponge will get rid of the muck.

OP - You can get room sealed stoves that draw air in from outside. This avoids the need for a vent in the room. As the property will (hopefully) be well insulated, you would only need a small stove. Even something like the Hobbit at 4KW might be a bit too big. If this is going to be more than just a life style extravagance, you will need plenty of dry space to store the firewood. Got room for an 8x6 shed or two ?

Gers

A properly handled wood burning stove keeps the glass clear. Deposits only need cleaning with scrunched up damp newspaper dipped in ash. 

I use a stove, live in a very rural area without mains gas so it's more or less essential for heating this old stone cottage. Yes, wood is plentiful here and I have storage space. If I lived in an urban area it would be pretty pointless. Cleaning the ash is fairly easy as I have an ash vacuum. 

Open fires are very inefficient, wood burners efficiency hovers around 75-80%. 

SameOldRoundabout

FreeBear said:

SameOldRoundabout said: I do clear the ash out and wire wool the glass maybe once a week in winter.

Noooo... Wire wool on the glass will scratch it. If you have stubborn deposits, wait until the stove is cold and spray a bit of oven clean on the glass. After a few minutes, a quick wipe with a damp sponge will get rid of the muck.

OP - You can get room sealed stoves that draw air in from outside. This avoids the need for a vent in the room. As the property will (hopefully) be well insulated, you would only need a small stove. Even something like the Hobbit at 4KW might be a bit too big. If this is going to be more than just a life style extravagance, you will need plenty of dry space to store the firewood. Got room for an 8x6 shed or two ?

Having said that I’m not sure it IS wire wool I use. It’s like a sponge that came with the fire, with a silver side that looks like wire wool to me but may be something softer. You dip it in the ash and use it like that. 

Agree that the glass doesn’t get dirty, but I’m not very good at stacking the wood sometimes and if a piece falls too close to the glass it definitely blackens quickly! 

Doozergirl

ComicGeek said:

Don't do it. They won't put in a controlled supply air duct for that money, so will be just a draughty vent in the wall for the majority of the year.

The heat output is also way over the top for a new well insulated and air tight house, so won't be pleasant to have on. I've seen living rooms where they've put in a 7 kW wood burner, and where the maximum heat requirement is less than 1 kW.

So you will be cold when it's not on, and too hot when it is!

I agree.  Apart from being too hot, in an airtight house, a regular wood burner isn't suitable because unless it's a fancy stove specifically designed for an airtight house, you're deliberately punching holes in the house, defeating the entire object of it being airtight.  

We have a wood burner in our garden room.  No way did the house need a woodburner.  

Creating a different focal point in the living room was important for me, so that the 'missing' fireplace wasn't noticeable. I think we've done that quite effectively
with built in cabinetry.  

 

babyblade41

I have a wood burner in one room  but  more for aesthetic reasons as it's an old house and we replaced the old gas fire with something more  fitting..however, it gets so bloody hot .
In the other room we had the same problem, got rid of the gas fire but instead of another wood burner we got a bio fuel fire and since then gone on to get another 2, one in the conservatory is brilliant 

AdrianC

dimbo61 said:

I live in the countryside and woodburnrs are a huge pollution problem.

No, they aren't. We have a neighbour who has a woodburner for their central heating boiler and hot water. If you didn't see the smoke from the flue, you'd never know it was lit.

You need a CO alarm in any room with a solid fuel appliance.

No, you don't.

The burner also needs a steel vent pipe to carry the highly toxic smoke away.

Yes, the flue, which will be fitted as an integral part of the installation.

You should use dried wood and NEVER any old timber fencing which may have chemicals painted on them.

Isn't that obvious?

But here in ruralshire, that's no problem. We have trees in ruralshire. If you don't have a chainsaw yourself, you'll know people in the village with one. Or there'll be somebody who'll deliver a large pile cheaply. You'll have a woodshed to stack the cut-and-split bits of tree to dry.

The problems come with the godawful overpriced bags of soggy rubbish urban petrol stations sell as "logs". But who in their right mind would buy those?

They need to be cleaned out after every use

Takes a few minutes to clean out and re-build ready for lighting again.

and checked for any leaks or problems with the vent/chimney.

Not every use...

Every year or three, when the flue's swept. Even that's not really necessary if you don't burn rubbish, and know how to use it - I've had bits of unswept flue apart, and there's minimal build-up.

Spend your money on better loft / wall and floor insulation.
Maybe a air/ground heat source pump instead of a gas boiler

They're different things for different jobs.

A woodburner is not a primary heat source for most people.
It's a feature in the room, something to light and stare at over a bottle of wine of a winter's evening. A less vacuous alternative to staring at the telly.

Woodburners are also a VERY different thing to open fires. They're chalk and cheese in terms of the efficiency of burn and the volume of fuel you get through.

I wouldn't want to be without one.