Log burner worth it?

Effician

jrawle said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

We also have an unused stove, can't wait to get rid of it together with the massive draught that comes from it.  It looks like it's closed up, but there are loads of vents under the front edges.  The first winter here was very cold, then I worked out it was full of holes and stuffed a load of foam into them, it made a massive difference and proved just how much heat it was removing from the building.

A house will never be energy efficient while there's a hole in the living room that goes straight out of the roof.  Plus there should be an air inlet vent elsewhere in the room to allow air in, making it even worse.

Yes, it does make the room draughty. Mine it set into a fireplace. I've thought about stuffing an old duvet around and in front of it, then hiding it behind a decorative board or fire screen. I'm just worried about damp if there is no ventilation through the flue. Admittedly, I would keep it installed and uncover it if I sell the house as it may add value for some buyers; perhaps that makes my a hypocrite, although main reason for not removing it is the cost, given that it weighs 100kg and I'd have to pay someone to remove/dispose of it.

Not all stoves are made the same, a direct air feed stove for example will stop all the draughts associated with a room air fed stove

Ballymoney

My experience of wood burners is that they’re not cheap to run. If you’re planning to run it alongside your gas central heating then I’d expect any savings made from a slightly reduced running will easily be wiped out by your timber costs. But, by all means, buy one for aesthetic purposes, I think they look great.

Evan3020

Here in Lincolnshire logs are free for collection in many areas, admittedly i live in a rural area.

thegreenone

We have a cassette type built into the fireplace with the chimney lined. Sorry, I can't remember how much it cost.

We've managed to get a lot of wood from Freecycle/Trashnothing.  A friend works on a golf course and if there is tree chopping going on, he lets us know and we collect.  I can't remember the last time we actually bought wood.  We also have a wood oven outside.  The neighbours haven't complained.

Empty/cleaning is simple.  Ashes go on the roses and a quick glass clean with wet newspaper.

OP, you must have a fireguard.  A very good fireguard fixed to the wall, which little fingers cannot undo.  Vital.

alicef

We are in a rural area and have a couple of log burners.  I do like them very, very much and we don't need our underfloor heating on because of them.  In conjunction with solar on the roof for the water we use hardly any oil.  Though one thing to factor in, alongside the cost of wood, is the cost of having the sweep out.      

wittynamegoeshere

There's a huge difference between rural areas and towns.  We now live in very scattered houses in the countryside.  We get the occasional whiff but it's nothing to worry about.  I'd prefer it if others didn't burn stuff but it's bearable and not worth moving house over.

We previously lived in dense suburbia, basically solid houses for miles in every direction.  With mains gas too.  But these are the places that are now being blighted by these things, people were installing them purely to be trendy.  Even botching metal flue tubes onto the sides of newbuild houses.

There are healthy, live old people everywhere, even in the most polluted corners of the densest cities.  By definition they're the survivors which is why they're still around.  That proves nothing, obviously you won't see any dead people wandering about.

They are definitely harmful, hopefully nobody is attempting to suggest that they're somehow harmless or even good.

The human race isn't very good at learning lessons over more than one generation.  In the past we had thick smogs, along with appalling illnesses and shortened lifespans.  Then the government did something about it, with the Clean Air Act.  Things got much better, but sadly traffic pollution took much of its place.  So we've been doing a pretty good job at cleaning up cars - my eight year old diesel has an exhaust pipe that's still shiny inside.  But we're going backwards with this wood burning thing, and the fact that a lot of it is about being trendy makes it all the more annoying.

Hopefully it's a fad and will largely pass.  Perhaps many have got fed up with the work and mess and have moved onto the next trendy thing.

Longwalker

We have had our multi-fuel burner for about 10 years now and couldn't heat the house without it

Without it we have to rely on oil, and that price changes daily. We also are prone to power cuts because we have overhead cables, we went 7 days once without electric in the midst of a very bad winter, we would never have managed without the stove for heating, hot water and rudimental cooking

So for very rural living, they are often a necessity Even most of the council houses around here still have back boilers for the hot water

So we burn a mix of wood and smokeless . Wood is and has always been prohibitive to buy, smokeless has doubled in price this year - along with the oil

During the first lockdown our neighbour needed some trees lobbed and some taken right down so Mr L done it for him for the wood. We have about 3 years supply which is ready to be burned now this year. Mr L also cuts his own kindling from whatever wood he gets from his work. Thats going to be a godsend this year

We are always on the look out for free wood, but then so is everyone else and its usually sold, even if collecting it yourself from someone garden when they have had trees lobbed or felled

Would I burn wood or coal in a town or city - I doubt it. Where my husband comes from, thats all you can smell in the winter months, coal or wood, you can taste it


So the pitfalls - if you live in a town or city, you are governed by what stove you can buy - usually extremely expensive. Wood , good wood, is expensive, scavenged wood needs storing at least two years before you can burn it. Burning unseasoned wood causes tar in the flue, and a cold burning stove - total waste of money. If your family are house proud, I wouldn't bother. I the type that believes dust only shows if its disturbed, but seriously its filthy stuff, from the chopping and splitting to the cleaning out - theres dust and dirt - not to mention the spiders

And the disposing of the ashes. Yes it can go on the garden, but you need a ruddy big garden to disguise a seasons burning

dunstonh

Now with energy being what it is I’m wondering if this is worth it to help reduce gas consumption? 

You won't find many oil fired central heating houses in our area without at least one log burner.  We have three and getting a 4th one soon.

two of the three only heat the rooms they are in.  One barely gets used as its in the summer lounge.   The winter lounge gets used a fair bit when the room is used during winter when it is colder.  The radiators are off in that room.   However, the third one is in the middle of the house which has one of the stairways off it along with several doors.  The heat from that burner travels into multiple areas and when it's burning, it prevents three radiators from coming on and several others not needing to work so hard.

Also, it means we can turn the radiators off earlier in the year and let them come on later in the year as the burner takes the evening chill away.

So, the effectiveness of the heat will depend on the location of the burner and your overall airflow within the house.

As for cost, it will vary with suppliers.    We can supply some of ours from our own land but top up from local supply.   That certainly helps.

Someone mentioned daily work emptying ashes but in reality, if you are burning dry wood you should get very little ash.  I only have to clear the ashes once every 4 weeks.       It is poor quality/wet wood and paper that causes most ash or poor quality burning (too little air).  

How long for room to heat up?
I was thinking 20 minutes to sort the stove, 40 minutes to warm up room = 1 hour

And within 2 hours you have the surrounding area radiating heat.  e.g. if it's in a chimney then the bricks will warm up.   After 3-4 hours, you should be getting to peak temperature.   

We moved house a few years ago mainly because a number of our neighbours got them when it became trendy.  You could almost stir the air with a stick on a still night, it was utterly terrible.

This will be down to people not using them correctly.   We have a PM2.5 monitor, and it doesn't move up at all when in use.  But I could easily make it do so by burning the wrong things or running it with too little air.   

Also your neighbours will hate you.  Not because they're jealous, but because you're making their lives extremely unpleasant and harming their health.

Not if you are doing it right.  If done correctly, you get a very pleasant burning smell.  If done badly, it can be acrid and harmful.

A house will never be energy efficient while there's a hole in the living room that goes straight out of the roof.  Plus there should be an air inlet vent elsewhere in the room to allow air in, making it even worse.

Doesn't sound like yours is installed correctly. Or at least not to relatively modern standards.   Air vents also help airflow in a house and are a good thing for older houses and necessary.  Only the very modern houses are airtight.

Ectophile

Any burner that can go for 4 weeks between emptying the ashes must have a huge ash pan below the burning area.

One year, my central heating broke down over Christmas, leaving the log burner as my main heating.  I had to empty the ashes twice a day - which meant buying a metal bucket to put the hot ashes in.  if I didn't do that, the ash would have been overflowing the burner by the evening.

When I use it as supplemental heating, I can go a day or two before emptying it.

Effician

Ectophile said:

Any burner that can go for 4 weeks between emptying the ashes must have a huge ash pan below the burning area.

If burning just wood you shouldn't be burning on a grate above an ash pan, you burn on top of a bed of ash or sand, burning wood on a coal grate will burn inefficiently & deposit waaay more ash & wasted fuel into the pan.

The log burner is our only form of heat so on a lot in winter & still only needs part emptying about once a fortnight, only part empty so as to leave an inch of ash to burn on.