Central heating or Log burner

Jolaaled

For me, one of the huge benefits of my log burner is the ability to boil water for hot drinks, washing up, any washing!...heating up soup or stew, or cooking pasta/rice etc. 

If I was purchasing a new log burner, I would choose one with plenty of space on its top, for pans and kettles. Those with the chimney coming out the back, rather than the top, are good.

Mstty

Jolaaled said:

For me, one of the huge benefits of my log burner is the ability to boil water for hot drinks, washing up, any washing!...heating up soup or stew, or cooking pasta/rice etc. 

If I was purchasing a new log burner, I would choose one with plenty of space on its top, for pans and kettles. Those with the chimney coming out the back, rather than the top, are good.

Top tip this, ours we didn't install with the chimney coming out of the top although we can fit a duel baking potato cast iron cooker, kettle and small pan on the back so that's baked potatoes with beans/cheese and a cup of tea.

It does make for a nice weekend treat for sure.

sam1974_2

ariarnia said:

we have both gsh and a multi fuel stove in a three bed semi detached. if it was a choice between one or the other wed have gone for the central heating no question. the stove is great and we do really use it but it only works for us because the radiators give a basic low level of heat everywhere that chases out the damp and takes off the chill. then the stove tops up. on those weeks when we've been away over winter and not had the heating on then coming home to a cold house the stove by itself really struggles to take that first chill off everywhere that's not the lounge. 

Agreed 👍🏼

We use our heating to warm the whole house and leave it ticking over as background heat and then use the Stove to keep us toasty warm in the lounge, which is does a fantastic job at. 

We are mainly open plan downstairs, so yes it does increase the temperature for the whole ground floor, cutting the radiators off (TRV’s turn rads off) but without any heating, upstairs would be unbearably cold IMO. 

And unless you wood is completely free, it would be cheaper to run the heating on low. 

gazapc

chrisss_2 said:

Yes, i live in a rural area, there are fields near to me..

Not quite sure I get this. Yes there are fields, but what are you going to do, take a chainsaw along and cut down someone else's tree along a field boundary?

Or are you implying you're just going to pick up stuff on walks? A few sticks won't power a stove for very long...

For reference, 1m3 (bigger than a dumpy bag) of hardwood logs is a bit over 1000 kwh of usable heat.

FreeBear

gazapc said:

chrisss_2 said:

Yes, i live in a rural area, there are fields near to me..

Not quite sure I get this. Yes there are fields, but what are you going to do, take a chainsaw along and cut down someone else's tree along a field boundary?

Or are you implying you're just going to pick up stuff on walks? A few sticks won't power a stove for very long...

Even picking up fallen branches without the landowner's permission is theft (same as chopping down random trees). And if you go taking logs from an SSSI, you'd be in a heap load more trouble if (when) you get caught.

thriftytracey

We pay £95 a load and last year two loads lasted the winter although we didn't generally light the stove until the afternoon.  It can get really hot so heats the hall when we open the door which isn't much good.  The kitchen is off the hall and i can't see the heat going into the kitchen.  I suppose if you had a fan in the hall it might.  I put the little fan away, that sits on the stove as it got too hot.

I think £200 is cheaper than having the GCH on, even on timer.

We use portable halogen electric heaters in kitchen and bathroom.  

I must admit I love the stove, it is so cosy and watching the flames is very soothing!

Mstty

thriftytracey said:

We pay £95 a load and last year two loads lasted the winter although we didn't generally light the stove until the afternoon.  It can get really hot so heats the hall when we open the door which isn't much good.  The kitchen is off the hall and i can't see the heat going into the kitchen.  I suppose if you had a fan in the hall it might.  I put the little fan away, that sits on the stove as it got too hot.

I think £200 is cheaper than having the GCH on, even on timer.

We use portable halogen electric heaters in kitchen and bathroom.  

I must admit I love the stove, it is so cosy and watching the flames is very soothing!

What was your annual electricity bill in kWh considering you use halogen heaters?

markin

thriftytracey said:

We pay £95 a load and last year two loads lasted the winter although we didn't generally light the stove until the afternoon.  It can get really hot so heats the hall when we open the door which isn't much good.  The kitchen is off the hall and i can't see the heat going into the kitchen.  I suppose if you had a fan in the hall it might.  I put the little fan away, that sits on the stove as it got too hot.

I think £200 is cheaper than having the GCH on, even on timer.
We use portable halogen electric heaters in kitchen and bathroom.  
I must admit I love the stove, it is so cosy and watching the flames is very soothing!

And have you got a quote for the wood this year, wood transport and processing uses fuel.

My wood price in my area has slowly doubled over the last 15 years.

ariarnia

we just got another two big bags being delivered because the man let us know he's putting his prices up at the end of the month. (can't have it loose because we don't have a drive for them to dump it on and the bags are delivered by crane into the elevated front). it costs £75 per hardwood dumpy bag here and 35 for a barrow bag. both with 5 off per bag if you buy two and also 5 per bag to stack it for you (we don't pay for that as theres four of us that can chip in and all do a bit so it goes quick). 

based off how much of the store one bags fills they hold a bit over half a cubic meter after being stacked. that means ready for this year we should have about a barrow bags worth that was left over from last year. 2 dumpy bags that were delivered earlier in the year (they're easier to drag to the store at the back of the garden from where they're delivered at the front) and two dumpy bags that are being delivered on monday that will top off the store and then what wont fit will be covered with a tarp and some bricks until theres space. so about 2 and a quarter cubic meters. maybe a bit more. which should do us for the winter supplementing our central heating unless its longer than normal. 

normally we would have waited until we had run down the store a bit before ordering more but its good to have and it hanging around under cover before it can go into the store to dry won't do it much harm. it'll be good and dry again before its needed. 

dunstonh

FreeBear said:

gazapc said:

chrisss_2 said:

Yes, i live in a rural area, there are fields near to me..

Not quite sure I get this. Yes there are fields, but what are you going to do, take a chainsaw along and cut down someone else's tree along a field boundary?

Or are you implying you're just going to pick up stuff on walks? A few sticks won't power a stove for very long...

Even picking up fallen branches without the landowner's permission is theft (same as chopping down random trees). And if you go taking logs from an SSSI, you'd be in a heap load more trouble if (when) you get caught.

We cut down an oak a couple of years ago and the wood was stacked but not yet cut and split for burner use.    The rainy season started the day after and we couldn't get the wood moved until the Spring (we are on clay which turns from concrete in Summer to slop in Winter).  Being an old oak, there was several thousand pounds worth of wood sitting there. However, we didn't think of it that way back then. 

One day we saw a car parked on our track and I went to investigate, and it was someone helping themselves to the wood.   They didn't realise it was theft and thought they were doing us a favour by removing it.    They were apologetic but I suspect they did know and were trying it on.