wood burning stoves

We have a huge one, Hase, alpine stone clad. Living in this 16C house would be impossible without it, despite good central heating, double glazing and stone walls 90cm thick. We only burn local, well seasoned ash or beech, and have no direct neighbours.

Blondiescot

merlotgran They are no longer a cheap option though. Wood was already increasing in price before I left and that was before the recent fuel hikes.

Ours is cheap as we live in the countryside and just collect free wood.

How big is it, Blondiescot? I also lived in the country and we had trees that regularly needed pollarding so could have been self sufficient but our wood burner was 12kw so was a greedy beast. Even a smaller one would have been difficult to feed with ‘free’ wood given the need for only burning dry logs. Unseasoned wood pollutes the air and causes sooty deposits in the flue.

When we moved to Suffolk we inherited a wood burning stove. It was a big Canadian one and very expensive apparently. It didn't need emptying out on a daily basis and it was easy to keep in overnight.

More importantly, during the Great Storm of 1987 hit us we were without power for 13 days. The stove was very useful because I could cook on it.

judy, my new covax is environmentally friendly and certified as such. I got the multi fuel stove

whoops, stovax

lol, I had just been writing about covid vaccines

Thanks for the link, Casdon.

We have a multifuel burner that is supposed to run the central heating but struggles when I just burn wood, so we have to back it up with an oil boiler. I don't used coal (or the enclosed fire equivalent) because the ash is more difficult to dispose of. I put the wood ash on the compost heap, the garden or the muckheap. Wood ash being good for the soil.

We get all our wood free; mostly from our own trees, and chopping it up keeps Mr Maizie pretty fit!

I do love it. Getting it lit takes about 10/15 minutes and it makes the rather large room it's in very cosy.

I don't know what EV has a problem with, our woodburner is a clean burn and doesn't give out any smoke.

We live in a modern house but have a wood burner in the lounge and love it. For a start I have dry eyes and central heating just makes it worse but not a wood burner. Its a multi fuel type and we burn smokeless coal and logs. In the 20 odd years we have had the burner we have only ever bought wood once as we go out and collect. We keep it for 2 years to dry out and have a little gadget that tests how much moisture is in the wood and if its ok to burn. We don't have the central heating on much, just first thing in th morning for a few hours, the lounge/dinning room is still warm in the morning and the fire still in. Its not much of a fuss to clean or light.

We had one in the last house , I used to dread the cold weather coming in , the cleaning , the balancing of flues , the stacking of logs the dirt the smoke the soot
Of course everyone else loved the warmth and cosy atmosphere, but it was my job to get the b….y think lit and kept fuelled up , the only time my poor Jim opened it to put logs in he got a nasty burn !
This new house is a new build with so much insulation that I said no to the log burner , but my DD insisted in getting it , it has never been lit, I have a string of lights in it to give a glow !

We have a huge one, Hase, alpine stone clad.

Is it a masonry or ceramic stove, KAli2? I really fancy one as they are reported to use less wood and retain the heat for longer. However, I'm not sure that Mr M would let me as the current woodburner was expensive and is less than 10 years old... ?

My brother has one in his U.K. house, and a bigger one at their house in France.
The U.K. one virtually heats the whole house. He fixed up a gadget that wafts the warm air into the hall and up the stairs.
He cooks on them too - anything like soup,or casseroles, where the pan or dish can just sit on the top.

merlotgran Off the top of my head, I'm not sure of the output, but it is relatively large. I'm well aware of the need to only burn dry logs, which is why we have a number of large log stores around our garden which my husband has been stocking up with wood since before we had the stove installed. We are surrounded by woodlands, and he rarely returns from a walk with the dog without some. He's collected a few car boot loads of logs already this week and is collecting another couple of Transit van loads this weekend - all completely free.

MaizieD

^We have a huge one, Hase, alpine stone clad.^

Is it a masonry or ceramic stove, KAli2? I really fancy one as they are reported to use less wood and retain the heat for longer. However, I'm not sure that Mr M would let me as the current woodburner was expensive and is less than 10 years old... ?

It is clad with Alpine stone- so acts like a storage heaters in a way. If you look at the HASE website- they have so many models. It is a German company but active in UK.

We had one when we lived in rural France, but we had propane gas central heating too. So our bills were horrendous. even in the SW the winters are very cold. One year the pressure valve on the gas tank froze - no propane for 2 weeks. so the stove kept us warm.
we could have had an .adaptation made to the woodburner (sort of a pump system) so that it would have heated the rest of the house plus hot water but that would have cost a fortune.
It was a cosy source of heat but was labour-intensive. We had 1m logs delivered then husband had to saw them to a smaller size and barrow them into the house.
I often had a cough which I thought might have been due to the stove.
Nearest neighbours were ?500km and their stove was worse than ours!

Ours is the Como model, looks like there is a ceramic option.

ps 500m .

I don't have mains gas. I'm in a bungalow with a Clearview certified environmental friendly multi fuel stove in the kitchen/diner [with comfy armchair in it] where I spend evenings in the winter. Front room lounge is for the summer as it's cool in there.

I only burn kiln dried wood which doesn't give off smoke and fumes. I have no trouble lighting it whatsoever...use a very small piece of firelighter and kindling to start it off. Takes less than 5 minutes to take hold. I don't understand the problem of lighting if the kindling is arranged properly and is bone dry.

Wood is delivered on a large pallet which the driver puts into the back of the garage for me, so no problem there. I take in 5-7 logs per evening, which again is no problem, the garage is steps away from the kitchen door.

Ash is cleared every 4-5 days and put onto the compost heap.
I absolutely love the stove and would not be without it. I often open the door of the room it's in and let the heat circulate to the other rooms.

I have walked in places where people are burning the wrong sort of fuel and all sorts of rubbish and agree it is awful. Walk past my place though and you would not notice any of that, and probably not realise I had a log burner.

Modern wood burners should not be compared with ones manufactured and fitted 10 years ago or more.

Modern wood burning stoves have to meet high efficiency and safety requirements. Ours is very clean and we have no problems with smell indoors or outdoors. Our neighbours have them as well as us and we all use them intermittently, so we would be able to smell the difference depending on whether anyone had lit their stove or not and we cannot.

I do not find minding the stove particularly arduous, I just put the draft up to full, drop a couple of lit firelighters down the back of the kindling, and it is away.

As I said our problem is keeping it fuelled on days when we are pottering around doing other things, we keep forgetting.

Thanks, Kali2. I'll have a look at the HASE website.

Judy54, do get one - you'll love it! There's just nothing like sitting near radiant heat, so cosy and comforting. Get a high efficiency one and buy kiln-dried wood (mine's delivered into my garage).

I don't use petrol firelighters, just a few twists of paper and some kindling. There's very little ash - and no draughts, as it takes in air from outside.

I'd really like another one, in the dining end of the kitchen, where there's another chimney. I've got my eye on one with a little pizza oven and hob - so maybe, one day?

We changed our wood burner for a pellet burner. So much easier to manage and more controllable. Wood burners are a lot of work and more expensive to run than the pellet burner. The pellet burner is cleaner therefore better for the environment.

www.which.co.uk/reviews/wood-burning-stoves/article/wood-burning-stoves/wood-burning-stoves-vs-multi-fuel-stoves-aOVtY8P1aKW6
Here’s a really useful article about the pros and cons of the different systems. I wouldn’t want a pellet burner because it relies on electricity to feed it, which living where I do is a big consideration as the power goes off regularly, although I know people with a large house who have one and are very pleased with it. It also depends on your access to wood, which is obviously easier to get if you live in the country rather than in a town. There’s a lot to consider!

Marmite32

ps 500m .

LOL I did wonder ahaha

Those HASE stoves are not cheap- but it was part of our move here. For us, flexibility is very important- so if one system breaks down, we always have another to reply on. We have solar panels for hot water too. No gas mains here, but we have bought a camping stove with gas just in case, and of course we have wood and gas BBQ.

In France you also have Godin, for more traditional stoves.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and advice. We will give it a lot of consideration before making a decision.