open fire or wood burner

[Thermo]

Ive got a free and ready access to lots of burnable wood. As my project for this christmas is to do the lounge, and with fuel bills in mind, i want to install one or the other. Now at present we dont have an existing chimney, but there is a route it can follow, either internally or externally, dependent on installation.

I just wondered what peoples views were on the best option, anything to avoid etc, and what will produce the most heat

 

[2scoops0406]

Anything with a back boiler, so you can supplement your heating / hot water. Chimneys can be very expensive to have built.

 

[Steve69the69Gas]

The tree huggers are gonna get p**sed if you start cutting a forest down

 

[Ricky2]

We have an open fire Thermo that we use to supplement the central heating [and to cheer us up on gloomy days.]

Have thought about changing to a wood burner as it would surely be more efficent and much more controllable. You can throttle down a wood burner to ensure it is still alight in the morning. However a woodburner may put out too much heat for our size lounge and turn the room into a sauna.

I think what would sway it for me would be the opportunity to link it to a back boiler as 2scoops says. That is not economical for me, but if you can do it relatively easy, then thats well worth considering.

 

[Thermo]

The tree huggers are gonna get p**sed if you start cutting a forest down

nah got a friend whose a tree surgeon!

 

[2scoops0406]

Having a back boiler helps distribute the heat output around the house, otherwise you can get an incredibly hot lounge (if that where it's gonna be installed) and cold everywhere else.

A woodburner is also better at regulating the heat output, by being able to vary the air intake. Oh, and remember to dry any wood you burn for about a year, otherwise you'll get tar in the flue / chimney, and then potentially a flue/chimney fire, which is a bad thing.

 

[masona]

I would go for cast iron stove with twin wall insulated stainless steel pipe, ( they are not cheap but very good but best to get proper advice what is needed for your lounge) I have this in my summerhouse and the heat is unbelievable Put charcoal on the grate first then woods etc I have no idea what fire or building regs are though

 

[marshman]

we have an open fire and burn quite a lot of wood only trouble with wood is the bits that fly out and burn the carpet,
now we've just brought the cottage we are thinking of going to a multi fuel stove.
mainly to try to cut down on the dust as the oh says we're not getting any younger,
whether we change is a tough call as a stove doesn't have the same appeal.

 

[2scoops0406]

Why not get the best of both worlds, get an insert with glass doors, its a sort of fireplace / stove hybrid, no sparks, no fumes or smoke, and a real fire to look at.

 

[Thermo]

i must say im leaning towards the burner rather than the open fire. If we go for the back boiler option, can that link into our existing C/H system or will i need a few seperate rads to run off of it?

 

[tim west]

The tree huggers are gonna get p**sed if you start cutting a forest down

nah got a friend whose a tree surgeon!

Does he kill ALL his patients?

 

[gremlin16]

must say im leaning towards the burner rather than the open fire.

If you are going to buy a stove, avoid the Chinese imported steel carp.
Buy a cast stove such as Stovax.

 

[2scoops0406]

i must say im leaning towards the burner rather than the open fire. If we go for the back boiler option, can that link into our existing C/H system or will i need a few seperate rads to run off of it?

Link it in to your exisiting CH system.

 

[Lesley Jones]

We had a wood burning stove fitted four years ago and we love it! Had it professionally fitted, appropriate stainless steel chimney liner and insulating beads etc. I think it cost about £1300.00 or so in total, but we didn't go along the back boiler route although you can set our burner up that way. We usually get one load of logs delivered a year in the summer to see us through the winter.

The fitter said that if we leave internal doors open it would heat the whole house but then you do have to wear your bikini in the living room!

Also, you don't have to clean out a wood burner as often as you would an open fire. The wood burner operates better when there is spent ash in the bottom. We only clean ours out properly once a week when it is in use, although I clean the glass every morning when I make up the fire in readiness for the next use. Cold ashes from the bottom of the wood burner on wet kitchen roll are ideal for this, followed by a quick polish up with some dry kitchen roll which can then go in the bottom of the fire when you make it up.

Good luck.

 

[JohnD]

I agree with Marshman's point about dust. An open fire really does make an amazing amount. Your housemaid will have to potter round the drawing room at least once a day, and you will find the tops of books, furniture etc very dirty.

Also there will be clean shadow marks behind wall-hung pictures, mirrors, curtains etc, and your TV screen will get filmy.

And you will need to buy new hearthrugs regularly as they will get holes bunt in them.

I previously had an iron Multifuel, with a gravity feed to the hot cylinder which was very handy. the multifuel will burn wood or smokeless or whatever is to hand. the smoke-eater is supposed to keep the chimney cleaner. Mine was some Scandinavian brand, forget which.

If you light it when you get in, though, it takes quite a while to warm up By the time you go to bed the room is roasting