Opening up a Chimney Breast

[Ivor Windybottom]

My honest advice would be to get rid of the chimney. Seriously.

We had a stove, it came with the house and we never used it. But my other half wiped all the soot off the living room walls when we moved in. We were using electric heaters before we got the heat pump heating installed. We could never get the place warm, until I stuffed a pillow up the stove's flue. They have a glass front but loads of vents, you basically have a hole in your roof if you have one. If it's not lit then you'll be cold.

I've since taken down the chimney and roofed over it. I'll keep the chimney breast, will eventually install a flush electric fire into it that we'll probably never use, as the place is plenty warm with the heat pump now I've got rid of the two chimneys.

 

[Craig-H]

I take your point, but I just want one. It's more than heat, they're endearing... inviting. I'll pursue it until I can't and if necessary have a rethink. I'm fairly tenacious... if it can be done - it will be. I hope to make some progress this week.

 

[stuart45]

Where I live a lot of people have them. They can be expensive to run, unless you have access to a cheap supply of firewood. On the plus side, people generally find that radiated heat is more comfortable than convection heat.

 

[Craig-H]

I really enjoyed the fireplace, but it just didn't kick out very much heat. I think they say 80% of the heat from a fire goes up the chimney and apparently only 20% goes up the chimney with a wood burner... That's a 60% gain from last winter and sounds like bliss! Hopefully I can source some local cheap wood.

 

[stuart45]

A lot depends on how much work you want to do with it. For example, a large dumpy bag of seasoned Ash logs delivered could be £120, whereas if you find someone who has just cut one down and are prepared to pick up the logs, split them and season them for 12 months, it can work out a lot cheaper. The key thing is to plan ahead all the time. If you see a tree surgeon cutting one down in the summer, they might tell you the owner would be happy to sell the logs. Some people are happy to give them away just to get rid of them, not realizing how valuable they are. I've just cut an Ash tree down, and my daughter stuck it on her Facebook site. Within 5 minutes she had about 10 messages wanting to buy the logs. Ash is really easy to sell.

 

[Craig-H]

Blimey... I didn't realise how much wood costs. I've never really given it a great deal of thought, just picking up smaller bags when I need them and so you don't really appreciate the cost. I'll keep my eye out - thanks!