Do I want a wood burning heater?

[mik]

Mrs mik fancies one (for the living room).

We can probably get a large percentage of the wood we’d use from a combination of locale + trusty chainsaw + trusty axe.

Any reason not to?

[Swervin_Mervin]

The environment or summat.

But fuck that cos they're great. Totally pointless in a well insulated house with CH, but there's nothing quite like the heat from one on a cold night.

[jamcg]

Main considerations are can I be arsed to clean it out all the time and also am I man enough to easily start a fire every time Mrs. Mik orders it put on because she’ll never do either of those things. They are worth it if you answer yes/yes though.

Make sure you get it installed by a Hetas registered company/installer though. What many people fail to understand with solid fuel is how dangerous it can be- it can put out levels of carbon monoxide that would condemn a gas appliance 10 times over, yet no one has the same fear of CO poisoning from solid fuel that people have with gas fires

[Broccers]

I wood say choosing the right size is important. Pub put a bigger one inn a few weeks ago and its effing boiling in there. Which is good as we can't afford to heat our homes, us northerners.

[dinny_g]

My dads got two in his place and they’re awesome.

He has two tracts of Peat Bog so fuel is free. Local lads cut it each year in return for supplies, there’s loads left over to exchange for logs and the rest is given to local oldies to top up the fuel allowance.

[Ascender]

We got one in the main room and it's amazing. Like @Broccers says, once you actually speak to someone who knows what they're doing your'll realise you only need one about half the size you thought.

In our case it's made the living room the focus of the house and it's really nice at night to have it on. Even during the day this time of year we'll have it on most of the day and just be working from that room.

They're pretty low maintenance, just scooping out the ash before you put it on and occasionally give it a decent clean.

The dogs absolutely love it too, put the burner on and that's them settled for the day basically.

One of the best things we've ever done to the house.

[Delphi]

They've shot up in price. In-laws got one couple of years ago - £1500. You're looking at £5k now for one.

[Mito Man]

Yes, you do want a stove.
The man maths thing would be to tell Mrs Mik she won't like it as it will make the house dusty and then fit one in your man shed yourself for peanuts. Glass of your favourite beverage, fire roaring with the wood you butchered yourself, sharpening the chainsaw blades and roasting those chestnuts you gathered earlier on it. Fucking bliss.

[Beany]

Also good for warning up mince pies at Christmas.

I've got one but I never use it outside of a very rare occasion because it's a pain in the neck, but sometimes it is nice to fire up and read a book beside it.

[integrale_evo]

We’re getting one in the barn because everyone loved sitting around the open fire in the old farmhouse.

Rest of the house will be airsource so will be nice to have something toasty to come in out of the cold and sit in front of.

As said, they don’t seem to be cheap though.

[Shlergen]

Diesel heater ftw. Run on used oils and very cost efficient. Looking at one for the garage/office.

[mik]

Diesel heater ftw. Run on used oils and very cost efficient. Looking at one for the garage/office.

Had one (or my late dad did). Gave it to Flewy who got it running properly to keep his workshop toasty.

Not exactly the kinda thing I’d want in the living room.

[simon_g]

I'll be contrary, previous owners put one in the lounge and I'll be getting rid when I redecorate in there. Used it a bit when we first moved in but it's been unused for years now.

Too much heat output even in a badly insulated 30s house. Faff to clean and fuel it. Horrible effect on air quality. There's a reason everyone went to central heating.

Different prospect with a properly sized one, in the middle of nowhere, with an abundance of free logs to burn.

[mik]

I'll be contrary, previous owners put one in the lounge and I'll be getting rid when I redecorate in there. Horrible effect on air quality.

Interesting - cheers. Comment on air quality related to smoke/fumes, or just the stuffyness due to excess heat? We are considering something along the lines of this, so in theory "zero" smoke should get into the room.

[Simon]

No.

I've a feeling that wood burning heaters will become the next 'pine paneling' over the next few years.

[Mito Man]

I'll be contrary, previous owners put one in the lounge and I'll be getting rid when I redecorate in there. Horrible effect on air quality.

Interesting - cheers. Comment on air quality related to smoke/fumes, or just the stuffyness due to excess heat? We are considering something along the lines of this, so in theory "zero" smoke should get into the room.

The issue is whenever you open the door to add more logs small particulates are released into your home, and at the same time releasing them continuously into the environment through the chimney.

[mik]

The issue is whenever you open the door to add more logs small particulates are released into your home, and at the same time releasing them continuously into the environment through the chimney.

Yeah I was aware of the particulates issue - makes sense that you get some of that in your room when loading etc. cheers.

[Jobbo]

No.

I've a feeling that wood burning heaters will become the next 'pine paneling' over the next few years.

Dion Dublin was surprised to find one on Homes Under The Hammer on Saturday. In the kitchen.



That'd be coming straight out. I don't like them, personally. I had one (an old Parkray) in the National Trust cottage I rented 20-25 years ago and used it only a couple of times. It's a faff to light, clean out the ash etc and it was too warm despite the house being generally quite cold. You can't just turn it on and off like central heating, they aren't airtight (they need air to work) so definitely affect the air quality in the house and they take up a lot of space. I still like an open fireplace as a focal point but I'm happy to put a couple of candles in there for atmosphere and turn up the thermostat on the heating.

[Swervin_Mervin]

Not sure on the point you're trying to make about being airtight - they'll draw air in from the room, not out, until you open the door.

Regarding particulates into the room - crack the door a little before adding any more logs, to equalise the pressure - like you'd burp a kamado grill. Reduces the back flow of particulates out of the stove.

Regarding particulates into the environment, there's a lot of misinformation on both sides from whatever I've read. Lots of scare stories about how bad they are, based on misinterpreted data, and lots of info from the industry on how amazing they are. Burn properly dry wood in a modern clean burn stove and they won't be too bad, is probably the balanced view.

They're not really a faff to clean at all. Every now and again you might need to empty the ash pan (probably every couple of weeks for us if we use it every day), but hold your breath and move it slowly into your ash bin/bin bag and that's fine. Otherwise a quick hoover around for any ash that's blown about when opening. And get it swept once a year. That's the extent of any faffage. You should empty the ash too often as, if you're only burning wood, then a good bed of ash is beneficial to the burn. That ash can go in your compost providing it is only wood ash.

You'll need to spend a bit though. A modern clean burn stove will set you back a couple of grand, and then there's the flue liner which might be another grand on top. Get it fitted by a HETAS approved installer and it should then be registered with your local building regs as well. May also need to declare it to the insurer - ours doesn't give a stuff though.

Depending on the space you're looking to heat, anything from 5-8kW should suffice. Our 5kW one will heat our snug/kitchen/dining room space more than enough. And if you get too hot you can turn them down/shut them off, by closing the air vent. Once up to heat we typically knock ours back and it will tickover for hours - one log on ours last night (4" square of something very dense and heavy!) lasted probably 3-4hrs.

[dinny_g]

To be fair, my Dad doesn't really need the burner but he didn't want an open fire. But at the same time, liked the fireplace look so needed to put something there. It was a new build so 2 fires just became line items on the plan

The Central heating is plenty warm enough to heat the living room but my mother and he are in their late 70's so feel the cold.

I don't think my aunt has lit her fire in years. She has her own "Kitchen/Living room" in on the other side of the house