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Advice on installing a wood burner please

(33 Posts)
LaCrepescule Sun 06-Mar-22 13:57:00

I have gas central heating from a combi boiler which also produces hot water on demand. My house is a small terrace with 3 bedrooms and just me living here although my grown-up daughter will be coming back in the summer. I have a fireplace in the open-plan living room and am considering installing a wood-burner because I’d like to rely on something other than gas for heating. Has anyone else installed a wood burner? Has it saved you much money?

Mamie Sun 06-Mar-22 19:28:41

We have always had them since we moved to France. The one we have now cost 600€ and about the same to install. There are vents in the chimney to heat upstairs. We get logs from a man in the village.
We also have underfloor heating downstairs.
I would buy one with a flat top so you can cook on it if necessary.

Blondiescot Sun 06-Mar-22 19:31:10

We got one a few years ago and love it. We rarely have our heating on now. Fortunately we live in a rural area and we are surrounded by woodland, so we have an abundant supply of free wood. We have a number of log stores around the garden which are stacked full of wood, enough to keep us going for a good few years.

Washerwoman Sun 06-Mar-22 20:34:22

A factor to consider environmentally also is that foraging for wood is not too bad in very rural areas in small amounts. However on my dog walks I see increasing numbers of people taking more and more wood from our nearby woodland other edge of the suburbs.This has a massive impact on the health of woods and wildlife and the balance of nature as decomposing matter is vital . The Woodland Trust and other conservation groups have highlighted this is an increasing problem.I recently saw a man reverse his pick up over a fallen wall and start loading up lots of logs.We have a log burner but we buy in dried and seasoned wood.

3dognight Sun 06-Mar-22 21:12:12

Some people don’t understand how dry wood needs to be and that’s a problem. I agree that can cause air pollution.

I agree people can thoughtlessly take wood. Anything in a state of decomposition, however small should be left where it is.
This year we found a south facing sloped plantation of forestry regimented planting. It was a monoculture, every twenty yards or so a three metre high birch had died where it stood. Or fallen in winds and was bone dry. You could take a thin three metre birch trunk and it would snap into three or four with little handling. The soggy wet fallen birch or whatever or too wet. Unless you have space to dry it.

I live in Sherwood Forest, so surrounded.

BlueBalou Mon 07-Mar-22 06:40:56

I’m having one installed this week, it’s an eco approved one and there’s a local supplier of kiln dried wood who delivers and stacks so that’s sorted too.
I am really looking forward to having one again!

nanna8 Mon 07-Mar-22 06:43:47

I love them. You aren’t allowed to have them in the new builds but we have an older house so we can. Nothing nicer than huddling over a wood fire, especially if the wood is ‘free’!

Blondiescot Mon 07-Mar-22 07:44:26

Maybe I should have made it clear in my post that my husband doesn't simply 'forage' for free wood. We know all the local landowners well and in fact, a few actually contact us when they have fallen trees or similar which they want rid of. One local estate manager regularly phones my OH when they are carrying out tree felling so he can then go and collect all the 'leftovers'. We have several log stores around the garden to let the wood dry out before we use it.