Woodburners, nice or nasty?

Love it although we haven’t lit it since we moved in in May.

We had a 17th century house with two big wood burners, they were really necessary as the heating system was rubbish.

We were without power once for 3/4 days, I cooked and boiled water on the top of the wood burners using Le Creuset pans.
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JamesandJon33

We too live in an area with no mains gas. Electricity cuts….no lighting no heating .
A wood burner is essential.

Same for me, also it tops up the heat when the central heating is struggling.

We too live in an area with no mains gas. Electricity cuts….no lighting no heating .
A wood burner is essential.

I consider the woodburner to be essential.

We live in a rural area, no mains gas and power cuts common. We have oil central heating, but that doesn't work when the electricity is off.

We need the woodburner, at least for when the power is off, and use kiln-dried logs, not rubbish, to reduce the pollution.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I love my wood fire. I am surrounded by woodland so as the trees pump out oxygen, I can keep warm for nothing.

My DD, who lives in the Scottish Highlands, often depends on her woodstove during frequent power cuts.
At least they can keep warm though it can take hours to boil water.

Every fuel we use has some implications for the environment but I agree that burning wood has recently got a bad name. almost as bad as coal

Not a fan I’m afraid

Our burner is fairly modern but our friends burner is much older and is hard to light. The newer models are more efficient .

I used wood burners for over 20 years. Thee only "faff" was stacking the logs when they were delivered. I kept one going night and day during the winter and it heated radiators and hot water. Cleaned out the ash once a week and chimneys cleaned annually. The ash went on the garden.
Now I live in a a retirement flat - all electric and I miss the cosines and the smell!

I was so glad to move house away from the log burner ,
I dreaded lighting it ,
OH kept burning his hand on it !
There was good heat from it , but I still hated it

Our house is single brick, detached, old and cold. Even with the central heating on. In fact it’s freezing even in summer. Our 5 kw burner is a saviour . We don’t light it every day and always use properly seasoned wood.
When we open the living room door the heat permeates all through the house. It’s easy to light and we would be frozen without it.

ViceVersa

TerriBull

We have one, inherited when we bought this house. We used it a couple of times but it affected my husband's breathing. I don't really like them anyway, not green and too much faffing around to get them going. I remember the performance my parents had in getting a coal fire started when I was a child, good for toasting crumpets, but hard work in the days of no central heating.

Not much 'faffing around' involved here. Put the logs in, add a firelighter, light a match. What's so complicated about that?

Every afternoon after (senior) school when my mother wouldn’t be home until later, one of my jobs was to lay a fire in the sitting room. I used old newspapers, rolled up, to make those twisted zigzags - very efficient firelighters! I had them down to a fine art.
Luckily one room in our house was always warm pre central heating - the breakfast room (off the tiddly scullery kitchen) where the solid fuel boiler was.

I’m getting a gas log-effect burner but would get a wood burner if I wasn’t lazy and didn’t want the pfaf. Apparently they’re very efficient and do a great job of heating draughty old houses so sounds like a sensible alternative.

I live in a rural area with no gas, so the central heating runs on oil. My woodburner is a small eco one that runs on kiln dried wood. It’s lovely, but not as convenient as turning the central heating on.

Most people in my village burn wood, but it doesn’t seem to cause a noticeable pollution problem, although I know the particulates are potentially dangerous.

Since my husband died, it seems less worthwhile lighting the burner for one person and stacking the wood is a bit of a chore so increasingly I don’t bother with it except for visitors or in the case of power cuts.

Also I think my oil central heating is cheaper than buying kiln dried wood!

We have a large fireplace with a gas woodburner look alike at our main home. I want to do away with this one and have a real one installed. As we are open plan down stairs it would warm the whole house.

We love ours at our seaside cottage. Just had a new liner installed so we’re raring to go.

Lots of air here as we overlook the sea one way and open countryside the other way. Our neighbour has one too.

It warms the whole house and it’s so cosy.

We burn dry wood, a free source of heat.

We have a wood burning stove and we love it. We use it instead of the gas central heating in the winter. We only burn dried wood which like others, I check with a moisture metre before using. This means the chimney rarely needs cleaning as there are no soots and the stove is closed so no fumes into the room. Having said that I can very slightly smell smoke when I go outside so I can understand if you were in an urban area with multiple stoves around you there could be a build up.

We have one we use when it’s really cold, it’s a lot of gaff and we wouldn’t really recommend one unless you have a supply of free wood, if you have to buy proper dry wood the cost is more than turning the heating up

I dislike them and the dangerous particles they emit concerns me. Even the latest, supposedly clean ones give off particles.

We love ours, DEFRA approved, very little smoke. All our wood is dried and tested with a moisture metre by us before being burned. We also have the facility to use smokeless fuel, which can keep the stove in all night.

Love mine, had a quality one installed 14 years ago. I only burn kiln dried wood and if you walked past my house when it was in use you wouldn't smell it [or hardly]. One of the best things I've bought.

It's when people burn rubbish/old furniture/tyres and wet or varnished wood etc. that the smell is awful, I agree.

Absolutely love ours. With thee doors open downstairs it warms the whole house. We do have it cleaned and serviced yearly and use properly seasoned wood.On a cold winter day there is nothing better.
When we had some power cuts we warmed soup on it.

Love them, although we only use ours at weekends and at Christmas.

However when we had a winter where the gas was ut off for a fortnight inNovember an the supply was unreliable fr anothe six months, we were only too glad of the wood burner. Not only did it keep us warm, but we lived in an old house with a huge brick chimney and bread oven going up through the centre of the house and the heat from the stove, going up the stack warmed the whole stack, and it accted like a storage heater and the heat from the stack kept the bedrooms warm and dry as well.