Log burning stoves

They are a novelty/decorative thing

Not in isolated rural areas they're not. Ours heats our open plan lounge/diner/kitchen and I leave our bedroom door open at night so it heats that as well. We don't have any central heating and only use an oil filled radiator during sub zero temps - timed to come on when the woodburner has gone out around 5am.

I can also cook casseroles, soups and boil water on the top during power cuts.

Well I love mine. Only lit with seasoned oak and birch, when damp and cold. I like the ritual of cleaning, screwing up the newspaper and putting on the sticks, sitting by it while it gets going. I do know they are polluters , but I don't have a car, and haven't flown for nearly forty years, so this is my little luxury.

Love my 'log man' who delivers, every November, six builders bags from his own woodland a few miles away. In fact this is my Christmas present to myself, and we both laugh that I'm so easily pleased!

I love to put on a bit of copper wire, then see the lovely blue and green flames.

Merlot, we used to do the same, open all doors and just keep it going from November to March, but we had a new gas boiler last year, which has brought us abit more up to date.

Wouldn't be without our log burner.
Nothing better on cold winter nights as we've had recently. Dogs love it and sleep in living room all night as its warmest. Thanks to gov for winter fuel payment £200 that buys all the logs we use.

We have a wood burner in the living room. As long as you use decent wood, pollution is low. Love it.

We have one (50 yrs) in our old cottage. No central heating, The log fire provides our hot water and heat. Hot water in warm weather is through a boiler (LPG).

We've almost finished building our new home (eco-friendly) that too will have a log burner but the heat from that and the cooker will go through the heat recovery unit (MVHR) to the rest of the house. We collect our own wood and store it to dry out before burning. Hot water will come from solar thermal on the roof.

Agree with Aggie about the cleaning but the modern burners are so different.

There are an amazing amount of companies here in Cornwall that sell and instal these fires.

A key element which makes log burning stoves far more eco-friendly than gas or electric heaters, is the fuel itself. ... Aside from being carbon neutral, the kinds of emissions given off by burning wood are far less harmful than those given off by fossil fuels.

We put one in 5 years ago after our gas fire died. Only use it on very cold evenings, enjoy this.
It’s reminding me that I bought a diesel car, just before they went from being good to bring very bad ?

Merlotgran, exactly, its my only form of heating. No access for oil, and no gas laid on!

We have just taken ours out. It was in this house when we moved here in 2012. I found it very hard to regulate the heat. It always got too hot in the room and I also found my arthritic knees increasingly made tending to it difficult.

So in the interests of future proofing our home for our older age, we have had a look alike electric stove put in. We can have the flickering flames effect without heat and as our CH is very efficient, this suits us. It may be that we shall use it to warm things up in a cold snap or in spring or summer, when the CH is not on, on cooler evenings.

The pollution aspect also concerned me somewhat, as wood burners are proven to emit particles which are injurious to health. We didn't use ours very often anyway because of the problems mentioned above, but are pleased to be able to claim green credentials from our eco-warrior DGD!

I had one in our previous house and found it so messy, bringing coal in and so on. When we moved here, we paid a fortune for a lookey likey gas fire which looked fantastic but all the heat went up the chimney. So two years ago we had a wood burner installed. I don’t mind cleaning out or laying the fire but every night when I light it, I’m so pleased with it, I love to see it bright and crackling away. We have the central heating on as well and the fire just makes the evening for me. I’m sorry if it’s bad for the environment but it’s good for me!

Incredibly bad for the environment. I expect they will be banned in time.

I'm caring for a very poorly DH at the moment and as he finds the wood burner a comfort I've been lighting it much earlier during the day.

Splitting logs and chopping kindling during the very cold spell is not something I care to repeat but when our supplier, who lives in the village, heard about DH he dropped off a load of smaller split logs plus a large supply of kindling.

Bless his cotton socks!

We live in an area where there's no mains gas and power cuts are common. It's necessary to have something to keep us warm when there's deep snow outside!

We buy properly seasoned wood when we can and that's less polluting, although we do scavenge for wood too.

I’m so pleased I’m not on my own, some of your comments make me want to rush straight home and light my fire.
Log fire, cup of tea, good book, I’m in heaven.

Awfully bad for asthmatics. My son has one and I’m constantly coughing and spluttering when I’m there ...

We have one in the garden workshop, we make mini briquettes from shredded waste paper for fuel. We shred any paper not suitable for the recycling collection.

Two winters ago we had problems with our gas supply. First time round we were without gas for over a week. Then intermittently, a couple of days at a time throughout the winter. We were very, very glad of our wood burner.

Modern gas central heating boilers need electricity as well as gas to work. We had two days recentlywithout power because of work being done to the electricity supply. so our only heating was the wood burner.

Not only did it heat the house, I cooked on it as well. I had a kettle on it most of the time for hot water and put a cast iron casserole on it and cooked lunch as well.

The smell can be lovely but they are a big source of pollution.
If you live in an isolated location its not so bad but I live in a country town and when my neighbours light theirs I have to run round closing all my windows or else my house smells like a disater zone and my husbands lungs play up and he ends up coughing until he bleeds.

A little consideration would go a long way but I think thats something else that died along with common sense.

We have under floor heating from an air source heat pump so the house is toasty but we do light the little log burner in the sitting room for a few hours on very cold nights just to feel cosy. We then end up opening the doors to the hall cos it’s too damned hot.
We use our own ash trees, three year old dried wood rotated. With two rotten trees taken down last year we’ll be okay for a good while.
We are well away from the nearest hamlet and have no immediate neighbours, although we have a new neighbour arriving on Thursday to do up the derelict house next door. The prevailing wind will take any smoke away from her.
We use it very occasionally and only for an evening in the dead of winter when it’s unlikely that people will be walking out in the dark or have windows open.

I had a log burner installed nearly 40 yrs ago, and subsequently bought a house with one in a smokeless zone. We used briquettes from the garage I think I had no idea I was ahead of my time!

When compared to gas and electricity equivalents, which produce 0.198 kg and 0.517 kg of CO2 per kWh respectively, modern wood burning stoves only produce 0.008 kg.

If it’s the only heating you have, I guess it’s better than getting hypothermia. But otherwise, I see wood-burning stoves as risky apparatus which can damage your lungs and pollute the environment. I wouldn’t want one in the house if I still had children at home, and I’d consider it a serious risk to anyone elderly or with a history of asthma or a risk of lung disease.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/18/wood-burners-triple-harmful-indoor-air-pollution-study-finds?

Not many people use a wood stove for primary heating. They are usually used intermittently on cold evenings or weekend afternoons.

I doubt the occasional use of a wood stove does more damage to one's lungs than living in a big conurbation and breathing in pollution 24/7.

I grew up with proper fireplaces and loved it.

However, I do not like a wood burner. Our neighbours have theirs going sept to June. It drives me bananas as I think I’m allergic, and have to close all my windows.

But, I don’t pay for their heat bill so I just get on with it

Ours have always had very long flues, I think the local council requires that. They burn pretty hot and if we didn’t have wood around we probably wouldn’t (excuse the pun) bother buying it because they go through it quite quickly. The modern one we have now is more efficient, it doesn’t take a lot of cleaning as it is just very fine ash. We also have an open fire at home but that rips through wood so we only use it if we have people round because it looks cosy.

We have a big house and because we're often dashing about during the day it's not worth having the central heating on except for an hour in the mornings to air the rooms. In the evenings we light the log fire and leave the sitting room door open when it get too warm. All but one of our children also have log burners in their homes. It's the look and feel of 'home'.

And how else do you make your toasted marshmallows?