multifuel log burners

We live in a large old five bedroomed house, so poor insulation and do all our heating with two wood burning stoves. One heats the hot water and a large one that heats the whole house, if we leave the doors open to let the air circulate. If we had to pay for the wood it would cost a fortune but I collect the wood for free from a local pine furniture factory. They are happy for me to take it away especially during the summer when no one else wants it.

The other thing I forgot to say is that you do need to be careful about the wood - that it is very dry and has no wet sap - as in pine and fruit wood, as this clogs up the chimney very quickly. We have ours cleaned more than once a season to be on the safe side - DH has been very surprised to see the amount of build up when I have insisted on having the sweep and he has thought it was fine.

We have a Godin here in France and I just love it - once lit it stays alight for months! I close the vents at night and make sure it is fuelled up and in the morning I give it a bit of a riddle or rake and open the vents - soon have a little blaze going. We use only wood on ours. It will warm the whole of the downstairs and take the chill off our bedroom upstairs. We just have the CH on for about an hour first thing to warm bedrooms and bathroom and if very cold the same in the evening. We use PGL gas here so expensive but last year we did not even use a tankful.
There are regulations about chimney liners now and I think for the stoves they need to be double lined - DS is a Corgi engineer and makes us aware of any safety regulations.
I also have a kettle I stand on the top and it almost gets to boiling even when full - so just a couple of minutes on the hob.

My DH installed ours around 10 years ago and love it. When it is up to temperature I can switch off the heating in the downstairs rooms and leave the sitting room door open and it heats the whole of the ground floor. The only downside (and it is only minor) is cleaning it, but only needs doing once a week (maybe more depending on how often you use it) and storing logs which can take up a lot of space if you get in enough to last the winter. I usually use a firelighter to get it going but after that just logs.

I do have the chimney swept every year just to be on the safe side, although the last time I had it cleaned the sweep said there was very little build up in the chimney. Make sure you get advice from a reputable supplier as there are many different types on the market.

We found a great dealer/installer who talked us through all the options. Went for a small Charnwood as were impressed with the company (they recommended a local installer who was very experienced and who also helped us make the right choices (we live in a non standard house so its important you get good advice if the chimney is complicated or, as in our case, non existent).

Our 'Island' unit keeps us incredibly snug in the winter to the effect we have to keep some of the interior doors open. Once its up to temperature the wood burns very slowly and efficiently (important as logs can get expensive if you don't live in a rural area).

Our DD has one and it is marvellous , gives out so much warmth , quite economical as well I believe .
Also lovely to see the flames licking , laying it is rather nice & old fashioned I think !
We would have one ourselves , but our chimneys were blocked up many moons ago !

We wouldn't be without ours, bichonmad. Do some research on the internet and find out which is the best one for the size of room, dimensions of fireplace etc. Unless your son has fitted one before you need to get it fitted by an experienced 'chimney operative' (eat your heart out, Mary Poppins) or you won't be covered by your house insurance should you have a fire. If your son fits it you will still need a certificate for insurance purposes.

Go for a multifuel rather than a straight woodburner as you can then mix coal and wood but your chimney may need sweeping more often.