Electric or Gas fireplace or wood burner!

Hmm, well I am thinking of getting rid of our defunct gas fire and opening up the fireplace so when it's really cold can burn low smoke wood .and coal.
Things are being turned off here.

I love a wood stove and had one for many years but wouldn't put a new one in now because of climate change. For the same reason I wouldn't select gas. I'd go for electric now I'm afraid.

Isn’t electricity four times more expensive than gas?
We have a wood burner which we use when it’s really cold.otherwuse it’s gas CH.

No gas where we are and, being rural, the electricity supply can be iffy in bad weather. So a wood burner for us, to make sure there's some heating even if the power goes off.

If I was somewhere with a more reliable supply I'd probably go for one of those electric fake woodburners if it fitted the rest of the decor. Before we moved we had gas fires, which were efficient.

We have an open log fire but our main heating is a gas fire which looks pretty realistic with flames and logs. The open fire was great when we had power cuts recently but you have to sit very close to it to get warm.

We had an open log/ coal fire and yes you have to sit on top of it to feel the heat, but our 5 kw burner heats not only the room it’s in, which is a decent size, but we have to open the door as it can still be too hot and it heats through the house. We wouldn’t go back to an open fire.

We have open fires but in a study/ living room we have a gas fire that looks just like a wood burner, it was about £1200 fitted but worth every penny.

In my old house, we had gas central heating + an electric fake log burner in the seldom used front Living Room and an open fire in the much used back living room. With the back gate opening out to a woodland it took only a couple of hours a week to collect fallen sticks and dead branches and another half hour to break or saw them up ready for the open fire. The open fire had a back boiler so produced hot water as well. We also had a chimenia (spelling??) on the patio which we lit on cool evenings and was a godsend for boiling a kettle, etc during the odd power cut.

I have been missing my 'wooding' since moving to my small, no chimney flat, but recently discovered that the new owners of my cottage have reopened the fire in the front living room and installed a log burner, so now when out walking I still collect dead wood and drop it over their fence for them.

Log effect gas in lounge. Bliss. Electric log effect wall flushed in living room. Effective.

Geanny23 we did just as you did when we relied on the woodburner, but as it was burning constantly we bought in green wood from the local estate and sawed, split and seasoned it. It was fabulous as we had only the woodburner and a storage heater.
I also miss it.
Happy days.
There was no gas in our hamlet and we had no central heating.

Even so, I wouldn't do it again if I had a stable electric supply. We know so much more now and electricity can (and will) be cleaner than fossil fuels - even with the most advanced domestic stoves.

We had an open fire and decided to try a cast iron wood burner. The difference was like chalk and cheese. The burner produces so much heat almost instantly and we cd also cook on it if need be. The heat goes well through the house. Only down side would be the climate change issues but alternatives are far too expensive just now.

Silvergirl, yes, we cooked on ours too when we had no electricity (and sometimes when we did).
We were very rural and last on the electric and water lines so often has to muddle through.
The stove was enough to warm the whole house a bit, keep the bedroom above quite warm and to make a "far too hot" sitting room if run hot!

I love the look of my open wood fire but it doesn't really heat the room. I am thinking of replacing it with a wood-burner so I can be self-sufficient when the lights go out and cook on it too. I have a woodland area behind my house.

You will notice the difference Grammaretto. We have had ours fir about 5 years and so far have never paid fir wood as we pick it up from friends neighbours and the local woods.

Aog burner has many advantages as pp have said. I don't think I would use ours as much if I was on my own and had to get the logs in and clear out the fire. It depends how fit and able you are.

I love our log burner. We also have a fan at the top which recirculates the warm air making it super toasty. We source free ads for free wood too and stockpile it in the summer months for winter use.

I wouldn’t have a wood burner. We now know that wood smoke contains fine particles as well as pollutants including benzene and formaldehyde. Not stuff you really want to be breathing in as it can harm the heart and lungs.

Enid101

I wouldn’t have a wood burner. We now know that wood smoke contains fine particles as well as pollutants including benzene and formaldehyde. Not stuff you really want to be breathing in as it can harm the heart and lungs.

You don’t breathe very much in at all if you have a log burner Enid101, it’s an enclosed system. An open fire is much more likely to give you breathing difficulties.

I am sure I read somewhere that a wood burning stove produced more pollution than an HGV truck and were likely to be banned in the near future.
Electricity is much more expensive than gas unless you produce your own but gas is going to be phased out.

I've got gas central heating, and a really nice electric fire in the living room for occasional use, the odd cool evening etc. I'm very happy with that, but worried about affording it next winter of course. I think it will be blankets and hot water bottles then.

We have oil central heating and a wood burner in the living room. The room gets warm very quickly so we often open all the doors and the warmth circulates around the house. Only electricity here so can’t have gas at all.

You make the future sound very depressing Esspee!
Where my DD lived in Aberdeenshire, the council houses are all having their fires removed and replaced by electricity. In last winter's storms, power cuts left many without anything at all in some cases for 2 weeks in the depths of winter
Surely it shouldn't be a one size fits all approach when looking at powering the nation in future.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-60861923

I am about to replace my gas boiler. All the advice so far, and I have had impartial advice from Home Energy Scotland, has been for another gas boiler. Seemingly gas will not be phased out in the next 20 years.

casdon yes you are right wood burners are better than open fires but there is no getting away from the fact that wood burners emit minute particles into the air which you then breathe in and it takes up to three months for your body to process. If you have a new one which meets the 2022 standards it’s safer but I wouldn’t take the risk with my health or my family’s.

If you buy a modern wood burner and use it as recommended there should be very few dangerous particles escaping into the atmosphere.

Before doing so however, do remember to find out what the local regulations are for the use of solid fuel stoves and contact the local chimney sweep to have your chimney checked. There is no point in ´buying a stove and then being told that extensive and expensive repairs to the chimney will have to be carried out in order for you to use the stove.

With the present rise in fuel prices, wood for stoves has gone up too, but it is probably still one of the cheaper ways of keeping warm.

If you have a garden, twigs, fir cones etc. can be used for kindling and any branches you prune off trees can be left to dry for a full year and then sawn or chopped into logs.

All wood for firing must be completely dry before use, otherwise you risk a build-up of soot that is dangerous.

You must also never burn varnish, painted or wood that has been impregnated against rot, as these will release dangerous particles into the air.