Electric or Gas fireplace or wood burner!

www.clearskiesmark.org/about-us/certification-system-explained/
May help you choose a stove that has certification that has looked at
CO – Carbon Monoxide
PM – Particulate Matter
OGC – Organic Gaseous Compounds
NOx – Nitrogen Oxide

I am in a new build and have a flue for a stove, also connections ready for gas or electric. I had a modern stovax put in, fully conforming to the new regs, multi fuel. Sweep is actually coming tomorrow. Most particle problems seem to come from old stoves and from burning un-seasoned wood, also from having the stove burn at too low a temperature

I put a flue thermometer on the flue, to help me get the optimum temperature for clean burning. I still have some kiln dried logs stored, also a stash of bord na nona briquettes, which I will not be replacing. My coal bunker is full of smokeless anthracite eggs and I have a few more sacks in the garage. It has been trial and error to get the cleanest, most efficient fuel but I will, eventually, only be using the smokeless eggs

My flue is straight up with no bends. Last house had a bendy flue and the fire cement sealing the joints, would sometimes crack. I could then smell the wood smoke while the wood pellet stove heated up. There was no smoke when it was up to temperature. Same with any stove or fire, slow burn with wood, will produce particles and the worst for that is wood that is damp deep inside ie not properly seasoned

Mine is a modern multi fuel burner, and I use a mixture of seasoned wood (3 years+) andsmokeless coal, luckily I have a big garden so plenty of storage space for logs). This keeps particle emissions to the minimum. I wouldn’t be without it, I live in the country, with no gas, and an electricity supply that is not reliable in the winter.

Grandtante is right about the soot but it's also the resins that become a fire risk.
We had a woodstore rotation of 2 years as some wood is much greener than you think.
If you are keeping it burning day and night it will use a lot of wood. Ours took quite large logs so less cutting, splitting and sawing but I know someone who apparently runs his boiler on smaller stuff and even woodchip waste.

BTW, our chimney was checked with a video camera.

Yes, please do have a chimney inspection first before you decide what to do.
We considered putting our woodstove in our dining room when we moved here 20 years ago but the chimney repair and lining work was £4,000 then. It was an imported stove with internal baffles which recirculated the air for maximum burn and other features which at the time were "cutting edge" but it probably wouldn't meet new standards. I really loved it though. Such a treat to always have one room warm, to air nappies and clothes in front of it overnight. Makes me feel very fuzzy inside - the same way I feel about my family home's Aga cooker.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.