You forgot to mention that your clothes always smell like firewood and at some point you inevitably run out of wood in the middle of the night and have to go out and search and freeze your xxx off. Oh, and the rooms farthest from the stove are colder; wood stoves don't have thermostats to keep each room the same temperature!
We have two wood burning stoves. Wood burning is our sole source of heat. We never fill the oil tanks, even though we have a hot water-generated oil fuel tank and radiators throughout the house. Why? Wood burning is cheaper; but it's a lot of work!
We had a house fire this winter due to a fire in the chimney. We put the fire out, but apparently it had heated the wooden beams in the attic to the point that they simmered all night and caught full fire by the next afternoon, and we had no idea.
Also, keep in mind you have to have a certified chimney sweep clean and provide a facture EVERY YEAR so that if there is a problem insurance will pay.
Finally, I would add that I LOVE my wood stoves, but we are in our 40s. As we get older I imagine it will be harder to keep up with the hard work of burning wood for warmth. Some days I wouldn't trade it; and some days I would give anything to just turn up the thermostat.
Hello. I've been restoring and selling french antique woodburners to clients in the UK since 2006. I have a website with lots of links about fitting and practical aspects all from the UK, so all in English. http://frenchstoves.webs.com/ecoreasons.htm
If I had money to invest, I would get a newer efficient stove with an ecofan of some type...or an electric fan to divert the chimney heat back into the rooms. I would also use a back boiler, integrated with a passive solar water panel to provide all the heat for radiators in the rest of the house.
Some modern stoves are so efficient, especially those with catalytic convertors, that hardly any smoke is produced. They burn clean and have far less chopping, dusting and carrying of wood for your euro than older models. You get what you pay for generally. for the very least effort, pellet stoves are best.
There's also heat exchangers to consider though, these days, if you have money to invest and you want to save energy and ensure low bills in the future, heat exchangers are a very exciting way to go.
My absolute favorite chimney and stove designs though, are these masonry heaters. They are just so beautiful, efficient and will keep the visitors impressed forever. http://www.mha-net.org/html/gallery.htm
I have just had a Godin "Golden" installed by company in Beziers, and I am very happy with the result. We elected to have a new flu installed that runs up through the middle of the house that supplies a small amount of heat to the floors above. All of the interior flu above the original room are now insulated so that even at full, blast it is no more than about 50 C to the touch. There is a system called Pugolat which is quite plug and play but not so cheap "prix public" in my case there were 10m to be installed to get to the top and that is where your price can really go up, we went with a pro as the cost of materials to me was only about 1.5 K less than having the experts install . I would investigate further as to whether your chimney stack may still be there behind some plaster board even if the actual fireplace has been removed. Venting straight to the outside may be your only option but the flu is obliged to go all the way to the roof anyway and you will be loosing heat that could be diffused at other levels of your house. The tubing they put inside your old chimney is a much cheaper option usually.
PS I think to qualify for the credit impot you have to have an older system removed when you have the installation done OR of course an installer who is happy to say that was the case. Good luck
We had a woodburner (Jotul F600) installed about 6 years ago by a local specialist supplier. The total cost was approx. 4500 Euros .... this included everything i.e the cost of the stove, installation of a flue liner and a vent/cap on the existing chimney. In my opinion, it was money well spent. Our winter electricty bills have fallen considerably and most importantly now the house is warm. We run the stove 24/7 between November and mid March and use about 12 sters of logs a year. Around here, 50cm dry logs (Oak or Beech) cost around 50 Euros per ster - You have to be careful when buying the logs because the "cowboys" often short deliver and try to pass-off inferior quality wood - I learned who to use and what to buy by talking to my neighbours.
We bought the stove with the biggest output we could find ... it just seemed logical at the time and has worked out well.
Reading through this thread there are quite a few opinions, I contacted our insurers and they have no requirement for a pro ramoneur to clean the chimney so I do it myself. When NASA need to call in a ramoneur then I will deem it too difficult, until then I just write down when I do it each year. Keeping the chimney clean also depends on what you burn and how you burn it. All night burns will generally coat the liner and full burns will help to remove deposits. How you light the fire has a bearing too. There was a comment on the cost of fire lighters. Try lighting using the top down method and you will not only light quicker but you won't keep on opening the fire after some kindling size bits have burnt. Top down works and allows you to completely fill the stove in one go. Because it heats the flue quickly you get a better draw immediately which gets the whole fire up and running in no time and gives a cleaner burn. It's not me in the video LoL
I was thinking back to my first wood burner installation which I think would have been 1984. I went out looking for regulations for building safety and eventually got something from the BSI. I had a look last night to see if I still have it, which I do not unfortunately. I believe one of the things it listed was that wood burners reduce the risk of house fires by around 80% (back then, remember) and that with flue pipes (the flexi stuff did not exist, so it was solid steel flues then) the risk was even lower. I am simply adding this because the clauses insurance companies here and certainly in the UK throw in regarding installation are quite obviously designed to work in their favour. If using a regular, open fire is just part of normal insurance but only a 'properly' installed burner must be evidenced seems such an obvious contradiction that I simply wonder if it is not just a money spinner and fire claims will, as always, be subject to the fire service inspector's report anyway rather than some bits of paper that might well have gone up in flames with your house. Call me the suspicious kind, but bearing in mind that all one gets is a company's bit of paper but the installer may have no idea and have botched the who thing badly, isn't the fire inspector's report still going to throw blame back into one's own court? Jacquie's comments above say something exactly along the same lines and I get the feeling that others could as easily say the same.
I have a Godin that takes 50cm lengths of wood. It was installed by a "reputable" company, yet a couple of years later my builders were looking at it and advised that the entire flue was substandard and could have caused a fire. As the builders are English and reliable, I believed them. Everything had to be replaced with a stainless steel flue and there was no comeback on the original installers who'd by then gone out of business...
If I regret anything at all, it's that my stove is on an outside wall. I have friends who've theirs on internal walls which are more efficient in terms of heating more of the house If I had the means to do any building work at present, it would be to install another stove in a more central position in the house.
Several years ago some friends renovated a house and installed an enormous Godin with a rather unsighly flue which crossed a couple of rooms. It heated the whole house. As he worked shifts, they managed to keep it alight all winter by ensuring that they each filled it when coming in and going out.
The wood ash goes onto the compost heap.
One hint: keep a bowl of water at the back of your stove, otherwise you'll find the atmosphere becomes very dry.
For the first 3 years we were burning 200l a year in fioul, at the time it was 48c/l. Plus a 2m wide open fire. The heat went straight up the chimney.
in 2009 we went for geothermal heating and spent less per year than we did with fioul but still had the massive chimney.
January 2012 we installed a woodburner and closed the chimney. The difference was instantaneous and were in shorts and t-shirts for the rest of the winter, although we still had a few draught spots from ill-fitting [character] doors and windows.
This year we invested in an "Ecofan" which on top of the burner and silently spins away distributing warm air into the room and not drifting up to the ceiling. we also use less wood.
Love my geothermal for the other rooms, love my wood burner and love my "Ecofan" and, after 6 years in this 1850 farmhouse, I finally love my house in Winter.
In both cases the burners had their own idiosynchracies but the common factor was a powerful heat but a very localised heat. If I was installing one from scratch I would be interested in throwing in a heat distribution system that takes heat from the fire and dumps it into remote rooms via a ducting system.
My current burner does not have much of a "low setting" - I think this boils down to a fairly high minimum air flow rate or a strong pull on the flue. I have learnt to only split the starter logs, the rest go in whole, the more you split a log the higher the surface area and so the faster the burn. These days I cut logs into short sections and these go in whole - in short I control heat output as much by the way I cut the wood as I do using the 'controls' (air vents).
I always remember by Nan saying how much work coal fires were in her day, strangely I have never found the wood burner much work. The ash tray only needs emptying once every four days ( find model with a reasonable capacity ) and we just throw it from whence the wood came so the minerals get back into the soil originally (we are self sustaining in wood).
We shelled out once on a 4,000 euro Canadian logburner (price included installation). It heated practically the whole house and we never once regretted the money spent. at the moment we have a Godin which cost 800 euros, 12kw. and we hardly ever use our central heating. Just get old oak - a year old min. make sure its cut to lengths to fit your logburner and you will have wonderful heating and something lovely to look at. You can install it yourself if you have simple diy skills, and just make sure you buy the better -and more expensive- flu. Yes you can put the flu out through the wall and take it up, make sure it goes well over the roofline, but if you do this you will probably get quite a lot of black goo running down the flu in the really cold winter months which doesn't look too nice but if its at the back of the house for example it doesn't really matter too much. I would never, ever use electric radiators after one very expensive winter with them!
We imported a Rayburn for the kitchen-central heating for house. It was worth the extra few quid for transport here. All of the fitments are available in France. There is little saved by importing a flue liner, in fact it was a bit cheaper here three years ago and nothing much in the other bits and pieces. The only tricky bit might be if you need any double-walled/insulated sections that are harder to find and much more expensive here but whoever supplies your burner should have.
Whatever, but the story tells EDF's little white one about wanting to use the extra income for alternative energies whereas the Guardian reported the same money raising caper being for 40 projected new nuclear power stations... Don't you just love them?
You should get one of this English wood-burners in the kitchen, - at least there, but then another in the sittingroom (if you don't want to build the fireplace). If you really want to get something for the house that is efficient you can buy one of this Austrian or Swiss "Kachelofen" you can find on ebay. good installed, they will give you enough heat for a 4 room house.
Firstly a log-burner is so much nicer to have as a focal point in the room as well as being an efficient heater. Our lounge is about 18m. by 12m. and we have an 11 kw poêle, which is ample. Secondly it uses about one and a half cords of ready-to-burn logs for a long winter which costs about €330. Ensure logs are from reliable source (ie decent ready-to-burn wood cut to the size of your poêl doors), then there is no problem over little beasties creeping into your house; therefore enabling you to house the logs close to house access, rather than having to carry it in the snow from an abri at the bottom of the garden. Finally, the poêle must be cleaned by an authorised chimney sweep who provides your annual certificate for insurance purposes should your house burn down.
It's worth mentioning that according to the "Connexion" newspaper, electricity prices are going up by about 30% over the next year.
We also installed a wood pellet stove two years ago and are extremely happy with it. Cost wise, initially it was expensive as it is a top end stove and attaches to our central heating radiators. However we now have a warm house all winter and have saved much in terms of gas which previously heated the house. It is cosy, with a lovely flame, little messs, bags easy to store and the stove is programmable so can be set to come on an hour or so before coming home. Much recommended. Our installer is French, owns a small business specialising in these stoves and gives excellent service.