4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[little chickadee]

Hi - I know there have been some threads on here with people raving about their woodburners and we are seriously thinking about investing in a really good one so that we don't have to put our heating on too much during the winter. We have an open fire at the moment, but it doesnt' really give all that much heat off. We've got oil fired central heating, so would obviously rather avoid using it as much as possible!

 

I know they are great, but just need some advice as to what to go for and how they can be fitted. I don't really want it sticking out too far into the room, as with youngish children running around that wouldn't be too safe and I don't want it to take up too much room.

 

Also costing - is anyone who has had one fitted willing to disclose in public or in a pm how much it cost them to buy/ have it fitted?

 

Cheers in advance

[Yorkshire Pudding]

In our last house we installed a Firebelly FB1 - it was fantastic. We had to have an old gas fire removed, the new hearth laid and quite a lot of internal work done on the fireplace, plus the chimney lined and cowled. Total cost was I think about £1800 including the stove itself (then about £650) and a big slab of limestone for the hearth. Installation of the stove only took a couple of hours once the rest was done!

 

 

If you already have the lined chimney and fireplace it should cost much less. Beware, some companies will only install a stove if you also buy it from them; we found that was more expensive than sourcing our own stove directly from the manufacturer and finding an independent company to install it. HETAS.co.uk has lists of installers.

 

Edited to add:

We're looking for a stove for our new house (no chimney so we'll have a flue up through the top floor and the roof!). It will have to stand against an inside wall and will take up floor space, so we are looking at cylinder-shaped models with small footprints, also the type that stand on pedestals... but they are eye-bogglingly expensive!

[Gamebird]

We had a cast iron woodburner *Stovax, Huntingdon 35* fitted last February.

 

It fitted into the existing fireplace area but we had to have the old chimney liner removed and a new one installed.

 

The woodburner itself cost about £950 and the fitting was about £400 (including VAT).

 

Obviously the price of the woodburner depends on how big it is and what it's made of - pressed steel is much cheaper.

 

Hope this helps.

[The Dogmother]

I've had mine for yonks LC, so can't remember how much it has cost. I have Villager Chelsea stove, which is exactly the right size for my living room. If you do a lot of online research, then you'll find loads of info about how to calculate which model has the output that is right for your house.

 

I got mine from http://www.heatstoreltd.co.uk/ after seeing the stove and playing with it in another outlet that was more expensive. I'd certainly recommend seeing if you can see one in action and see how easy it is to use before you decide whether it is right for you.. my sister spent a fortune on a very modern one and never uses it because she can't be bothered with cleaning the ash out!

 

You will need to have your chimney checked first (most sweeps will do this) to make sure that it is in a good enough state to handle the heat from a stove. It may need to be lined, which would add to the cost. I have an old house (1897) and have the chimney swept regularly, when they check it out too, and it has never been lined.

 

I use mine all of the winter, using stove nuggets (just a few) to keep the fire in, then free wood from a joiner friend to burn. I wouldn't have considered getting one when Rosie was tiny as the heat that they produce is quite intense, but if you have a good, and big, enough fire guard, you should be OK.

 

I find that the room stat turns off after the stove has been lit for a botu half an hour, so I'm saving gas on the heating. Stoves are far more efficient at heating a room than an open fire.

 

... oh, and the chooks love the ash in their dust bath!

 

You've got my number, so feel free to ring me if you want to ask any more questions.

[chickenlass]

I was lucky enough to buy a second hand one [an Intrepid] ...we then had a local heating company fit it for us. I paid £400 for the stover and then it cost a further £750+ to have it installed. Hope that helps

[Rhapsody]

Ours came with the very very (1485) old house which is drafty as hell with paper-thin walls, we only use the "Ooops, word censored!" storage heaters in the dead of winter I cant recommend any partic. make but would like to say ours has a back boiler= gallons of piping hot water. Fantastic.

[little chickadee]

Cheers guys. I'm relieved to see the £400 price for fitting - I hada horrible feeling it was going to be much more than that. Our chimney isn't lined, but I'll ask around to see who can fit them around here. Time to start browsing internet sites.

[The Dogmother]

The liners can be the expensive part LC, but it's worth doing some research to find a good price.. you never know, you may not need one.

[Shirl]

Ours cost about £2k all in but that included a liner. We bought an Efel Harmony which is green enamel. It is great but we've had to replace the glass on the front which cost about £70 and we've only had it in 5 years.

[Olly]

I'm halfway through having one installed, following Snowy's post on this I decided to look into it. Everyone who had one posted saying how enthusiastic they were about it, and it really made me see it as a possibility. I'm using a local firm, it's being installed in an existing flue but the fireplace had been boarded up and plastered over so there's quite a bit of work to be done.

 

I'm buying a Charnwood Cove 1 - be warned, these are NOT the cheapest stoves around! They look modern, and I really liked the ethical policy of the company, also it's what my local supplier recommended.

 

Here's what I've gleaned from my research: firstly, don't buy one that's too big. It's better to run a small stove at maximum, than to run a large one at half-capacity. Consider whether you'll want to burn anything other than wood - some are able to burn solid fuel as well, others can be adapted quite easily, but bear that in mind. Most new stoves will have a 'clearwash' thingy which means the door shouldn't soot up. Also consider the size of log that it will take - there can be quite a difference depending on the stove.

 

Think about whether you want one that runs a back boiler as well, and if you can adapt your existing system to that. Do you want a flat top, so you can boil a kettle on it? (that's what I'm hoping to do! )

 

Lining the chimney is pretty darn near essential, from what I can make out - it will be safer and much more efficient to do so, the liner insulates the chimney so you lose less heat. Be prepared for the cost of installation to be pretty near as much as the stove.

 

I've already had the fitter round to open up the fireplace, and it was very, very small - which is why I'm now having Cove 1 and not Cove 2! Some fairly serious work is needed to widen it and put in a lintel, however the stove should be more or less set into the fireplace and only projecting slightly. Don't know what sort of fireplace you have, but they are generally set within it - however they do get very, very hot so maybe a fireguard would be advisable. I recall my niece, aged about 3, falling over and putting her outstretched hand on my brother's woodburner ... amazingly, she wasn't badly burned, probably thanks to the swift action of someone who ran to the nearest cold tap with her, but it was a horrible moment.

 

I'm paying (gulp) nearly £3,000 but half of that is the cost of the stove. This wasn't in my budget this year, but a savings account has come up and I've had a small windfall - I'm really hoping to reduce my gas bills. It's worth reading the INEBG forum on Wood Energy, takes a bit of searching but there are some good threads on there from people who've had them installed. This is really worth reading.

 

Good luck, let us know how you get on! I've got to wait another 4 weeks or so for installation but I am very excited about mine.

[buffie]

Thanks Olly. We're looking at those for next Autumn. Wanted to do it this year but next Autun is better for us and need to plan and make some other changes.

 

Buffie x

[mot336]

Hi, we have a clear view 650 multi stove and its fab - had it put in 3 years ago, cost to install was around £300 (we already had flue).

 

We never have central heating on the log burner heats the whole house (open plan) - we are really pleased with it.

[buffie]

Oh I feel a bit but we will wait for next autumn, we're open plan so expect the same, not much need to use heating.

 

I need to find a good fitter next and we also need to have the fireplace altered

 

Buffie x

[Ange1]

Thanks Olly for that link. The expert John, said that the most most effective woodburners in the UK are Clearview stoves, which is great to read as my parents have two in their house and I've always thought 'blimey! They kick out plenty of heat' Now I know why!!

[Gallina]

Beware if you are in a smoke control zone: you have to buy the most expensive kind of wood-burner that satisfies the regulations.

 

And be very careful if you have children: the stoves get so hot that you could cook on top of them. My worse experience was when I put some damp wood on top of the stove to dry it a little, and it caught fire in a very short time. But perhaps you are not as stupid as I am.

[buffie]

Yes I've looked into these so that's another reason to wait and get the right one,

 

Buffie x

[Olly]

My worse experience was when I put some damp wood on top of the stove to dry it a little, and it caught fire in a very short time. But perhaps you are not as stupid as I am.

 

*sigh* I wouldn't bet on it, Gallina! I think drying a tea-towel on top of the gas urn at cub camp is probably my nearest thing to that. Luckily we smelled scorching before it caught light!

 

Good point about the smokeless zone. You can find out quite easily online here.

 

I'm just amazed at how many people already have wood-burners. I can't wait for mine - and of course, then I will be wishing for cold weather so I can light it!

[The Dogmother]

I shall send Rosie round to toast marshmallowws with you then Olly - there's a permanent sticky bit on the hearth in front of our stove from messy marshmallow moments

 

You can cook on them - I have on ours when everything went off at once and the cooker broke down. Not sure that I'd want to cook in the living room all the time though. I do use it to boil a kettle and bake spuds on a regular basis though.

[Tina C]

I wish I had not come in here - I really miss my woodburner and open fires.

 

At least you have a fire Claire - and I remember sitting next to it warming my back at the advanced hen party....

[chickenanne]

We had a clearview in the last house - really good, once it got going, and stayed warm until the following day, but it did take longer to heat up than either my dad's Jotul or the Esse we have in new house. I guess it depends on what time you get home from work as to which is best!!

My sister lives in Canada and has a huge woodburner which her little one (born post-woodburner, now 5) was taught "hot! stay away!" and has never burnt himself; he knows to stay away form it, and when he was tiny used to take great pleasure in pointing at woodburners (ours, Dad's, anyones really) and saying "hotch! hotch!" to everyone in the room, individulaly.

[chickencam]

We have a Stovax Stockton 5 which is quite small but heats our 20'x15' room very well. We had an existing modern stone fireplace and gas fire taken out then the hole in the wall extended and squared off to make an opening for it to fit into. We also had the chimney lined with a flexible liner. We now have no fireplace just a hole in the wall with the stove in it which works in a modern setting our house is 20 years old. All in it cost us about £1,800 pounds done by a local stove fitter and builder. They did a great job and we have not regretted it for a moment. The warmth you get from them is lovely.

 

We have however been lucky to have a friend who is a property developer and we have had loads of offcut roof trusses etc to burn so we have not had to buy too many logs because as with all fuels the price of logs is going up.

[The Dogmother]

Here's my stove:

 

 

I love skip-diving for wood offcuts!

[Olly]

ooh, I'm getting so excited about mine! A friend gave me some sycamore logs yesterday, they are about a year old but need to dry out a bit more.

 

Do you all buy ready-split logs, or do you split your own? Can you burn any sort of wood, Claret, or does it have to be stuff without creosote/varnish etc? I'm going to order some logs so I've got a supply to start off with but I really want to cut costs so I can see I'll be wood-wombling too.

[The Dogmother]

Itr's best to avoid treated wood really, but I've burned tannelised timber before now as any fumes go straight up the flue. I scrounge logs and whole trees then get the chainsaw or big axe out and split them myself. I also get free wood from a joiner friend - that's ready seasoned and the right size too, so a bonus.