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

[Couperman]

Way back in the dim and distant past about 6 years ago I decided to get shot of the naff 70's gas fire and put a proper fire place back in and I installed a gas coal effect fire, well nearly.

 

I never actually got around to having it connected to the gas supply.

 

Whilst it has been extremely cheap to run it doesn't seem to belt out much heat in it's current state.

 

We are now starting to think along the lines of stripping out the unused gas fire, and reverting back to a proper real open firey fire.

 

This is partly due to the fact that gas prices seem to be due to rocket again and partly due to the fact I am a bit of a pyromaniac.

 

We live in a smoke control area but could still burn smokeless fuel.

 

Do you think it is cheaper to run a real fire than a pretendy gas one, and worth the hassle?

 

I was working on the principle that if you have a coal bunker filled in advance you can have a happy proper oldy worldy fire or two without worrying about a monster gas bill next month. And I could do away with the shredder!

 

I just need to have the chimney sweep and then I can fit a traditional set up and toast stuff like my grandad did

 

What do you think?

 

Kev.

[clootie]

I've got real firey fires and have a bunker full of coal. Can't beat it. I think you'll be glad you made the effort and although it can be a pain to clean them out, it's worth it in the end !! Your pocket won't complain either !!

[Plum]

Won't cost you much to run if you are like my parents and it only got lit at christmas or if you were poorly.

A real fire is so special, go for it.

[Redwing]

I love my open fire so am biased!

 

If you can get a cheap supply of smokeless fuel you will be well away.

 

You can get special wood burning stoves that can be used in smoke control areas, they will burn skip dived wood very well so can be run cheaply if you put the effort in (pallets burn well...) and will throw out a lot more heat but obviously cost more to buy and cost more to put in than an open fire!

 

back to the open fire.... I set ours up for under £100, chimney swept, grate bought, coal bucket, wood basket, dustbin for coal, tongs and fireguard - job done (spent the wood burning stove money on the removal van to move house ) I reckon it costs us about £2 a fire in coal, kindling and wood so not a complete bargain but next year will be easier as we have wood seasoning now. Smokeless fuel can be expensive but the good stuff is longer lasting so experiment to find the best value for money - as with anything buying in bulk helps.

 

The open fire chucks out a fair amount of heat, we can heat the downstairs and stairwell so don't heat the downstairs otherwise (but its cold in the mornings brrr!)

 

The thing I do like about it all is that the money is spent and gone so no nasty big bills

 

You can't beat a crackling fire with animals lined up heat worshipping in front of it (blocking the heat, wasting my money, grumble.. )

[Egluntyne]

I love my open fires too. There is nothing like the comforting warmth and the friendly cracking sound.

 

It isn't cheap and there is a bit of work involved.....but it is worth it.

 

When we had our boiler problem at new year, we were so glad that we had the two open fires.

[Guest]

You can get more heat from a woodburner than an open fire so it might be worth thinking about. We love our wood burners!

 

Also DON'T throw your shreddings on there - surely you need them for poo trays? One of my fave forms of recycling!

[Lesley]

I'd go for a multifuel woodburner as well - then you can use wood or coal.

 

They are far more efficient than an open fire - and you can still make toast, roast chestnuts, take the poker to it etc. - all the normal pyromaniac stuff

[WitchHazel]

Another multi fuel stove person here.

 

Apart from the heat benefits (less heat up the chimney. more in your room), they are also much cleaner than an open fire. I've had both, and would go for a stove every time.

 

It's worth talking to one of the fitting companies, as they can advise you on size, options, and cost. You don't have to get a multi fuel one, but we found it was worth the extra so that we can burn logs as well as coal.

[chickenanne]

If you're in a smoke control zone, you probably won't be able to burn logs, only smokeless fuel: but, you could still ahve a stove which are more efficent and create less grot than an open fire. However, they are often more expensive and if you're not using it much it mightn'd be worth it. I have a multifuel which is on every evening, and I love.... am really trying to be unbiased, and failing!

[MedusA]

We've got someone coming round on Thursday to quote us for fitting a multifuel stove. I love my open fire, but as others have said, it's not really very efficient as 80% of the heat goes up the chimney and only 20% into the room. With a stove it's the other way around. Our friends had one put in last year and I am so impressed, I think we will make the switch. As Lesley says, you can still be a pyromaniac, just more efficiently.

 

Quick question. Any recommendations on stove brand?

[Hen Watch]

I would say definately go for it as they look and smell wonderful.

 

There was an open fire in the living room when we moved into our house and in 6 years we've only managed to use it about 20 times. Although hubbie likes the pyromaniac side of things, we were singularily unsucessfull starting fires and keeping them going. So lazy lumoxes that we are, we bought "crackle logs" from Tescos about £2.50 each which you just strike a match to, they burn for 2 hours and crackle like real logs. So a costly option but we just have them as a treat over Christmas.

 

When we do get a proper fire going it is lovely. It heats the living room but doesn't heat the rest of the house though so even if we used it a lot we would not notice a reduction in heating bills. When it's not in use the cold wind whistles down the chimney and makes the room cold, so I really need to get one of those "chimney balloons" or similar to stuff up there and stop that.

[Cinnamon]

We love our woodburner too, which is in our living room.

We do have an open fireplace in the dining room, but it is in the wrong part of the house to be of any use really, so its full of wine at the moment

We are seriously thinking about a much bigger woodburner with a back boiler, to heat all the water too. Especially as we get free wood

[Lesley]

Quick question. Any recommendations on stove brand?

 

We're totally biased! - we have a Scan and it's the best thing we've ever bought!!

 

We started by looking for a British made one but unfortunately they are a few years behind in the 'size and design' aspect. We needed a large stove because of the stupid, overlarge, through fireplace we've inherited

 

The Scandinavians have been using woodburners for years and cater for every size and type of room setting.

 

My sister recently chose a British made woodburner - and the lead time was supposed to be 13 weeks and turned out to be 16 weeks

[The Dogmother]

I'm on the woodburner team Kev - I've had a British made stove for some years now and it's far more economical to run than an open fire as the heat radiates out into the room rather then up the chimney. I get free wood, and have found an outlet for cheaper stove nuts so it doesn't really cost me much at all. I reckon that I have repaid the cost of the stove and fitting in the amount of gas that I have saved.

 

An open fire will still probably be cheaper to run than central heating, especially if you scrounge wood from building sites and skips, it just won't be as effective at heating the house.

 

I suggest that you get a really good sweep in first to inspect your chimney first to see whether it will need lining before you put a stove in, then do the calculations to see which size stove you need as per your room size. There are loads of useful sites online that will help you with this. I got my stove from The Heat Store near Rugby - it was in stock and arrived the next week. See if you can find somewheer that you can see one in action, get to use it and play a bit.

 

I bake taters in mine, toast marshmallows and bread, boil a kettle on top too. I even cooked on it when my oven went up the spout, although cooking in the living room isn't something that I'd want to do regularly. I empty the ash from the tray into an iron ash carrier, let it cool and then use it in the compost or chooks dust bath, so even that gets recycled.

[..lay a little egg for me]

Woodburner fan here too. We have a Franco-Belge which is stylish and much cheaper than the British ones. We had another Belgian make (Duffel, I think it was) in our last house and that was great too. One consideration is how the flue leaves the back of the fire and whether that will be OK with your fireplace arrangement. For example, we did not want to have an 'elbow' in the flue and so looked for a stove that had the flue coming out right at the back of the woodburner rather than in the middle of the top.

 

The great thing about the woodburner is its controllability so you can close the vents to make it burn more slowly if you get too hot or have to go out or leave the room for a while (e.g., whilst eating dinner). Also, no kneeling in front of the open fire holding up sheets of newspaper to try to get the fire going (I regularly used to hold the newspaper there for too long and it would catch fire and be sucked up the chimney

[Tiggy]

we have an old house with an original open fireplace and had the back boiler put back in - so we get free hot water too, we are oficially in a smokless zone but burn logs & smokeless solid fuel, and make logs out of newspaper, it is also a great way to get rid of food waste that cannot be composted or eaten by cats or chickens, bones etc. can be messy & dusty but there is nothing better than a real fire a glass of wine & snuggle up with the cats on a cold night

[Tina C]

Why I am reading this I am going again. I want one.

 

(I only came in here because I thought Kev was planning to shoot someone)

 

Please don't think that means I am bloodthirsty - I thought it was it way of saying he was angry

[chickencam]

Another woodburner person here

 

Best investment we have ever made

 

We also have the multifuel grate for it incase we have to revert to burning smokeless fuel.

[Olly]

Another recent woodburner convert here, as you may know from my post under 'Green Thinking'.

 

I love mine, and I highly recommend Charnwood but they are not the cheapest. If you're only going to use the fire occasionally then maybe just an open fire is your best option, but bear in mind that it's more decorative than heating. Since you haven't used the gas-fire since you installed it, maybe that's not a problem! It's lovely to cosy up in front of, but won't be great at heating the whole room.

 

If you really want an alternative source of heating, then a woodburner is the answer. I love mine, and have spent precisely £0 on fuel so far, well discounting £10 for a cheap handsaw and quite a lot of elbow-grease! (I'm not in a smokeless area though).

 

The other advantage of an open fire is that you and Couperwife can send your letters to Santa up the chimney ....

[The Dogmother]

Tell you what though Olly; chopping wood, chainsawing and sawing are the best exercise

[Olly]

I know, couldn't work out why I was losing weight but an hour sawing every Saturday and Sunday doesn't half get you warmed up! And it's a great way to supervise free-ranging, without getting frozen.

[WitchHazel]

Oh, I forgot to add... if you burn wood (rather than coal), the ashes are extremely useful

(1) for asdding to the chickens' dust bath

(2) as a natural fertiliser (it's high in potassium) around fruit trees and bushes, or to enhance your compost heap.

 

Coal ash isn't any good for the garden, and is not good (according to my Practidal Poultry "Avoid the Vet" book) in the dust bath.

[craftyhunnypie]

It's still cheaper than gas! We bought 3 bags ( big sacks) of coal last week & it cost £42..£14 a bag / sack. That will last us ages. You can't beat a real fire!

No gas & no central heating in our house, I couldn't stand it these days.

Emma.x

[freddie]

You'll never regret a real fire; though the dust.......

I hear woodburners are very effective, but not to get one too big for the space you have, or it gets so hot, the back door gets left open

[Minnie the Moocher]

Woodburner here! *hands up waving*

 

Husband is also a pyromaniac and wouldn't dream of asking me to light it. Suits me, he can kick the logs as much as he likes once they're alight [why?] so long as the fire is warm and crackles cheerily.

 

Go for it, you won't regret it.