Stoves
Wood burning stoves/boilers come in a variety of shapes and sizes and can do everything from heating an entire house to just heating a hallway. Modern wood burning stoves have efficiencies in excess of 70% whereas wood burned in an open fire sends about 80% of the heat up the chimney. Stoves come in many sizes varying from 2.5kW up to 30 kW (and beyond) and can be fitted in most types of properties from a flat in a town centre to a rural farmhouse. Not only do they look great and add character they are a truly renewable solution to heating your home. There is a large range to choose from and depending upon what you want to achieve we will recommend the make and model that is most suitable. As with all Energy Warehouse products we will attempt to source the stove from UK manufacturers.
In considering heating your home a stove should be seen as a serious heating device capable of producing significant reductions in fuel bills whilst providing up to 50% of your homes heating requirements. A correctly specified and installed stove system can pay for itself within two years. The larger stoves/boilers are capable of replacing your current boiler completely and so ending the need to use oil or gas to heat your home.
Buying wood: Always try and buy wood in bulk (much cheaper than bags or nets containing a few logs), try and buy by volume rather than weight and try and buy wood that has had a chance to dry out. Wood should ideally be below 25% moisture content when burnt otherwise it will burn inefficiently. The best types of wood to burn are beech, ash, hawthorn and hornbeam. Soft woods tend to burn quickly and so the heavier and denser the wood the better.
Logs are widely available and increasingly so are wood pellets. The advantage of pellets is that they contain more energy, are easier to handle and can be set up to be automatically fed into a stove.
If you are looking at the boiler option again there is a large range of makes and models. One of the best make we have come across is Guntamatic (made in Austria) which do an excellent range in log burning boilers which are capable of doing all your hot water and central heating needs.
Prices: Log burning stoves will cost between £500 and £1800 depending upon size. As a rough guide for installation one should double the actual stove cost to get an idea of the total installed cost. Log boilers capable of heating a 2500 sq ft house will cost between £4000 and £7000 (again double that figure to get to the total installed cost).
All of our burner installers are HETAS certified and can self-certify their own work - if installed by someone without this certification then a building control officer would be required to certify the work done at extra expense!
