I know there have been some threads on this recentky but looking at getting one fitted soon, what kind of running costs will I incur? Buying logs, and how long does a log last? How many a day will i need? On average. Thanks for any advice.

Way to many variables to say for sure, for instance how big (what kw stove is it), type of wood, how you run it etc.

For instance, i have a morso squirrel which is rated at 4kw. That will heat a room of around 10ft x 30ft easily. Theres enough heat to warm other romms too. It will use about 15 logs if kept ticking over all day, if they are well seasoned hard wood logs. If is left to burn out, then it will use more logs to start it up again.

As for buying logs, id say maybe about 2 pick up tucks worth to last the winter for us, which was about £160 i believe. Ive not bought wood for the last 2 years though so that has certainly gone up. You can get free stuff though, woodyards often have skip fulls of off cuts that they just throw away (although this is usually pine, which will burn v.fast). Look out for the workmaen who do raodside clearing, Amey and suchlike. They often just chip the tress they fell or give away to the a farmer to sell. They cleared a roundabout of trees just up the road from me, i ended up with about 8 tonnes of birch to split.

Other than wood, there aren’t any running costs really. You shold get them swept, but you can do that yourself easily enough. Ill do mine every 2 years or so. Where we run the stove at full chat quite often, thre isnt a great deal of tar build up. Last year, despite burning a fair bit of green wood, i got about a thimble full of ash out.

One thing i always seem to struggle with is kindling, the pine off cuts are good for that as it easy to light.

string length question that one.

Rather depends on size of fire and whether you’re ragging it or using it on tick over.

my 11kW will use say, 10 logs an evening. No idea how many logs in a load but this is about 1/3 of a £90 load and lasts me about a three weeks I think – when used every night in mid-winter.

Nice looking house stoner, looks very scandinavian 8)

Do you wash your logs stoner??? 😆

Having just a woodburner recently I can honestly say it was money well spent. I think running costs largely depend on your source of wood. Personally I get all my wood from local parks if I see them chopping a tree down I’ll take the van and grab the lot (if they let me). Make sure any wood you burn is dry though-or you could be facing a cost in cleaning/replacing liners more often. People say you should leave seasoned timber for 12+months to dry out. Keep away from treated wood/pallets etc, as it’ll leave a residue in the stove/liner.

If you’re buying logs try to go for hardwood-it will be more expensive but has a higher calorific value and should therefore burn for longer and is apparently better for the stove.Buying a bulk bag of hardwood will cost £85-£100 or for softwood £65+ ish. Buy kiln dried stuff so it has less water content and never buy by weight-go for volume.

I reckon 1 evenings burn will take approx 5 decent size logs on slow burn. We have a 7kw stove, and it heats front room and hallway no problem. And the missus hasn’t turned on the heating yet so it’s got to be good news!

I can’t answer your questions better than those above, but one of the things you need to consider is the quality of wood you use.

Well-seasoned wood is what you need, but buying this in mid-winter is expensive. If you can, the best option by far (assuming you have the space) is to buy unseasoned wood – quite a bit cheaper – and store it for a year to ensure it’s ready for burning. Better yet, look around for felled trees. My son’s school had a load of wood which they didn’t want, so I helped them out by picking up a couple of tonnes from them, and spltting it myself.

You’ll need a decent saw and a maul (wood-splitting axe). For a winter I’d look to get at least a tonne of wood in if you’re planning on using the stove on a daily basis throughout the winter.

Do you wash your logs stoner???

I sand them 🙂

As an aside, Im going to be planting up about 500 willow whips for short rotation fuel coppicing this winter. Wont get much for the first 3 or 4 years, but on a 3 or 4 year rotation I expect to do at least a 1/3 to 1/2 of my wood needs a year – about £100-150 worth.

The whips will cost about £200 to start with.

Hijack here – we’re planning to install one next year as part of a living room makeover.

We don’t have a chimney in the house (60s bungalow), so will need a flue to be installed. What’s the cost of that like?

Also, is there any reason why I shouldn’t site the burner in the corner of the room, facing into the room at an angle?

Budget about £1-1.3k for a flue.

About £100 per metre, £100 per bend and £100 each time you go through a ceiling or roof.

EDIT
So a 5m flue, that goes out through the wall at 45degrees and up the outside of the house with another 45degree kink around the gutter line would be:

5x 100 + 2×100 (through wall) + 2×100 round gutter + 100 for braces and top cap + say 200-300 to fit. = £1200-1300

or

5m flue straight up through the house and out the roof would be:

5×100 + 100 through ceiling + 100 through first floor ceiling + 100 through roof + 100 for storm collar and cap and say £200-300 to fit = £1100-1200

Having lived with a stove for one winter I would just accept the fact that it’s going to cost something to run (unless you can get some free wood) which may or may not be less than your current CH.
Don’t try and justify it on a cost basis, just get one, you’ll love it. It’s hard to put into words but basically lighting the stove on a wet, cold morning is hugely satisfying.
It’s one of those Mastercard things.

stoner – cheers. Doesn’t surprise me.

Am in your neck of the woods (ish) on Sat – going to the Three Kings Inn with my FIL for decent beer and *that* moustache..! 😉

Wait till spring/summer you may get a better deal on installing liner etc.

I tried to take my mate there the other day for point a laff sniggers, but she doesnt open up early enough 🙂

Im only 10 minutes away if you fancy dropping in 😉

I have a morso squirrel 5 kw last years xmas tree and general scrap chopped up pallets provides kindling the days paper makes the fire lighter, i buy about 3 or 4 cubic meters of logs a year at £50 per cubic meter ie big builders bag . I also forage what i can from forests and road side.

We get the chiminey swept every 6 months of use( so once a year) and pay £50 to £60 for that. My drain rods which also can be used to clear / sweep the chimney cost £60 but our sweep does a real good job and issues a certificate which would be esential in the event of an insurance claim in the event of drama.

Stoner how do you get those logs out? do you take them from the top? or are they just for show?

I get Jr to pull them out from the bottom like jenga blocks.
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Theyre not just for show, just gives me more storage and drier air to season them in during summer. Taken from the top. Im 6’4″ 🙂

Im only 10 minutes away if you fancy dropping in

Careful. Me, Mrs North, Baby North, Mr & Mrs North-in-Law and Brother-in-Law North might just take you up on that…. 😉

Actually, I was in Worcester last weekend staying over as part of the charity bike ride I was doing. Lively place on a Saturday night..!

Hardwood Logs Good soruce of firewood here

ach, there’s good hearty family walking to be had across the common 🙂

Worcester…Lively place on a Saturday night..!

Wouldnt know. In my dotage I dont go to discoteques or the talkies anymore.

We’ve just installed a Stovax 8HB, with 8 radiators and a big hot water tank running off the built in back boiler. I’ve just got the electrics left to sort out so that the pump runs automatically when the stove gets upto temperature and then I can box all the pipework in 🙂

We’ve run it a couple of times this past week and the heat output is impressive, it runs on about ten logs or so for an evenings burn which funnily enough was what our open fire used to use, which of course only gave us heat in the one room.

I buy a bit of wood in from local suppliers and then supplement that with wood I collect and chop myself.

Weve got a Villager A series which is a whopper at 14kw max, heats our old 1840s flint cottage completely but being solid stone walls we needed something with a bit of oomph..there are just far too many variables to tell how much wood you will use but if the wood isnt well seasoned you will use alot more to get the same amount of heat, i wouldnt want to be solely buying in all the wood you use by the truckload if you really want to save money as firewood costs are shooting up. As advised above try a few avenues to get your firewood, if you get a decent chainsaw and dont mind logging up your own stuff then free/cheap wood is much easier to come by…and stoner are you sure those logs arent plastic? 🙂

Thanks everyone for the input. Stoner that looks stunning!! Off to look at them this weekend and hopefully place the order.

sorry to disappoint you, but Id be prepared for a long wait for installation. Its one of the busiest times of the year for flue/fire installers. And everyone has a deadline of christmas day – they want a roaring fire for the festivities 🙂

The greatest benefit of real fires is that they send huge amounts of air up the flue so the house will be toasty warm but very well ventilated and never stuffy or damp.

I have a woodwarm clearview stove, its about 9 kw. I burn wood, anthracite, coal etc on it. It’s bloody marvellous – kicks out the heat and looks great. Go for it any aspiring stove owner – the heat is tremendous after a cold wet ride in the middle of winter…

My neighbour swear’s by this fan, he says his house is warmer and use’s less fuel.

http://www.castironfireplacecompany.com/shop/care-products-1/ecofan-800-wood-stove-fan-black-gold.html

echo all good advice so far ,factor in somewhere to store logs to dry out may need fair bit of space, cos free wood can be feast or famine when its about,need to be quick so need suitable vehicle to transport,then there is a chainsaw and safety kit etc and jolly big axe. splitting and stacking logs is so theraputic.

but cracking fire in depths of dark cold winter is just lush:) 🙂

Well the log collection has started! Got a neighbour who is a landscape gardener and has just given me a load of logs and the promise of many more as long as I can take them off site. Just need the burner now! I just hope the wait isn’t too long to get it fitted.

Just installed my stove today, costs are as follows stove £199, flue pipe 29.00, fire cement £7.80, wine £5.00. I used an existing flu from our old open fire. The cheapest quote I was given for installation was £700 for what I just did in a day.

I did seek advice of a guy in my road who I knew was a builder, I went round his house with a bottle of wine and said can I just have 5mins of your time. He then told me exactly what to do and lent me a jackhammer to expose my fireplace.

As a side note do these things actually work?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WOOD-STOVE-FAN-CAFRAMO-ECOFAN-MODEL-812-REPLACES-MODEL-802-NIB-/220849475612?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item336ba7901c#ht_2267wt_952

I want to install one too but we ate at the thinking stage only.

i’ve had 3 or 4 stoves now… my last house had a villager stove which was okay, but too large for the fireplace.

i stuck one of those cheapy chinese stoves in my games room and it was absolutely rubbish… didn’t draw properly at all.

the new house has a clearview stove… absolutely fantastic… faultless even… they are not the cheapest, but when you consider that on an average professional installation you are paying 1/3 for the stove, 1/3 for the flue set-up and 1/3 for the fitting (if you need hire of a cherry picker etc), spending an extra £200 or so on the stove isn’t too bad.

I’ve had a lot of experience with woodburners over the years and I’ve always thought it well worthwhile, never moreso than now, with energy costs increasing and house insulation improving to the point that you no longer need to run the things continuously at full blast to keep the average house warm.
I currently run three big woodburners, not altogether, but the largest is a 35kW thing which looks like a steam engine with the wheels taken off.
Anyway, here’s a few basics that I’d recommend.
1) Dry wood. This is very important. You can do the finishing dry off in the house, as in ‘Stoner’s’ picture, but be aware that all that moisture is being introduced into the house that way (and the earwigs, woodlice and spiders. You really need tp season the wood in a WELL VENTILATED shed, or purpose built cover. There’s no value in laying a tarp over the logs in a heap outdoors. Ideally they should be stacked in such a way that they are well protected from rain, but open to the wind.
2) Research by Jotul indicates that you lose bout 1/3 of the calorific value if the wood is green or unseasoned; worse still if it’s wet.
3) Handling. You will handle every log several times, so anything that streamlines that process, such as a big trunk that you can trundle to the house door, fill, then trundle back in, will save time and hassle. It also means that you can ‘top up’ your indoor wood in dry periods, as opposed to padding back and forwards with armfuls of logs in the rain.
4) Unless you really want to run a wet system, don’t run boilers off a woodstove. The reason for this is that the optimum firebox temperature for wood burning is about 300 – 350 degrees; this is well above the 100 degrees C of the boiler wall temperature. You also have to get the things up above the ‘dew point’ as fast as possible (the point at which acidic gases and tarry products accrete onto the boiler plate. I’m not saying that it can’t be done, it can, but it’s a much trickier business to run such a system efficiently.
5) Line the flue. You can do a smoke test first if you like, to see how good the flue is. Regardless of that, if you burn wet or damp wood, and you get rain ingress into the open top of an unlined flue then it will slowly choke up, and tarry discoloured stains will work their way into the mortar courses of the flue….possibly to reveal themselves on the internal walls of the house at some point in the future. A well lined flue draws better, and this will help with the control of the flue.
6) When lighting, or after loading a warm/hot stove with fresh wood, open it up and run it hard for 10 – 30 minutes (depending on the wood). The point of this is to drive off the moisture / sappy tarry stuff, with plenty air to prevent condensation in the flue, and to get the firebox heat up to the optimum. Only when the wood is well lit and the smoke is no longer white or dirty brown, should the stove be shut down. That way you shut it down with the wood burning well, the firebox at a good temperature, and the wood burns efficiently and maintains a good temperature for a number of hours.
7) Don’t mix wood and coal. Not only is it ‘cheating’, but it’s inefficient in terms of the way those fuels work. Better to switch to a coal burning grate in the stove if you run out of wood for a while.
8)Splitting maul; nothing better.

I apologise if you’re well aware of all that stuff already. If not, I hope some of it helps. Despite having over 30 years of experience burning wood, the simple pleasure of lighting wood fires never really fades. It’s one of the things that I always look forward too as autumn draws in….hope it works out the same for you.

soops – Member
My neighbour swear’s by this fan, he says his house is warmer and use’s less fuel.

http://www.castironfireplacecompany.com/shop/care-products-1/ecofan-800-wood-stove-fan-black-

Is that a Stirling engine fan?

ecofans are peltier/seebeck effect fans (electronic semiconductor driven)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltier_effect#Peltier_effect
I made one

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsE4YtzXZe8[/video]

ahh. Shame 🙁 I guess it is pretty much 100% reliable though if you use a brushless motor.

Here is a nice Stirling engine one:

http://www.stirlingengine.co.uk/ksf22-stove-fan-472-p.asp

[video]http://vimeo.com/7638429[/video]

I think I want a log burner just so I can have a Stirling engine fan on top 😀

check these out
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XURbv2iAK-A[/video]

Have a look at these bad boys too!

http://www.stevedowling.co.uk/dowlingstoves/stoves.html