New house has an open gas fire, looks very nice, probably quite expensive but seemed to hardly kick out any heat and I couldn’t help but think it must be expensive to run.

As Im probably the only one on here without a log burner….Does a decent log burner kick out more heat? How does it work out cost wise? Any one care to recommend one? Big drafts old house that could do with a fire to help out the central heating when it gets really cold

Probably cheaper than CH if you have plentiful access to cheap dry wood, but not if you’re using them both.

FWIW, we had an 8kW burner put in our living room (+ semi open to the kitchen, approx. 80m3 in total) for £2500 – that involved removing old gas fire, supply of new stove, double-skin chimney liner and chimney top. We use it on its own during the day and with the CH at night (old house, no insulation) and it’s great. Probably 4-5 m3 of wood used a year, at a cost of ~£300.

My Mum had an open gas coal effect fire and it was bloody useless. My sons wood burning fire is awesome at kicking out heat. Myself I have an electric wall jobby that looks like a TV and never gets switched on.
A customer replaced his wood burner for a gas equivalent that looked exactly the same with the same KW output. Reason being that the Gas was cheaper per KW hour compared to the price of the wood.

Fix the drafts first. Then insulate the house as best you can.

Then think about a wood burner.

*A wood burner is fantastic thing to keep you warm, but it’s just pissing in the wind (literally) if the house is leaky.

fixing drafts as I go, main culprit is hallway wooden floor like Swiss cheese and some lovely but cold original windows. Floor will have to wait till rewiring is done

We changed a open gas for a wood burner.

Much better.

Like I said, fantastic things.

Gas flame effect fires are much less powerful than a log burner. Look at the KW rating. But much cleaner and more convenient

We once lived for a year in a hose with a real flame gas fire. It ran on propane from a big tank in the garden and cost an absolute fortune to run. I can’t remember how much heat it put out because we couldn’t often justify the expense of putting it on.

Gas fire will probably be just a kW or 2, and much of that will go up the chimney, possibly even more as it sucks warm air from the room.

we moved into a house in the spring time this year that has a stove. ive been dying to light it all summer and i have finally started playing with it the last couple of weekends. i dont know what type it is but its a beautiful older looking cast iron double door stove, i guess 9 or 10 kw looking at similar ones online…

i have discovered that getting a fire going is a dark art, hugely satisfying when its roaring! but i struggle to build a fire that fills the space, i just tend to have a little one going in the middle, if i add logs to either side they dont catch fire… also its takes a fair amount of fuel before it gets really hot? and then its the hot metal that is kicking out the heat like a radiator, rather than the flames – you dont sit in front of it and get that crackly open fire experience… am i doing something wrong?

gas fires are excellent to get heat into a room quickly whereas wood burners take a while to actually kick out eat

My reference is a gad fire for autumn and spring and a wood burner for proper winter when i dont let it go out
If I could only have one it would be gas due to convenience and speed to heat a room and lack of dust/ash.
I would not choose an open gas fire though
You can get gas powered style wood burners – which is what I have – that look ok

Probably depends on your wood supply (free or paid) but I’d always go for wood over gas. Apart from anything else, I like the ritual of lighting the stoves and of processing and handling the logs. We are about to install our fourth stove (three in the house, one in the workshop) but we have access to as much wood as I need from two local landowners so (aside from my labour and the cost of fuel for the saw and log splitter) it if free heat.

If you are in two minds, buy this book… https://www.amazon.co.uk/Norwegian-Wood-Non-fiction-Book-Year/dp/0857052551

am i doing something wrong?

Experimenting is part of the fun.

This is what I’ve discovered. Less paper and card seems to work better in my small stove (probably not an issue for you), which is a shame as I get loads of waste card at work, but think I was smothering the fire, piling loads in.

Don’t skimp on the kindling (look on eBay, phone timber yards etc you should be able to get a builders bag of offcuts for £10-£15, beware tanalised). Also, try leaving more time to Bung bigger logs on after lighting kindling/small logs or more time before closing the door/air. Also logs need air so standing on end or balancing on top works better. I find that some days it’s a struggle to light and keep lit, other days it’ll happen dead easy, I’ve often wondered if it’s to do with wind, weather, humidity, temp dif inside/outside, whatever, improving the draw.

Also I’ve found a flue temp gauge useful, they are good for confirming when the logs are properly going rather than just lots of bluff from paper, card and kindling. Also use mine to indicate when I need to chuck another log in. Although, my stove is small and steel, their usefulness might be different for your type of stove ie big and castiron.

We had 2 coal-effect, gas-fires installed in the fireplaces of our house many years ago – you’re limited on heat output unless you have to put ventilation bricks which is kind of pointless – they were useless as the feeble heat simply went up the chimney. Replaced with a pair of woodburners – only one gets used regularly, the other only if it’s Baltic.

whereas wood burners take a while to actually kick out eat

Older ones perhaps, but the newer ones are amazing at kicking out heat quickly. We fitted a Morso in our last place about 15 years ago and it was a pain to light and get hot. We fitted a Parkray Aspect 4 last winter and it is heating the room after about 15 minutes. And it is also really easy to light – we had our first fire of the year last week and it lit first time with a few sheets of newspaper and some old pallet that I cut down over the summer – no firelighters or anything.

Technically, why can’t a gas fire replicate a wood fire? I.e a closed gas fire box where the box emanates heat and the small chimney allows exhaust gases (or whatever the right term is) to escape?