I’ll repeat, I’ve never been anywhere you need to burn stuff in a fire, in an actual house to keep warm.
Then you’ve a very different upbringing from one that i recognise, Every single house/cottage i grew up in (70’s/80’s) had open fires in all the rooms, and two of the houses had central heating from a Rayburn in the kitchen which never went out/needed 24hr constant feeding with cut peat (very exotic having heating in the rooms without needing to light a fire), as you glibly suggest that oil is a viable method of heating an old cottage then i guess that you have the means to pay for it. I’d like to see you working for minimum return in a very rural highland/island area whilst being able to afford to pay an ever increasing amount of your income on oil for heating.
Most of my mothers family still cut and burn peat up in Argyll for their heating, many others in the area do so as well and during the summer months it is common to see the crofts helping each other out by all pitching in to get the peat cut/dried for the following winter.
I agree it’s unnecessary in areas of mains gas connection as you have alternatives that are reliable and i imagine you also have better insulated modern housing.
I assume you live somewhere where there are alternatives, which makes your point moot.
I suggest you assume nothing
The housing association fitted an air source heating system 7 years ago after removing an open fire with back boiler to feed 6 radiators in my 1 bedroom bungalow as there is no gas supply in my area, it would have better if they insulated my house to a decent standard first but point blank refused to do so. I used to spend £1000/year on electricity as the air source heating is utter shite retrofitted to an 40yr old leaky bungalow so i reopened the fireplace and fitted a multi fuel stove for heating which at least warms the house up and i have an unlimited amount of free firewood/peat, they now want to fit a tesla power wall battery to store cheap off-peak electricity which i imagine is so they can claim “green” credentials and have access to a government grant to do so, personally i’d rather they insulate the walls, under floor, attic and replace the thin 40yr old wooden double glazing which would make much more of a difference.
Ideally i’d do the insulation myself but on my pitiful disability income that is a pipe dream so i’ll continue to burn whatever fits in my fire, mostly well seasoned wood with the occasional chunk of peat