Why? Well, aside from the humorous “Why not?” there are excellent reasons why you should go for a wood burning stove installation. Ethical, practical and financial.

Financial

A wood burning stove installation is an investment.  It improves your home, but such an investment needs to pay for itself, to amortise that investment.  First off we need to see how you can minimise that investment. If you have money to throw at it, and really want to have something to brag about, then go for one of the up to the minute German models, which really are amazing and look very futuristic, almost as though they fell off the back of the Starship Enterprise. However for those of us on a more restricted budget, the idea is to get the very best return on that original investment.

Now, having got the best buy you can, we can look at the amortisement of this investment.  A log burner installation changes the whole game plan as to how you heat your house.  An open fire is a very wasteful system, because what few people realise is that all the time it sits there unused, it is spraying warm air into the wild blue yonder.  This is about as fiscally sound as strapping an electric heater to your roof and leaving it switched on. Not. Good. At. All.

OK, so you could put a chimney balloon in the throat of the fireplace while you aren’t using it, and that will make a big difference.  However, the problem hasn’t gone away, because as soon as you light the fire, the heat loss up the chimney steps into overdrive as it tries to keep the countryside warm, an enterprise dedicated to failure and financial ruin.

So, in goes your log burner installation, and instantly the flow up your chimney drops to a mere trickle when the stove isn’t being used.  (That trickle is needed by the way, so don’t try and stop it. It really is insignificant, and it helps keep the flue warm and dry.)

Practical

Next we come to the fuel burned.  Again, an open fire is a hungry beast that requires constant feeding, and is never satisfied.  It takes a LOT of wood to satisfy it, and this of course means a large spend on firewood, and a large shed to keep it in.  For more information on fuels for open fires, read our article.

Now by comparison, the wood burning stove installation is a dainty feeder.  It burns far less per hour, and in addition it gives out way more heat per log than does the profligate open fire. So, your firewood bill goes down twice. Once because it burns less, and the second time because that smaller amount gives out more heat than if it were burned on an open fire. There is of course a third drop, as you need to heat the house less with a stove in place, because the open fire is no longer venting to waste all that expensive warm air.

Ethical

There are also ethical elements. Your log burner installation burns wood, and wood is a carbon neutral fuel.  Today’s heat is yesterday’s sunshine, and today’s smoke is tomorrow’s tree growth.  In addition, because you are buying less wood, that needs less petrol to get it delivered to you and so on.  Plus, a wood fire is nice.  A full woodshed gives you a feeling of satisfaction, and should you drop a log on the carpet, sawdust hoovers straight out.  Coal dust…not so easily!