West Berkshire & North Hampshire
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Wood burning stoves offer fuel for thought
As the cold weather sets in it’s not just the chill in the air that threatens to bite, but also the effect of those ever-rising utility bills on our purse strings. With utility companies continually announcing price increases now is the perfect time to consider other heating options in order to keep control of the cost of keeping your home warm.
Fitting a wood burning stove in your home and using wood as the main fuel source can slash heating bills significantly, reducing them down to practically nothing at all if you opt to burn waste wood or, even better, wood sourced from your own back garden. Burning with wood can cost as little as 2.5p per kilowatt-hour, compared to as much as 11p per kilowatt-hour when using electricity.
The benefits of heating your home with a woodburning stove stretch far beyond ensuring your home has ample warmth to see you through the winter months, as burning wood is also far less harmful to the environment than conventional fuels such as gas or oil.
Enjoy all the cosiness of an open fire without any of the mess with a Hwam insert stove from Euroheat. The large glass viewing window offers an uninterrupted view of the fire, while the fire itself is simple to refuel and control. Featuring the very latest wood burning technology the stoves burn the wood as efficiently as possible, enabling maximum burning time without the need for constant refuelling. With a generous heat output to keep the home toasty warm, the insert stoves from Hwam retail from around £2,436.
“The heating of our homes can contribute up to 90% of the total greenhouse gases emitted over the lifetime of a house. By choosing to heat our homes with a woodburning stove or boiler rather than gas, oil or coal the effect we have on the environment can be dramatically reduced,” explains Simon Holden.
A wood burning stove makes an attractive addition to any room, with a wide range of both traditional and contemporary models available, and as well as effectively heating the room the stove is a piece of furniture in its own right, becoming a focal point of any space.
“Wood burning stoves come in a wide range of sizes with varying heat outputs depending on the size of the room you wish to heat and are designed to fit anything from small country cottages to open plan houses,” explains Simon Holden, Chairman of Euroheat, a leading distributor of wood burning stoves to the UK market.
A woodburning stove can be sited in virtually any space and is as simple to control as a gas fire, with many models now even coming with a remote control so there’s no need to even leave the comfort of your armchair in order to turn the heat up or down. Different sized stoves are available with varying heat outputs to suit the size of the room, while woodburning boiler stoves can run the entire central heating system, providing ample heat and hot water. Most stoves will burn safely for a number of hours on a low heat, so can be left to heat your home over night or while you are at work.
Ideal for large open plan spaces, the Rika Twist stove rotates a full 360 degrees to ensure all areas of the room are enveloped in warmth. Whether you’re preparing a meal, dining with the family or relaxing in front of the TV at the end of the day, the Twist can also be focused to suit your movements, so you are never left out in the cold. The Rika Twist is priced from £4,048.
While a wood burning stove can suit practically any room of the home, it is important that installation is carried out properly in order to avoid any potential pitfalls. The flue has a vital role to play in the wood burning process, as it removes any unpleasant and potentially harmful gases and vapours straight through the chimney. The flue also supplies fresh air back into the stove to keep the fire burning so it is crucial that the correct flue is fitted in order for the air supply to be delivered consistently and proportionately for the size of the stove. Relying on a sub-standard flue, or one that is not fitted to the correct height not only reduces the energy efficiency of the stove but can also damage the chimney and outer walls, as well as being harmful to the environment.
To make sure the stove you choose will keep the room comfortably warm, check its heat output before purchasing too. A stove with a heat output of around 5kW will keep an average sized room nice and warm. For larger spaces there are models boasting heat outputs of around 10.5kW, which is ideal for open plan rooms. If you want to include a larger model to act as a centrepiece of the room but are worried its heat may be overpowering, opt for a stove that has thermal storage, enabling heat to be released gradually into the room over time without the need for constant re-fuelling, much like a storage heater.
The Hwam 3620 wood burning stove can be wall-mounted to provide ample warmth to practically any room in the home. An uninterrupted view of the fire within can be enjoyed via the large front glass viewing panel, radiating light and warmth around the room. Prices are from £2,784.
Alternatively, a wood pellet stove overcomes the obstacle of storing large wood logs and can be fully automated so it doesn’t need to be re-fuelled manually – simply press the ignition button, sit back and enjoy the warmth from the fire. Some wood pellet stoves can be pre-programmed to ignite at a set time and can even be controlled by your mobile phone so you can always come home to a warm home no matter how cold it is outside.
Euroheat distributes a wide range of wood burning stoves throughout the UK. For stockist details call Euroheat on 01885 491100 or visit www.euroheat.co.uk