Top 10 tips for Reducing Your Heating Costs by Installing a Wood Burning Stove

On freezing winter days like the ones we have managed to almost dodge completely this winter, could there anything nicer than coming in from the cold and curling up in front of a wood-burning stove? Aside from the romantic vision of cups of hot chocolate in front of a glowing stove, did you know that installing a wood-burning stove could potentially reduce your energy bills?

Even with the recent gas and electricity price cuts that have been announced by some of the biggest energy suppliers this week (following their steep price rises last year), it is definitely worth considering alternative forms of home heating to reduce your energy costs and over-reliance on gas and electricity.

So, to give us the low-down on wood-burning stoves and how to maximise our heating whilst minimising our energy bills, the chaps at gr8fires have shared their top 10 tips, plus we have an exclusive offer for all Queen of Easy Green™ readers, see below.

Top 10 tips for Reducing Your Heating Costs by Installing a Wood Burning Stove

1.     Install a wood-burning stove
That’s the inevitable starting point for saving money with a wood-burning stove. This will reduce your heating costs by cutting your reliance on central heating. You can turn off the radiators in rooms that you don’t need to keep warm and use the stove as your main source of heat.
2.     Choose the right stove
Picking the best stove for your needs is essential in helping you to save money. If you don’t fit a stove with a heat output suited to the room, it will reduce your chances of cutting your heating costs. Opting for a more expensive model with a greater output to heat a larger room will pay for the price difference in no time at all.
3.     Consider a wood-burning boiler stove
Installing a boiler stove is one way of further cutting your heating bills. You can use the heat generated by your stove to also heat the water in your home. The dual use of your stove means you can cut your central heating costs even further.
4.     Use properly seasoned wood
The type of wood you use has a huge impact on the efficiency of your stove. Using seasoned wood -which has been cut, split and left to air for at least a year – is the best way to minimise your heating costs. Seasoned wood contains far less moisture, burns more efficiently and heats your home more quickly than freshly cut wood. Use a log store to allow your wood to season and to help you build up a supply that should last you all winter.

5.     Control your stove’s air supply properly
Both the bottom (primary) and top (secondary) air vents should be open when you light your stove. Once the fire is burning well, you should be able to close the primary vent and control the fire using only the secondary vent for a more efficient burn.
6.     Get your chimney swept regularly
As a minimum you should get your chimney swept annually before you start using the stove regularly. Ideally, it should be swept every three to four month when the stove is in regular use.
7.     Use dry kindling to start the fire
Using small pieces of wood to get the fire going will heat your stove more quickly and, as a result, your room will start heat more efficiently once you add logs. The sooner your stove is up to temperature, the sooner the convection process can have an impact on the rest of the room.
8.     Use free wood
One of the best aspects of installing a stove is that you can easily find a supply of free fuel. From saving friends and family from a trip to the tip to salvaging fallen trees from your nearest forest (with the landowner’s permission), there are plenty of opportunities to heat your home for free.
9.     Don’t be tempted to throw another log into the stove. Once you have loaded the stove with logs, don’t continually top up your stove as they burn. Wait until all the logs have been burnt to glowing embers before reloading the stove. Continually adding more wood is considerably less efficient.
10.  Keep the door closed
It is a simple tip, but one that causes unnecessary confusion for many stove users. Once the stove is lit, the door should be closed. This increases the efficiency of the burn by up to 60 per cent.

Does Your Stove Work For You?

 When many people think of a wood burning stove they imagine it heating only one area of the house. However with a little planning and initial disruption, your wood burning stove could heat the entire home, whilst saving a fortune on electric and gas.
Some stoves can be fitted with a back burner that means as you light your stove the hot water tank heats up, from the energy created and fills your radiators with eco fuel that keeps every room in the house toasty warm.
Although initially fitting a wood burning stove with a back boiler can be more disruptive than simply attaching a stove to a chimney, this is an ideal way to heat the home for less, and ensures you get the full benefit of all that heat without opening doors in the home to let the heat travel through.
Even the incredibly contemporary wood-burning stoves such as Firebelly (We found the best prices here) can be ordered and built with an optional back-boiler, and in the 18 different colours you're sure to be able to find a colour you love.
Before back boilers wood burning stoves were huge heavy things, that would be used for cooking, drying clothes, heating water and the home, however just because times have changed and we now rely on oil and gas, it doesn’t mean we can’t learn a thing or two from our ancestors.
Range Cookers, more commonly called Aga's after the brand that made them so successful, are strongly back in fashion, and whilst at the beginning of the twentieth century these were thrown out with the rubbish, now they cost a pretty penny and are a must have for any designer kitchen. Manufacturer's such as Broseley have created some stunning Range Cookers, that allow you to enjoy the warm glow as well as being able to do almost anything. Unlike the Aga's that have hidden everything behind heavy metal doors.
Your wood burning stove can perform the same jobs as an Aga, as there are now so many on the market with extras, that the past is coming into the future.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, scour antique shops and reclamation yards, they will have the old type of wood burning stove that can easily be transformed with an expert hand. These older stoves will have special compartments at the side- a single cast iron cupboard, where you can place slippers to warm or even leave bread to rise. This creates not only warmth in the home, but a delicious smell too, and makes sure that in these winter months there really is no place like our own abode.
If planning a home renovation and the kitchen or study adjoins the lounge, another idea for an open plan feel is to remove the wall where the wood burning stove will go. Some stoves will have glass on both sides, so each room can feel the benefit of the flames as they lick you into a state of relaxed happiness.
With all these features, there’s only one worry left when buying your wood burning stove, how to keep a stockpile of wood big enough! Try growing your own fast growing trees, some only take a year to grow, and as one is chopped down replace with another secure in the knowledge that you really are going green with your energy!

Charnwood SLX Stoves

Charnwood have a superb SLX range of stoves, similar to the Charnwood LA stoves (previously featured), but with added styling and features.
The Charnwood SLX range of stove comes in either the SLX 20, inset or freestanding (outset), or the SLX 45 inset or freestanding.

The SLX 20 is available as purely a room heater, it uses a mixture of multi-fuels and has the option to add a boiler if desired that is capable of heating domestic hot water. The inset stove allows the chimney to be swept through the stove and would be suited to most homes with a class one chimney or flue.
The SLX 45 only comes as a boiler stove and heats up the room, hot water, radiators and is also suitable floor underfloor heating and the chimney can be swept through the inset stove.

The stoves in the SLX range are constructed from steel, cast iron, fire brick and ceramic glass and they feature cool to the touch handles, which prove extremely effective when reloading the stove. Both inset and outset models feature the Charnwood converting grate to help ensure the fuel being burnt receives the correct air flow to burn properly and effectively.

*Click on the images view larger*
Superb design and phenomenal efficiency, certain to be extremely popular this season and into 2012, what do you think? Let us know and we'll publish your comments, (so keep them clean or they won't be seen!).

Charnwood and the LA range

Charnwood is a well established company that is based on the Isle of Wight. Charnwood aim to simplify the real fire process and bring an enduring sense of warmth and satisfaction to the very heart of your home.
Charnwood achieve this by designing and using the latest technology to create the highest heat output and efficiency whilst having the lowest output emissions and product prices available.
Charnwood is the leading suppliers of solid fuel and multifuel products to local authorities and housing associations in the UK. Through this history Charnwood have developed an excellent range of stoves for this sector, specifically for rural areas that do not have the benefit of mains natural gas.
This range is known as the LA Stove range and is available in a number of inset and outset models that are capable of heating boilers and providing heat to the room, radiators and domestic hot water too.
Another great benefit of the LA stoves is that they can burn a mixture of fuels, which is appropriate for most homes.With the LA range is the option to have an inset or outset stove which means they are more suited to more homes. The LA range from Charnwood have differing outputs depending on the model and may be used to heat the room alone, heat domestic hot water and the room or heat a boiler, hot water and the room all in one go.
If you have a Charnwood stove and would like to review it, or for  us to review it for you then please let us know. Look out for more Charnwood product reviews from fires,fireplaces,stoves in the near future.