Will A Wood Burner Save You Money?

It's becoming increasingly popular for people to buy a woodburner to supplement or replace a gas or electric heating system because they simply can’t afford to pay their spiralling fuel bills. Changing to wood-fired heating saves many people a lot of money, but it takes time to recoup your initial investment in savings on fuel bills. The savings available vary, but these are the main points to consider when working out how much money you can save.

Purchase Costs
The most obvious cost is buying the woodburner. Wood burning stoves are available to suit all budgets, but the cheapest woodburners are not the most efficient. Spending a little extra to buy a more efficient stove can be worthwhile to gain savings in fuel costs over time. Bargain hunters tend to buy woodburners on the internet in order to get the cheapest prices. It can take a little work to compare deals properly – make sure the price advertised includes VAT and delivery, and see if there are any special deals on chimney liner or free fitting accessories with the stove. To ensure you have full manufacturers warranty cover on the woodburner, check that you are buying from an authorised retailer. You may also need to buy a chimney liner or flue system and accessories such as a stove pipe or register plate. If you are not sure what you need, get expert advice before you buy.

Installation Costs
Installation costs vary enormously depending what work needs to be done. If you need a flue liner for your chimney or to fit a twinwall flue system because you don’t have a conventional chimney, this will increase your installation costs. Sometimes fireplaces need to be altered for a woodburner to be installed, at an extra and sometimes unexpected cost. It is a good idea to have a stove installation survey from a  before you buy a woodburner – this will give you a clear idea of what work is necessary and the associated costs, as well as giving you an opportunity to get expert advice about what woodburner is most suitable for your requirements.
Running Costs
Research prices for firewood or coal both from local and nationwide suppliers, unless you are lucky enough to have a free source of firewood such as a friendly tree surgeon! To get the best prices on firewood or coal you need to buy in quantity – if you don’t already have a suitable storage area factor this into your budget as well. Demand for woodburners is increasing in the UK, but the Forestry Commission is implementing a program to develop the UK wood fuel industry over the coming years to ensure plenty of quality firewood will be available at reasonable prices. Recommended woodburner maintenance includes having your chimney swept at least once a year and an annual service of the stove by a HETAS qualified engineer – it’s a good idea to allocate some of your budget to cover these expenses.

DEFRA Approved Stoves on the Up

Shropshire-based Broseley Fires says it has seen a 65% increase in sales of its DEFRA approved wood burners over the last 12 months. Product Development Engineer, Tristan Johnston, explains: “The DEFRA regulations that allow approved wood-burning stoves to be used in smoke control areas have proved a real boost to us and we have launched a series of products meeting these strict regulations.

"This has been driven by technological developments that make wood burners easier to install and operate, especially alongside other energy-saving products."

One homeowner to discover the benefits of combining a wood-burning boiler stove with other eco-friendly technology is Joanne Shipp, who has cut her energy bills by two thirds after installing one of Broseley’s acclaimed eVolution 8 boiler stoves. Living in an area near Bristol without mains gas, Joanne was spending around £3000 a year to heat and provide hot water for her six-bedroom, three-storey, restored 17th-century stone farmhouse.

With no end in sight to rising fuel prices Joanne decided to look at more cost-effective, environmentally friendly alternatives and turned to Responsible Energy Management (REM) Ltd for help. The company specialises in helping homeowners to reduce their carbon footprint whilst cutting their energy costs. REM developed a complete system for Joanne, incorporating solar panels and a thermal store alongside the eVolution 8stove.

"The results have been really dramatic," says Joanne. "Although we still use & as a back-up, we expect to save around £2000 a year. We are particularly pleased with the new wood-burning boiler stove. It generates just enough heat to keep the downstairs comfortable and the stone walls also act as radiators, giving off heat long after the wood burner has gone out.

"The thermal store also ensures we always have plenty of hot water. It not only stores the energy from the wood burning stove and or the solar energy, but dissipates this energy to both the domestic hot water and the radiator heating system when required."

According to Denis Kerr of REM, a lot of older stoves can be very wasteful of heat but the latest models, when combined with technology such as solar panels and the very latest thermal stores, can be extremely effective.

"The arrival of products such as the eVolution 8 will mean that a lot more homes could soon be heated using a combination of fuel sources that do not rely on dwindling and expensive resources."

Exempt And Authorised But Not Approved

In the last couple of months, we've heard and written about lots of DEFRA approved stoves for use in smoke control areas and also received a number of emails asking for guidance of what can and can't be done when burning logs.

Unfortunately we're not complete experts in the subject (but we're learning) but having spoken to a number of experts in the field we have quickly learned that we should get our terminology correct.

There's no such thing as smoke control 'approval'. Assuming an appliance satisfies DEFRA's test requirements, it becomes 'exempt'. On a similar basis, a fuel meeting DEFRA requirements becomes 'authorised'.

Assuming it is not against the guidance of the manufacturer, you can burn any 'authorised' fuels in any stove or fireplace in a smoke control area. BUT, and it's a big but, the list of DEFRA 'authorised' fuels does not include wood logs, so if you want to burn wood logs in a smoke control area, you must use a DEFRA 'exempt' appliance.

We strongly recommend you look at www.uksmokecontrolareas.co.uk which provides detailed and in-depth detail of the legislative background to the UK smoke control areas, the general locations of the smoke control areas and list of both exempt appliances and authorised fuels.

Finally, because each governing body has differing mechanisms and timetables relating to legal status and exemption, the lists of exempt appliances and authorised fuels will be different in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

Hillandale Stoves

Hillandale stoves have recently released two ranges of stoves into the industry that are proving to be very popular sellers, these ranges are the Monroe and Monterrey.
Hillandale have given the stoves a number in their title that corresponds to the heat output that they can achieve, for example the Monroe 3 emits up to 3kW of heat and the Monterrey 7 can emit up to 7kW of heat.
All of the stoves in these two ranges are constructed from solid cast iron and have viewing windows that allow you to watch the fire and flames in action. they all have fantastic but differing efficiency ratings too. The 7 models of the Monterrey and the Monroe have 76.3% efficiency, the 5 models have 76.6% efficiency and the smallest 3 models have the largest 81% efficiency. However the Monterrey and the Monroe 3's are not DEFRA approved. Defra approved means that a stove may be used in a smoke controlled area when using smokeless fuels, one of the most readily available and environmentally favorable smokeless fuels is wood, and many manufacturers achieve their output figures from using wood.
As all stoves in the Monterrey and Monroe ranges are multi fuel it means they can all burn solid fuels including coal and peat etc, however the 5 and 7 models are classed as defra approved and can be used in a smoke controlled area when only burning wood and other smokeless fuels.
As standard the Monterrey and Monroe stoves all come ash pans and complementary safety gloves and the stoves are sure to continue making a great impact on the fire industry for the foreseeable future.