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.

The People Behind The Magic at Drugasar

Today Fires|Fireplace|Stoves is going dutch, no we're not splitting the lunch bill, we're going behind the scenes at Drugasar to see just who is responsible for creating such unqiuely designed fires.

Martyn Graat

“We develop products that continuously meet the highest stipulations and as such retain the level of quality we are used to. Where homes are becoming increasingly better insulated, we offer products for example that still delievr a lovely fire but with less capacity," says Graat.

“Through constant research and development we offer new possibilities year on year which the customer of tomorrow can identify with. 2011 will be a year in which wellbeing and personality are central. A stove can contribute to the home's ambience. The premise: being and living together in a dynamic environment."

Martyn Graat works as a designer at DRU. Aside from designing new products the translation of appealing ambient photography, showroom set-up and designing stands for trade fairs all fall under Graat's remit.

Jeroen van Dijk

Jeroen van Dijk is just one of the architects who serves as a product development sparring partner in the DRU focus group project. With his experience in design and consultation in the field of interiors and smallscale new builds, he comes into daily contact with consumers and their specific interior needs and wishes. Jeroen has regularly placed DRU stoves in his line of work.

‘We consciously work with DRU stoves as the possibilities in model, design, capacity and technique are highly diverse and revolutionary," says Van Dijk.

Roy Bertholet

2architecten came about towards the end of 2008 after a collaboration between Roy Bertholet and Björn Schoeberichts. Based in their office in Eindhoven they worked on a plethora of nationwide projects, ranging from renovations to a private clinic. Roy Berholet is also a sparring partner in the DRU focus groups project.

‘A stove takes its rightful place in your home. It invites you to come and sit by it. A practical advantage is also that you can quickly make the space cosy; which takes longer with underfloor heating or central heating", says Bertholet.

DRU 64 Clean Burn Stove

We've just had this review in from one of our readers, a great review of the DRU64CB wood burning stove:

I spent ages looking at different stoves. Really ages.

I wanted a stove that was capable of heating my 30x16' living room and 15x9' kitchen adjacent, that was really well made, would last for years, had clean contemporary lines yet not be boxy or like a tv set.

I'm really delighted with it, having had it now for 5 weeks, using it every single day.

It is fantastically easy to light. I scrumple up 3 sheets of newspaper, some kindling, a couple of large lumps of wood, and a big old log, light the paper, and shut the door. The whole lot is blazing within a minute or two.

I have found that a mixture of wood and homefire ovals makes for a really good combination. The ovals burn for a long time, and the wood produces the flames. Together they can make a spectacular blaze, really hot, and heat the place very quickly.

The controls really work well. You can damp it right down, for overnight burning. In the morning, the ash contains glowing coals and wood ash. A few sheets of newspaper, or even some kindling and a new log on top, shut the door and again its burning again.

The ovals produce more ash so the pan needs to be emptied daily. When just wood, only once a week or so as combustion is near complete.

If you want to get the fire roaring really quickly and hot, leave the lower ash pan door open for a while.

This stove has a side-opening door too, which is perfect for long logs when the fire is roaring. The brushed stainless steel door handle is removable and it works well, as it is always cool and you don't have to mess around with gloves or warn friends that the handle is hot, but you do sort of have to get used to the best way to orientate it - if I was designing the stove, I would make the handle easier to fit into the hole.

The finish is very nice as standard. The viewing window is really lovely, it's huge, with nicely rounded bow at the top which isn't twee or traditional but simple and perfect to look at. The firebox takes really big logs up to 18" long.

The instructions say that the fire does best to blaze to heat the room up, and then leave it for a while, and then blaze it again, if it isn't too cold outside. I think this is probably correct, rather than leaving it on a slow burn all day long. If you have quite a large firebox, as this is, then having it full and blazing really heats up the sides, whereas a smaller fire in the middle of the firebox doesn't get the cast iron hot enough and I wonder if much of the heat produced in a very small fire in a small firebox may go just up the chimney. It's a joy to see the stove really blaze anyway.

The control for the air flow entering at the base of the fire is very effective, but I have a one criticism, which is that at some low settings, it creates a situation where the dampening of the baffle plate begins to oscillate as just enough air is drawn in, and this can make a funny sound. It's easy enough to tweak it however to lose this.

Would I buy this stove again? Absolutely. I considered the Clearview Vision 500, for almost the same money, but it is a smaller stove (8kW instead of 9-11kW as this is), of steel rather than fully solid cast iron, and I prefer the DRU's design. Visually it is larger too, better suited to a big room.

The airwash really works very well. If it does go black, eg when burning very very slowly, or wood falls against the glass, then I have only ever needed to wipe it with a damp cloth to get it completely clear again.

So I'm very happy and would recommend to anyone else.