One of my relatives uses an open fireplace for heating during the winter, using a mixture of coal and wood. The wood is effectively free. The fireplace doesn't seem to produce a lot of heat, and I've read that a woodburning stove might be much more effective, by virtue of drawing less cold air into the house and sending less heat up the chimney. I have some questions:
The regularly-swept chimney copes fine with the mixture of wood and coal burnt in the fireplace, so is it likely be be OK with a wood stove, if suitably connected? The house is about 20 years old.
The house is in a rural area, but there are a few houses nearby. Is the exhaust from a woodstove likely to cause more nuisance to them than that from the fireplace?
An ideas where I can get a cheap stove? I'm hopefully monitoring my local Freecycle group, but I guess recent energy price rises have made wood stoves very sought-after.
Any other things worth trying?