Log Burner v Multi Fuel Stove FAQ

Considering the cost of replacing the chimney liner, i would tend to whatever was going to treat it the most kindly.

We had a pure wood burner (Esse 100) put in in 2012, with the chimney being lined and insulated with vermiculite (sp?) and have been 100% satisfied. The previous open fire put out essentially no heat at all; the Esse nominally gives 5kW and heats a chunk of the house. Not sure where you'd buy coal from anyway, these days.

Near us is the Romney, Hythe, & Dymchurch Railway (15" gauge,

I'd have thought that would depend on what fuel you have locally. Do you have your own / a local source of logs? Is it your primary source of heat or just an additional nice-to-have?

Given that there's no major uses of coal any more (no mines, no power stations, probably shortly to be no blast furnaces) I can't see coal having much of a future. I'm sure you'll still be able to get it, but at a price.

Not sure how the 'artificial coal' briquettes compare. I suspect they aren't cheap.

Theo

A coal merchant maybe? :-) They still exist.

I assume you've read this:

More information here:

Just out of interest, do you have a free supply of wood/logs? If not, you might find that it costs almost as much as gas to heat a house with wood. Some slightly out-of-date info here:

You will have the cost of the stove (£500 - £2500) and installation (£700 - £3000) up front, and at least once a year you'll have to have the chimney swept (around £100). If you have to buy logs, you're looking at around £150 a cubic metre. Remember that although there may be a good cost saving on heating the room you use most of the day, if you want to heat other rooms and water, that will eat into any savings.

In message <vtbjiq$tubk$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, Jeff Layman snipped-for-privacy@invalid.invalid writes

Yes, thanks. I should have said that we are in NE Scotland where solid fuel is seen as essential.

No gas here. We have oil fired central heating, but do need a little extra particularly during a cold winter.

We are already paying for logs and coal for an open fire, although accept that running a stove will be more expensive, but it is (or will be) in the largest room in the house. Given that we are replacing an open fire, with 80 per cent of the heat going up the chimney, it may be that, at least in that room, we will be able to turn the radiators down a little, and save the odd litre of oil.

Go multi-fuel

In my experience burning logs can give you a relatively fast heat but will not last overnight on a low setting. Coal will last overnight on a low setting giving you a background heat.

You need to have the chimney liner swept every year.

Burn hardwood logs* and smokeless fuel. You may/will find that burning rubbish wood (treated wood etc.) does more damage to the liner or will produce more deposits that stick to the inside of the liner.

You might consider getting a multi-fuel stove which can burn "coal" as well as wood, even if you plan mostly to burn wood - for the same reason that people take their driving test in a manual car even if they plan to drive automatics: it gives you the choice, just in case.

Note that I referred to "coal" in inverted commas. Sadly the smokeless coal which is sold nowadays is (IMHO) not of saleable quality compared with proper coal which you could buy until a few years ago. It is

Stick to wood - oak, beech/birch etc. In our stove, we get a fire which gives out a lot of heat. We use sawdust bricks to help with lighting and wax-impregnated wood-shavings lighting blocks. Sometimes we burn peat bricks as well as wood, because these stay alight for a long time so if we are going out and want the fire to stay in for when we get back, we put some peat bricks on it, and the fire slumbers but stays hot enough to get going again very quickly once we put wood on again.

If you need a stove that is rated over a certain kW, you need to have vents to admit enough ambient air for the fuel to burn properly. Go for a stove which takes its air intake from outside via a flue, if possible, because that means you don't need air bricks in the wall of the room that contains the stove, which let in cold draughts that rather nullify the heat from the stove!

They are crap, to use a technical term, in my experience. Very difficult to light, needing a very hot base of wood to get them going, and they don't give out much heat. Proper "full fat" coal, when you could get it, in the same stove, was a doddle to light and gave out far more heat.

I suspect they aren't cheap. It always seems ironic that you have to pay more for coal which has had some of its "goodness" burnt off under controlled pollution-free conditions, rendering it a poor imitation of real coal.

We get oak and birch delivered either as a pallet of bags or else loose in a high-rise pallet which contains the wood until you need to transfer a load to the stove.

We are lucky enough that we had a few fallen, felled or pruned trees - mainly willow, some cedar - over the years, and that supplements the wood that we buy. We let it season for a year or so before burning it so we are not burning green wood. The exception is dead trees which can be burned immediately because the sap has already dried out.

We have a room where we can store our own wood once it has been seasoned, and a covered but well ventilated area nearby where green wood cam be stacked while it is drying out. We use it in rotation. Guess who has the job of cutting it with the chainsaw into stove-sized pieces, stacking it for seasoning and then moving it under cover. ;-)

We only burn wood but went with a multi fuel stove. Partly because it keeps the option of using briquettes open but mostly because having a “bottom draught” facility makes lighting a doodle.

That said, there are good wood burning stoves that I’m sure are easy to light but I think having a bottom draught facility makes life easier.

If I were buying again I would look more closely at how well it’s designed to contain ash. Ours spills ash over our hearth all the time and is a bit messy.

Tim

I found a place near me advertising firewood. Its a recyclers and its £20 for a van load. I emptied my Kangoo and filled it up..had to get a £1600shed to store it..trying to save money costs a packet!

Our free log supply ran out at the start of winter and I started using the Phurnacite left by the previous house owner. As you say, very difficult to light. They were also difficult to keep alight (well, glowing), and produced large amounts of heavy ash. I wondered if they were made of coal dust and cement! In the morning I found a lot of unburnt and partially-burnt briquettes in the stove.

You can still purchase and use Anthracite as it naturally produces little smoke and is definitely a real coal. Like the products derived from it such as phurnacite it can be hard to light. From my experience in using a couple of different styles of multifuel stoves those that are wider than they are tall are better with coal products as more air can be bottom fed to the bed and they don’t clog up as easily. Those that are square or taller than they are wide seem mainly to be primarily wood stoves with a grate added. They can cope with some solid fuel to keep some warmth to wake up to but used from say mid afternoon need an ash clean by mid evening. Ash clean can mean opening the bottom air to max so it roars and drags the ash up the Lum and away which may not be popular with neighbours and risks damaging liner or chimney.

GH

Presumably if you have an open fire you should be allowed a wood/multi fuel burner. I'm told that wood burners don't need to get air from underneath the fuel but multifuel does. IMHO it's not practical to try to keep them burning all night. I have a small 5kw multifuel burner in my shed (concrete panel garage) with a plain 5' metal flue. I have, due to inattention, had the bottom of the flue glowing bright red with no problems. We also have a 5kw multifuel burner in the bungalow. As already stated anything over 5kw requires an air brick or equivalent. We burn only seasoned hard wood. After an hour we have to open the living room door & the heat is enough to make a 24' passage plus a kitchen & bathroom comfortable. A back boiler will suck out all the heat until the water gets up to a suitable temperature. They are very slow to respond. As a generalisation, the better the chimney draw, especially on still days, the easier they are to control.

In message snipped-for-privacy@brightview.co.uk>, NY snipped-for-privacy@privacy.net writes

Just out of interest, do you burn logs as is, or do you split them? On our open fire, I tend to burn unsplit logs, up to around 4 inches diameter.

Regarding coal, here in Aberdeenshire, we still have a local and busy coal merchant, who still delivers off a traditional flat bed lorry, sacks on shoulders. Up until perhaps five years ago, sacks were traditional open, but are now sealed plastic.

We buy and burn a mixture of ordinary coal and ovoids. The ovoids really need coal alight first to get going, but once burning, give off a lot of heat and last a long time.

No idea what ovoids actually are, or where the coal comes from.

In message <vtdc6n$5psk$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, wasbit

All very useful - thank you.

Yes, I have been told that logs burn better in a log stove rather than multi fuel stove, as the logs need a solid bottom and a layer of ash to burn on. How true that is, I don't know. We don't have a problem burning logs on our open fire, but there is usually the remains of glowing coal/ovoids below the logs.

There are some good designs out there. A friends multi can be lit very easily with logs. One sheet of screwed up newspaper, half a dozen "morning sticks" and a few of the smaller logs and after approx 10 minutes well alight for the insertion of larger logs. When using coal the fire is lit with logs and allowed to get to the stage where there is a bed of orange glowing wood embers, the coal is then put on top of this bed.

With wood the ash pan gets full after around 3 long afternoon/evenings. With coal the ash pan gets full overnight.

Suspiciously too cheap. Wood that has been treated may not be too good for your burner and flue and may be illegal due to toxic emissions.