Woodburners

A brief look at the background and basics behind wood burning stoves that also considers some of the pros and cons of owning a wood burning stove and the issues involved installing one.

A wood burning stove (or woodburner as they are sometimes and confusingly also known) differs little in principle from a common or garden open fireplace - the principal difference being that it is completely enclosed. The black cast metal fire box that defines the traditional woodburner style now so familiar to most of us has its origins in the Franklin Stove, invented by Benjamin Franklin in the USA about two hundred and fifty years ago.

Being enclosed, woodburners vastly improve combustion and thus are significantly more efficient than an open fire. They also route the smoke to the outside via a stovepipe (frequently installed inside a brick chimney) which further aids distribution of even more heat to the house.

Wood burning stoves come in a bewildering array of designs. First there are fireplace inserts, also called cassette fires or fireboxes (the terminology confusion continues) which provide a way to enclose a regular fireplace behind a glass panel to improve thermal efficiency, cleanliness and safety.

Moving on we find traditional wood burning stoves are typically black, standalone, heavy cast metal boxes attached to a stove pipe that vents to the outside. These can be partly sealed (basic and cheaper versions) or totally airtight. The latter version permits considerably more control and efficiency because the airflow is completely controlled and the fire can thus be regulated (manually or automatically).

Modern woodburners are represented by developments such as state of the art wood pellet stoves. These use manufactured uniformly sized pellets made out of compressed waste sawdust (suitably size graded wood chips may also suffice). Since wood pellets are "pourable" (unlike logs) a great many pellet burning stoves also sport automatic fuel feed hoppers and electronic control systems that makes these wood burners as easy and clean to use as conventional mains gas.

All wood burning stoves function very well as room heaters and for a combination of space heating coupled with the aesthetics of a real fire minus the hassle factor then a wood burning stove takes some beating. Some woodburners also serve as a kitchen range and/or a main hot water heating boiler. These are termed (here we go again with the terminology) wood burning boilers and are easily capable of running the radiators and providing all hot water for a fairly sizeable house.

When it comes down to it, most people are instinctively drawn to a real fire - it's a primitive urge that goes back to cavemen. However, when modern man or woman also realizes that it can make considerably more financial sense to run a wood burning system than using conventional gas, oil or electric heating that really gets them all fired up.

If you also consider the eco-brownie points for using recyclable, renewable, carbon neutral woody biomass (bio-fuel) and recent legislation governing carbon emissions and heat loss it becomes clear that installing a modern wood burning stove very much represents a positive way forward for domestic heating systems. And I didn't yet mention the grants and assorted other incentives associated with wood burners.

On the downside, it's an inescapable fact that unlike gas or electricity, wood fuel needs to be physically delivered (or chopped down even) and stored and loaded into the burner or fuel hopper. In addition, the whole system, including the chimney stack, requires comprehensive cleaning at least once a year and possibly more frequently depending on usage.

Also, unless you live close to a reliable supply of fuel (logs or wood pellets) then any cost savings you might have calculated will simply vanish thanks to the cost of transporting heavy wood biofuel. And there is of course also the expense and disruption that installing a wood burning stove is likely to entail (expect to pay as much again if not more to install your burner) not to mention the aggravation of ensuring compliance with applicable environmental and building regulations.

But if after everything you're still hankering after a woodburner then check out this guide to installing a wood burning stove.