Heating bills hurting your budget yet again?

Heating your home is a very costly exercise and the likelihood of it reducing in the near future is almost nil. Here’s a story that may inspire you.

From a client of ours –

“Last winter’s gas bills meant it was time to act. An engineer from Kent Stoves confirmed the idea of installing a woodstove was going to work well for us. We got the old gas fire and pipework removed, measured up our fireplace and started looking for a stove that would fit our relatively small fireplace”.

“We did our homework and got Kent Stoves advice as to the correct wood burner we would need to heat our living area”.

“Two months on, we have slashed our gas and electricity consumption. Although it is a bit early to say with certainty, I estimate we will have cut our bills by £600-£800 this year. We should recoup the cost of the stove and its installation in under three years.

“Meanwhile, we have upgraded the loft insulation – prompted by another article. And, if we keep the stove going all day, it heats the entire house. We still use the central heating to heat the bedrooms if it’s very cold”.

A wood burning stove can save you an awful lot of money and are relatively easy to maintain.

What to do if you want to save money

If you would like to know if you could benefit from a wood burning stove get in contact and one of our qualified fitters (HETAS) registered engineers will guide you in the right direction.

 

Hetas Registered Stove Installers and pointers to look out for when selecting your new wood stove!

A stove that is too small for the room will not be powerful enough to heat the room adequately, on the other hand, if you have a stove that is too large it will need constant attention to keep the temperature down.

A result of this is the combustion within the stove will not be complete and you will quickly have a build-up of soot not just on the glass, but up the chimney as well.

With this in mind, when calculating the required output, a slightly greater output should be considered (no more than 1.5kW), as there will be a greater need for rapid heating in the long dark cold months of winter.

Always fit where possible in a central position in the property.

As you are making a large investment within your home installing a new stove it really will pay to get expert help (HETAS registered) when selecting the stove to meet your needs.

Wood stoves are cleaner and more efficient than you think.

Open fireplaces are great, but they are not very energy efficient at approximately 20%. Wood burning stoves are much more efficient, at around 80%, so you get all the benefits of a real fire without most of your money going up the chimney in smoke!

Only burn mature logs – Vital information for heat and efficiency.

Wood is a far more environmentally friendly fuel than oil, gas and electricity – and subject to far less price rises. Freshly cut wood contains a lot of water, so you should dry it out before you can burn it. This can take as long as 18-24 months.

It is very unwise to burn wet or unseasoned wood as this will cause a soot build up in your chimney and make your burner very dirty.

Can we help?

If you would like assistance selecting and installing a new log burner, please get in touch. One of our HETAS qualified fitters will be happy to help.