fire

Hi everybody now you might not believe this question But im moving soon to a house that has a very large back garden with no near neibors to speak of, and im seriously wondering if anybody has a log or multifuel burner system and if so are they any good as i will have room for a good size  wild life area just for wildlife  and a  growing to cut and burn tree area on i think its a 7 year turn around  recycle basis has anyone ever done this please as  the property weve looked at has oil fired  C/H and one has a big ugly gas container, any advise would be good

Cheers and good luck ,Alan

We have a woodstove that feed 2 radiators. We also have oil fired CH to come on in the ams before we're up but after that it's mostly down the wood. If you don't mind getting up to a not so warm house and making up fires before breakfast i should think you'd have a winner, certainly financially sound.

We're too old for cold morning house now.

We run just a log burner - lovely - we use the logs chopped ffrom tree removal - when we moved in. they have to be stored to season before use though. have been running it for a year now.

You can get some that run heat as well, some modrn, some cottagy style. Advice is to shop around you will be surprised at difference in price for both fitting and for the stove. We did not go the internet route as found photos misleading.

We have 2 log burners. If you fill them up at night and leave on low they last until the morning. I am lucky in that I own a bit of woodland and someone has been tidying it up to allow in more light. He takes half the wood and I have the other half. But log shifting is quite hard work.

We have a multi fuel burner but tend to use just logs, we used to run it day and night when we built house, really dried the plaster out.
We have oil central heating too but tend to only run when it is cold , rely on burner at night otherwise. We also have solar for our hot water when sun shines .

Hello Alan4711,
I have a piazetta 905e mutlifuel wood burner and it puts out between 9-14 KWtt per hr. the only wood I steer clear of is soft wood (all conifers) as they create chimney tar which can ignite and treated wood. This little poem may help you choose your wood.
Beech wood fires burn bright and clear,
If the logs are kept a year.
Oaken logs burn steadily,
If the wood is old and dry.
But ash dry or ash green,
Makes a fire fit for a queen.


Logs of birch wood burn too fast,
There???s a fire that will not last!
Chestnut???s only good , they say,
If for long it???s laid away.
But ash new or ash old
Is fit for a queen with a crown of gold!

Poplar makes a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke!
It is by the Irish said,
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a queen with a golden crown.


Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
Even the very flames are cold.
Apple logs will fill your room,
With an incense -like perfume.
But ash wet or ash dry
For a queen to warm her slippers by!

You can get LPG tanks which are sited underground - the only downside (appearance-wise) is that the lid they're usually supplied with is a really vivid shade of green which blends in with nothing!  It would be relatively easy to conceal it by using a planter or something - however people often don't seem to do that so maybe it's not advisable.  Most modern oil tanks are a darker shade so don't look quite so bad.  I think there's a problem if you choose to rely on any solid fuel as the sole source for central heating but there are systems which can utiise the extra heat from a solid-fuel stove.  I don't think you'd be able to keep up with the supply/demand of wood from your own land unless you have a huge acreage!

If you are able to consider a completely new installation ref heating, perhaps you'd google "ground source central heating".  I think this is probably only viable if you have a sufficiently large plot - but I wish I'd been able to have it installed.

On an almost daily basis I meet people (through the course of my work) who want to have a log-burner but who aren't used to the practicalities of it all.  They don't consider the cost of logs in the first place - the delivery and storage issues - and the fact that there would be many occasions when they'd miss the convenience of having an automatic timed system.   Not nice coming home to a cold house in the middle of winter!  Having said that, I do burn logs (on an open fire in the sitting room) but the cost is rising all the time.  Last half-trailer-load was £70 and I have to barrow/stack them myself.  Takes most of an afternoon & it's a real problem if the weather's wet & I have to cover the whole load where it's been dumped, and then move the logs under cover later on.

I recently had to go to an empty house which had a log burner in the sitting room.  There was a small mesh sack of logs on the hearth - the sort & size you often see for sale on garage forecourts round here.  I was astonished to see that the sack was printed with instructions as to how to light a fire - starting with "get a newspaper, tear it into strips, and make them into balls .......... put these in a pile in the fire-grate and put some kindling sticks in the form of a wigwam on top of them................

It didn't actually tell you how to strike a match!