While we wait for progress on the outside of our house here’s some info about our stove. Our wood-burning stove was installed earlier this year, in March (just before Easter).
Why burn wood?
Burning wood is carbon neutral as it gives out carbon dioxide that it absorbed when growing.
This is especially the case as we’re hoping to be able to run it from local waste wood – this would otherwise have been left to rot or burned on a bonfire so we’re releasing that CO2 for a good use in heating our home instead of wasting it.
Waste wood
Our waste wood is made up of branches pruned/pollarded from local trees and (non-treated) packaging and off-cuts. A good example of this is that our new cooker was delivered in a protective pine framework. This has now been carefully saved to keep us warm in the winter (it’s currently living in the greenhouse!)
We also collected quite a few logs from the grounds of our church when they were pollarded which, together with the prunings from our rather overgrown garden, may see us through the winter.
Why have a stove?
The wood burner is extremely efficient. Burning wood in an open grate, as we did previously, is incredibly wasteful. Not only does around 80% of the heat disappear up the chimney when you’re using it, but other heat from the room (e.g. from the central heating) is sucked up the chimney too. Modern stoves should be over 70% efficient – meaning that 70% of the heat that they give out stays in the room.
Which stove?
We chose the Clearview Pioneer in the end. It wasn’t actually our first choice but as we’re not very knowledgeable about the installation of these sorts of things, we wanted to get a company that would both supply and install the stove. We also wanted a stove with low emissions (the particulate sort) that could be used in a smokeless zone.
http://www.clearviewstoves.com/pioneer400.htm
The result:
We’re really impressed with the stove. It feels really amazing to have a heat control on a fire. The special wheel restricts the air flow when you want the fire to burn more slowly. Also, it lights far more easily than an open fire because the draught from the chimney is being channelled up through the grate.
This little stove can just about heat our whole house – the layout of our house make this possible as most of the rooms just lead into one another and when the room gets really hot, we can open the door to send the heat straight upstairs. We did a 40 hour energy blackout at Easter and managed to survive without the central heating. The second day it seemed much harder – we wondered why until we looked outside and saw the snow. It probably wouldn’t have been a problem even then if we had had a reasonable stock of dry wood!
Next winter should be easier as our insulation will keep the house cosier for longer with less fuel.
. . . . . .
We’re not getting rid of the gas central heating. We’re planning to use it in the mornings (timers are very useful); sometimes in the evenings (especially when we’re really busy/tired/unwell). I’ll report back on how the first winter goes…
But this still leaves one problem – what shall we do with the old garden incinerator?
Perhaps we can use it to grow potatoes now???!!
