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The Practicalities Of Owning A Stove
CAN I HAVE A STOVE?
There are a few questions that you’ll need to answer to find out if you can fit a stove in your home.
- You need a chimney with a large enough flue to cope with the output you’ll need for your room. If you haven’t got a chimney can you use a twin wall flue system.
- Check the prevailing wind. If it blows back down the chimney you’ll may need to fit a cowl to the top of the chimney.
- If you live in a smoke-control area (check on Smoke Control Areas) look for an approved wood-burning stove.
Providing you have a working chimney or can fit a flue system we can help you get the right stove to meet your needs.
WHAT DO STOVES COST?
Stoves can cost anything from £300 to £2,000, but you could spend up to £6,000 for something very special. Stoves suitable for use in smokeless zones are more expensive, starting at around £750.
WHAT DO THEY BURN?
This will depend the type of stove you buy. Stoves come in three main types, wood burning, multi fuel and pellet stove.
- A wood burning stove is only capable of burning wood due to it's flat base, doesn't have an ash pan or grate.
- A multi fuel stove, these are capable of burning coal, peat or wood.
- A newer and less common type of stove is a pellet stove. Despite been hugely popular in Europe and the USA they are yet to catch on in the UK. Pellet Stoves burn small compressed sawdust and produce a lot of heat.
The most environmentally friendly stoves are wood burning stoves, these are classed as carbon neutral but it is important when burning wood that you burn seasoned dry wood with a maximum moisture content of 20% to ensure you realise the stated efficiencies.
There’s no fire without smoke, many people are starting to be concerned about the levels of particulate pollution produced by wood burning stoves. Throughout the UK there are smoke control areas where it is illegal to burn wood. These are normally in built up towns and city centres.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t have a stove you can either use a multi fuel stove and only burn smokeless coal or if you want wood burning stove there are now stoves that are have been approved by DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) for use in smoke control areas. Wood burning stoves that are exempt from the smoke control restrictions are usually highly efficient.
Follow this link to view our range of DEFRA approved stoves.
