Wood Burners and Stoves
There aren't many things that beat a real fire on a cold day. Load up one of our stoves with well seasoned wood and you'll be toasty warm, as well as saving a packet on your gas or electric bills.
Wood Burners and Stoves from Efficient Light
Energy efficient heating products including wood burners, stoves and electric heating systems and radiators.
Wood burning stoves are becoming more and more popular as more and more home owners are looking for efficient heating options for their homes. The growing interest in wood burner stoves seems unlikely to end soon with the increasing price of gas, oil and electricity.
Things to consider before purchasing a wood burning stove.
To get the best out of your wood burning stoves, you need to consider the following points:
- Chimney - make sure you have a sufficiently large flue to accommodate the necessary air flow (some older chimneys may need to be lined).
- Fuel - wood burning stoves can burn compressed sawdust blocks, wood pellets or the traditional wooden log. If you can burn waste wood, this is a great way to save energy – but avoid anything which has been treated or painted as the coatings can cause problems.
- Heat Output - to heat the space you need to make sure that you have sufficient output from the wood burner stove.
- Insulation - on average, a 1kW output will heat 25 cubic metres in a well insulated home, but reduces to 10 cubic metres in a poorly insulated home. (Insulating Grants)
- Wind - the direction of the prevailing wind is important - a cowl or vent may be necessary if there is a tendency for smoke to be blown back down your chimney.
Why choose a wood burning stove?
There are numerous advantages to using a wood burning stove – to help you get the best out of this fantastic eco-product we've highlighted the main benefits below to make sure you get the right one for your needs -
- Firstly, wood burning stoves are much more efficient than an open grate fire; most draughts in houses with fires are caused by the hot air (that you’ve paid to heat) shooting up the chimney and sucking in cold air from outside to replace it.
- Wood burning stoves are over 80 per cent efficient compared to an open fire which has been estimated to be only around 20 or 25 per cent efficient – an instant and massive saving in energy.
- Wood burning stoves release less than a third of the particulates of a traditional open fire.
- Wood burners still need to be cleaned out ever week or so, but compared to open fires, produce far less dirt and mess in your home. Many of the modern designs also have an air-wash which cleans it for you – so you never need lose the sight of dancing flames again.
- Today’s wood burning stoves can burn round the clock, due to their enclosed design, without the ever-present danger of falling logs setting fire to your house. Having a layer of ash gradually building up on the base actually helps the logs to burn.
- Logs are a sustainable fuel (as long as we keep planting trees) and since they only release the “modern” carbon they took up whilst they grew, unlike fossil fuels that contribute ancient carbon to the air – their net effect on the atmosphere is zero.
- Wood burning stoves with a “clean-burn” or “clean-heat" system, re-circulate the combustible gases given off as the wood burns, increasing the heating benefit and reducing emissions.