Anyone got a log burner?

I love them in theory but I think you need a certain style of house for them to look right. They aren't too messy as long as you are careful and look after it properly. One problem my friend has is storing the logs, it's a pain.

They are quite pricey too.

The last log I dropped was a burner and was rather smelly ?

Oh funky! You do make me laugh!

We have one and given the choice I wouldn't have it. It's really expensive to run as heating for a whole house as the heat doesn't travel uch from the room it's in. Loads of logs are about £60 round here; that would last a couple if weeks if it wasn't too cold. If you also have central heating you really wouldn't need one as your h is right, it can be an hour or more before you feel any year in the room fom it. Reason we keep ours is free wood. In your situation if think it really unlikely that you'll save money on heating. Almost impossible in fact.

There must be different types? My inlaws have one in a big farmhouse and they have a system whereby when the fires roaring it heats up the water in the radiators so literally the whole house gets red hot. This is as well as oil central heating (no gas in village). And its usually pretty quick from lighting to the room getting hot.

FIL gets free wood weekly and is stored outside on a massive pile, so you'd probably need a good area to store. Kitchen companies are a good one to ask to keep back the old kitchen units from jobs. They usually like to give it away.

We had one installed in our new house and we really like it. We use it a fair bit and it is good for heating the dining room. We got it fitted when we had other work done in the house so l am not sure how much it would cost to fit. Bear in mind the cost of the flue eye is often more than the burner itself... It does also make things more dusty.

We had one in a house we rented. Before that we had an open fire, so the log burner was a bit less faff but still a bit of a pain. It can get VERY hot which was good in an old house. It does make more dust and cleaning it out is just another chore I didn't need.

That said it is cosy and lovely to sit and watch and tinker with.

My bil had a gas fire but now switched to a log burner and has one that fits into the old space from the gas fire so it's flush against the wall.. he only had it because of free logs otherwise he said he would have stuck to the old one as it would be cheaper.

We had one in our old house. We don't have one in our new house and we won't get one but that's because it's a new super insulated house and it would be too warm. We would have had huge heating bills in our last house without the wood burner.

pro- cheap/free supplies of wood

pro- heated our old Victorian terrace way more effectively than the heating

pro- stayed warm all night

pro- looked pretty when lit

con- dirty and need cleaning out

con- having to collect fuel

Not sure if a log burner and a stove are the same thing? This is what we have:

Its fantastic and I find it a lot less messy than an open fire. You can hook them up to a back burner for heating rest of house but with the layout of our house, when this is on our bedroom is heated so we just go straight from living room to bedroom in the evenings. We can burn wood, coal, peat etc.

Before we go to bed we set up the airdryer infront of the stove with wet washing on it (so we don't have to look at the washing while enjoying the heat) and by the next morning clothes are dry and we just carry the airdryer upstairs before heading to work to sort the clothes out later.

We have one and we love it but there are a few considerations. An open fire is prettier in my opinion however once lit you can't leave it alone. With our burner we can close the door and pop out for a dog walk or something. Ours gets very warm but can take and hour to heat up. Our house was built in 1740 though so it has no insulation and loses heat very very easily so our central heating never warms the house up and as it's oil it is very expensive. We get free wood from the farm so cannot say how much wood costs but you burn a lot more than you think to keep it warm for a weekend. I think our burner was about £800 and the flue and fitting was about £1000 so initally it can be quite an outgoing. We had to have our chimney inspected etc. too as it is so old but that was only £50 I think.

Thank you so much everyone. There is certainly more to consider than I thought, I need to get some costings and find out about free wood.

Funky......you are so funny!