Diary of a Wood Burning Stove!

It's been another couple of weeks since our last diary post, but the wood burning stove has still been seeing plenty of action.  Combined with the mild winter we've been having, using the stove will undoubtedly have saved us money on our heating this winter.  We'll report more on that in due course, but there have been many evenings when the heating would have been on had we not had the fire to keep the chills away.  Of course we've had to pay for some wood for the fire, but we've been stocking up on free wood too.  Spread the word if you do install a wood burning stove as it's surprising how many people have wood available from time to time.

It might seem like an obvious point, but if you have children do invest in a fire guard for your stove.  The stoves get very very hot so it is important to ensure that even slightly older children can't touch the stove even by accident.  We have put a couple of hooks on the wall through which we can position our fire guard so that it can't be knocked over or moved, but this is probably only necessary with inquisitive toddlers, and exactly how you secure it will depend on the design.  We do move ours out of the way once the children are in bed, however, as this does let a little more heat circulate.  Ours is actually second hand so this is something which it is worth looking out for at car boot sales and the like.

If you've got any tips or information you'd like to pass on to our readers about your experiences with a wood burning stove, do comment on this post.

PREVIOUS DIARY ENTRIES

5th January 2012 - Too much draught!
21st December - Christmas Eve plans

13th December - Cleaning blackened glass

5th December - Laundry drying!

21st November - More fuel types and a feathery visitor!

14th November - Trying out some different fuel

7th November - Warming the house

31st October - Cosy living room

12th October - Where to keep all that wood...

19th September 2011 - The first lighting of the season!