Diary of a Wood Burning Stove!
If you are wondering what the disadvantages of using a wood burning stove as room heating are, well there aren't many! Over the year, if you are able to collect free wood (and this is great if you can) then this may need chopping down to size and stacking to dry, but at least this provides some fresh air and exercise! On a day to day basis, there's really very little to do. It is literally a five minute job to empty the ash tray, clean the glass (check out one of the previous posts about an easy way to do this) and set the fire up ready to light. You do need to keep an eye on it for a short while once it's lit to make sure it takes properly and doesn't go out, but really this doesn't take long. Ok, turning on the central heating might just be flicking a switch, but a real fire is such a homely thing and I can heartily recommend it.
It's also not necessary to stay in the house the whole time the fire is lit. Unlike an open fire, which I personally would be worried about sending sparks flying, the stove is sealed and safe. As long as you have a good hot fire going, you can put a few logs on (and, as we tend to do, also add some eco briquettes which burn more slowly) and go out for a few hours knowing that when you get back it will take little more than adding a fresh log to get the fire blazing again.
I've heard tell that having a stove can make your house more dusty, but to be honest this isn't something I've really noticed, even though dusting is far from a daily occurrence in my house!
All in all, I would say, don't be put off from having a stove because you think it will be a big hassle. If you have any specific questions, however, feel free to post them here and I'll be happy to try and help.
PREVIOUS DIARY ENTRIES
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!
1 comment:
Interesting post - I have an open fire and assume that a stove will create less dust than this does - may have to give it some thought as dusting is not one of my favourite past times!
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