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With household energy bills staying stubbornly high while temperatures drop, the once-humble log burner has been flying off the shelves.
More than a quarter of a million units were installed in British homes in the year to July 2023, as homeowners look for cheaper (and more rustic) alternatives to traditional heating systems.
Andy Hill, chair of the Stove Industry Alliance (SIA), said burners have seen a “massive” rise in popularity, fuelled first by Covid and then the war in Ukraine.
“Lots of people were spending their money on home improvements during the pandemic, and then the energy crisis made people look for ways to save money on their bills,” he explained.
“People are also wanting grid-independence. They’re worried that, if the grid goes down, can they heat their homes?”
Wood burners are not without their controversies. Studies point to stoves emitting more pollution than cars in some wealthy areas, while neighbours have complained of selfish stove-owners causing unwelcome smog.
New rules also impose strict standards on the type of fuel that can be burnt, and the specifications of the model itself.
However, if done in the right way, using a stove to heat your home may be the most economical option.
Here, Telegraph Money looks at whether burning wood really can slash your heating bill.
How much do wood burning stoves cost?
A log burner is a long-term investment, and if you’re considering getting one you will need to factor in the price of the unit and installation costs.
The price of a burner can vary from a few hundred pounds to several thousand, depending on the model.
You should expect to pay between £1,200 and £1,500 for a good quality unit from a reputable brand, according to Mr Hill. Luxury designs can cost up to £5,000.
He said: “You should make sure the wood burner meets ‘eco-design’ requirements, a legal standard. Anything being sold on the market now has to meet this.”
Once you have made your purchase, you will need your wood burner to be professionally installed. Costs vary depending on the age of the building and whether it has a chimney.
The typical cost of installing a wood burning stove is £850 to £1,500 if the property already has a chimney, and £1,000 to £2,500 if it doesn’t, according to retailer Bonfire Fireplaces.
The higher price reflects the need to install a flue system. These are essential to help control the fumes the burner gives off, making sure they rise safely.
How much does the fuel cost?
If you are lucky enough to have access to your own supply of firewood, then a wood burner is free to run.
If not, then you will need to buy kiln dried logs. Ash is generally regarded as the best burning wood, although birch, beech, oak and elm can also be used.
A burner uses an average of 3.5 cubic meters of wood if used from mid-October to mid-April in the evenings and at weekends, according to calculations by the SIA.
With a cubic meter of kiln dried logs costing between £120 to £200, this puts the average heating bill for the colder months at between £420 to £700. However, it’s worth noting that most log sellers will give a discount for larger orders.
Can log burners save you money?
The typical household now pays gas and electricity bills of £1,928 a year, after the Ofgem price cap rose by £94 on 1 January 2024.
Research by professional services firm Gemserv shows that using a stove to burn wood can knock off £92 from an annual energy bill, while the Energy Saving Trust found that log burners can cut costs by 10pc.
However, whether you will in fact save money depends on your property, and how you want to use your heating. For example, if you want to heat several rooms in different areas of your house, you probably won’t be able to rely on a log burner alone; alternatively, if your central heating system is particularly efficient, a burner might not be able to beat it.
Another tricky factor is the fact that kiln dried wood and energy prices can change, and often. Energy bills also include standing charges. For example, between November 2022 and June 2023, kiln dried wood logs were cheaper than mains gas per kWh produced. By December 2023 the price of kiln dried logs had crept up to 10.51p/kWh, compared to 9.03p/kWh for mains standard gas and 34.25p/kWh for electricity, plus a daily standing charge of 29.6p.
Mr Hill said: “When gas and electricity prices were high last year, on a like-for-like energy basis, stoves were cheaper.”
However, the heating systems work in very different ways. While log burners can produce residual warmth throughout a property, they are designed to heat a single room, whereas central heating warms the whole house.
“The primary advantage of a stove is that it’s a local space heater. It’s a very cost-effective way to heat a single room. So you’re not heating the whole house, only the area you’re predominantly using.
“We’re not saying that stoves should replace central heating, far from it. But as a secondary source of heating that’s the role they have to play.”
Having a wood burner warming a single room can still reduce heating bills as you could turn off the central heating in this room, or turn it off in the rest of the house while you’re spending time in the room with the log burner.
Another advantage of the wood burner, Mr Hill added, is that it gives you “energy independence” by giving you a heating option in case of power cuts.
“There’s also the sense of general well-being, sitting with your family around the fire, perhaps with a glass of wine,” he said.
How to get the most out of your log burner
Whether or not buying a burner ends up being a shrewd investment can boil down to how well you use it.
Retailer Stove Sellers recommends the following tips to improve the efficiency of your stove:
1. Get the chimney right
The chimney is a vital part of the overall wood burning stove system. It should be at least 2ft taller than the roof, but the stove pipe should be kept to less than 7ft with no more than two bends (or “elbows”).
If it’s longer or more convoluted than that, the smoke can cool too much before it gets to the chimney, which can cause soot and other materials to collect. If left for too long, this could result in a blockage.
2. Keep the chimney clean
A blocked chimney is one of the major reasons why a stove doesn’t work at its absolute best.
Chimneys are designed for smooth airflow, and a heavy layer of deposits on the inside wall will disrupt the air and ensure that your stove isn’t as efficient as it could be.
3. Think about positioning
If you want to heat the whole house and your water supply then make sure your stove is close to the centre of the house for the most efficient heating.
A wood burning stove works best in an open-plan house, and though it might be a step too far to remove interior walls to make the most of your heating system, it may be worth bearing in mind if you’re moving and know you would like a wood burning stove in your new home.
4. Use dry wood
Cheap wood may seem like a bargain, but it can be a false economy if it has a high moisture content that causes a lot of smoke and not enough fire.
Aim for wood with a 15-20pc moisture content and you’ll use less and get a better burn that gets you warmer, faster, and for longer. Expect one split log to last an hour, as a rough approximation.
Check your chimney; if everything is working well you should not see smoke. If it smokes for more than 20 minutes then there is likely a problem with the fuel or something elsewhere in the system.
5. Use the ‘top down’ lighting method
Take several logs and kindling to create a layered “cage” around screwed-up newspaper or firelighters. This allows the heat to escape and creates a draft in the chimney that will help feed the fire.
Keep the air control fully open at this point, and leave the door slightly ajar, then light the paper or lighters from the top and let the flame descend and catch the kindling.
6. Wait, don’t just throw on logs
After 45 minutes to an hour, when you’re left with glowing embers, that’s the time to add more wood, after raking the embers to the front. Use just as much wood as you need, when you need it, for the most efficient fire.
Regulate the air control once the new logs have caught fire to ensure the cleanest possible burn.
7. Make sure it’s cold outside, or warmer inside
You can’t control the weather, but a wood burning stove works better when there’s a larger temperature difference between the outside and inside, as the draft is an essential part of the operation.
If you run the stove on a hot day then the air inlets may shut down, which is not good for the chimney.
Why are wood burners controversial?
Home heating with solid fuels like wood is now estimated to be one of Britain’s main sources of fine particulate matter pollution.
The biggest offender is PM2.5, which can work its way deep into the body via the bloodstream, and has been linked to a range of severe health issues including heart disease, strokes, asthma and cancer. Wood burning is responsible for around 17pc of the pollutant, according to statistics from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
A 2022 study from Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, found that even “eco design” wood burning stoves produced 450 times more toxic air pollution than gas central heating, while older stoves – now banned from sale – produced 3,700 times more.
To cut your emissions, you should make sure that any wood you plan to use in your stove has the “Ready to Burn” label on it – this confirms it has a moisture content of less than 20pc, and meets sulphur and smoke limits.
Store your wood in a dry area and avoid burning anything that has been treated or painted, as this could make your emissions worse.
As well as damaging the environment, your wood burner can also harm relations with your neighbours.
Residents have complained of being exposed to extreme levels of toxic fumes from wood burning in the colder winter months.
Gary Fuller, of the school of public health at Imperial College London, has suggested that in some areas more people can be exposed to air particle pollution from burning stoves than those affected by traffic pollution from busy roads.
But the data shows that the culprits are hard to collar. While 2,524 complaints were submitted to local authorities about residential chimney smoke between 2014 and 2020, it led to just two fines, of £400 and £110.
What are the rules on wood burners?
Despite a multipronged campaign against them by clean air activists, wood burners have not been banned outright.
However, all stoves placed on the market after January 2022 must be “eco design” compliant, which means they meet minimum levels of emissions and efficiency.
If you bought your stove before then, or it was placed on the market before January 2022, this legislation does not apply to you.
In England, as of the summer of 2023, it is illegal to burn coal (excluding smokeless coal, like anthracite) or wet wood in your home. Wood with a moisture content of over 20pc is counted as “wet”.
You are only allowed to burn kiln dried logs, dried logs, or smokeless fuels. But if you live in a “smoke controlled zone”, which includes most major towns and cities in England, you cannot burn wood at all, unless you have a Defra-exempt stove.
Defra-exempt stoves are built to stop wood from smouldering, which reduces the amount of smoke released.
You can check if you live in a smoke controlled zone using Defra’s interactive tool.
Councils can issue on-the-spot fines if you do not comply with the rules.
Mr Hill said: “Always buy fuels from the ‘Ready to Burn’ scheme, which means they are less than 20pc moisture.
“And only burn wood on a wood burning stove. It sounds obvious, but many people burn materials on the wrong stove.”
It’s also worth checking that your stove meets the “clearSkies” standard. This isn’t a legal requirement, as Mr Hill explained, but instead allows consumers to compare the emissions of their stoves against one another. “These are highly efficient stoves with very low particulate emissions,” he said.