Choosing The Perfect Wood Burning Stove

Thursday, 10 February 2022 08:00

By Nick Turnbull

Advertising Feature: Need help choosing a wood burning stove for your home? Sussex Eco Solutions cover the top five considerations to help find your perfect wood burner

There’s nothing like the warmth and welcome of a real fire to relax you after a long day or to help get you through the cold winter months, but how do you choose one?

If you’re in the market for a wood burning stove, how do you get the right stove for your needs? That’s what we’re going to cover today.

At Sussex Eco Solutions, we think there are five basic considerations everyone needs to assess to choose the perfect wood burning stove.

They are:

Size and style of room
Inset, cassette or freestanding stove
Type of fuel you want to burn
Whether you want to heat water or just the room
Smoke Control Area or not

Let’s take a quick look at each.

SIZE AND STYLE OF ROOM

As you probably know, wood burning stoves come in all shapes, sizes and styles. The type you want to buy will need to consider the age and style of the property, your personal taste, the décor and size of the room. You could go traditional, modern, modern traditional or contemporary as there are some excellent examples of each. Much will come down to personal taste and budget, but it pays to have an appreciation for the stove’s setting to get the best out of it.

INSET, CASSETTE OR FREESTANDING STOVE

There are three main types of wood burning stove.

An inset stove is designed to sit within a chimney breast or into a wall. These are very common types of stove and are often used as a replacement for an open fire.

Our Charnwood Skye 7 is a great example of an inset stove.

A cassette stove can be installed into a wall within a closed hearth. These are similar to inset stoves but tend to be box shaped and can fit more snugly into the wall.

The Contura i7 is the ideal cassette stove.

A freestanding stove is exactly as its name suggests. A stove that will stand proud of a wall or chimney breast on a plinth or hearth.

The Contura 35 High is a classic example of a freestanding stove.

Each of these main types are more suitable for some rooms than others and will require differing levels if installation.

TYPES OF FUEL YOU WANT TO BURN

Even though we use the term wood burning stoves, there are two types of stoves, wood or multifuel. The two look exactly the same and provide the same level of heat and real flame experience, but they work in slightly different ways. A wood burning stove uses a flat bed with air coming in from above to feed the fire. This produces an efficient burn ideal for stoves. A multifuel stove burns on an elevated grate with air coming up from below. This provides the most efficiency for the type of fuel you’ll use. There is no practical difference to either, much will depend on the type of fuel you have easy access to.

WHETHER YOU WANT TO HEAT WATER OR JUST THE ROOM

Stoves with a back boiler can heat water as well as your room. Installation is more complex but the fire itself looks largely the same with the added advantage of heating water for home use or for your central heating.

SMOKE CONTROL AREAS

There are a number of Smoke Control Areas in the UK that will influence the type of fuel you can burn and the type of wood burning stove you can use. If you live in such an area, you can still use a wood burning stove, you’ll just need a DEFRA-approved stove and use DEFRA-approved fuel. Using a stove in a Smoke Control Area is not as onerous as you might think. Anything is possible with the right approach!

So, there you have it, those are the main considerations when choosing a wood burning stove. We hope it helps!

Choosing The Perfect Wood Burning Stove

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