Woodburner questions

[mh12]

I agree the labour involved in running a wood burner versus just clicking the thermostat shouldn't be overlooked. Storing the wood outside under cover, bringing in a selection of sizes ready for use, taking out the ash (put it on flower beds). More so if the stove is upstairs and you're trailing the mess through the house.

There's also the fact that bought in fuel is often kiln dried then shipped long distances so your carbon footprint isn't as light as you might imagine. I used to get firewood from a local aborist who processed the trees he cut down but since demand took off a few years ago he now buys it in. It comes from the Baltic in containers... We haven't had to buy for a few years as we are working through several trees brought down by storms, which itself takes considerable labour.

Do you really need to heat bedrooms that much? We hardly heat our own bedroom. Granted the proto-adult's rooms are heated more like a living space when they are in residence but not rooms that are dedicated to sleeping.

A bigger stove will take longer to get going as well so you can't just pop it on for 30 mins to take the chill off. Our big boiler stove doesn't much appreciate being run half heartedly and just sulks and smoulders, you really have to commit to building up a decent sized fire. As a result it probably gets used less than it could be. A real fire is a lovely thing to have but it makes you work for it.

If you really are going for 7kW then you really should get one that has an external air input so that you don't need to add a vent to the room. Even smaller ones can take external air. Bit more effort to install but seems very counterintuitive to me to work on the air tightness of the room only to have to knock a big hole in it...

Thank you all for the responses. One of the principle reason why I love browsing this forum is advice received is based on lived experience, there is no substitute.

Ok, so clearly I got carried away and didn't factor all points especially the effort involved in running the woodburner, carrying wood from storage space to the burner etc

Back to the start, woodburner on ground floor only.

The 2 ground floor living rooms with suspended timber floor above a cellar space that I'd like to get woodburner for have high ceilings about 3.1m, proportionally large single glazed windows and 2 external walls (its a semi).

So my line of thinking is they will be cold and draughty and not only will these benefit from woodburner but also they should provide a cosy atmosphere for the bedrooms directly above them.

Now I was thinking more for the winter months to a good portion of the day but I don't know how practical this is going to be.

How long do members on average leave the fires running for in winter months?

Probably a very daft question but say if you fill a 5kw woodburner how long on average does the burn last before it requires topping up?

Storage of the wood, how does this play out. Is a short supply kept near the burner and the rest in garden covered by tarpaulin to protect it from rain?

Finally, is a wooden mantlepeice surrounding the recess where the burner is kept contraindicated?

@ PaulC- far from it, its a traditional 5 bed semi and currently 6 occupants. Now 2 of my children have asthma so my line of thinking is to keep the house toasty warm with low relative humidity down.