A couple of storage heaters upstairs were on occasionally during October, and used a small oil-filled radiator in the lounge on the odd morning and evening too.
The main heating is from a cast-iron Nestor Martin Harmony 23 woodburner in the lounge. It's not big - the second smallest in the range - but once it's lit, it stays lit 24/7 and heats the whole house. It's more expensive than most woodburners, being cast iron rather than stainless steel, and with a clever air flow that allows a very gentle overhead flow once it's hot.
All this makes it mighty efficient on wood use once it's going. The cast iron takes longer to heat up, but retains heat far better. The burner works best with smaller bits od wood and branches. Use them the way Continentals use their stoves: get it roaring and hot and then just leave a deep bed of charcoal to grow with the occasional addition and to glow via the overhead air flow.
The net result is to make those figures from the Woodland Trust look daft. If you need that acreage to maintain a stove, then you don't know how to use one imo.
I've had them most of my life and never once paid for wood. What I've always had is a dog. Two walks a day all year round provide me with enough from hedges, roadsides, shrubbery and rivers. Rivers after rainfall are the best source of all, I find. Just don't be too proud to pick up small branches or odd-shaped bits. they all burn as well as nice-looking commercial logs. The most important point is to split them, strip the bark from some sappy species, such as beech, and leave them to dry out thoroughly, in the sun, the wind or even the greenhouse, if you're lucky enough to have one.
Lit the stove for the first time on Monday 4 Nov this year, which is about a month later than last year.
Originally Posted by: some faraway beach