I'm very surprised that a wood burner can have such a dramatic heating effect on the whole house.  But you are at least the second person to note this so I guess I am missing a trick.

I do keep wishing I had a log burner because I love a real flame but I just can't be doing with the mess I'd have to go through to get the chimney lined and the fireplace changed and then there's the question of the cream carpet in the lounge, not great for sooty marks.  I remember what it was like having a coal fired central heating system - dirty but homely.  

Yes, my daughter has a wood burner and she doesn't need the central heating on as it heats the whole house.  She saves a lot of money on heating costs, especially as I'm always collecting wood offcuts from the local wood yards for her. 

Heat rises. As long as the walls are dry and not conducting heat out of the house in that direction, then the only place heat has to go is upstairs. The heat has to go somewhere or the room where the stove is situated would eventually become an oven. Leaving all the interior doors permanently open obviously helps. Walls that are damp (owing to e.g. cavity insulation or cement render) can be one cause of this whole-house effect being lost.

Also, even a lined flue leaks some heat, which results in any wall upstairs that backs onto an internal chimney breast always feeling warm to the touch. This makes a big difference in terms of a bedroom always deriving some background heat from a stove downstairs.

Unfortunately a lot of new woodburners are fitted with an external flue rising outside the house, which means you lose this benefit.

Indeed! We have to have the living room door open to prevent the room becoming too hot - once I got home to find the missus had the door shut and it was 30 C in the room lol! Often the living rm temp. will get into the low to mid 20's C with the door open in mild winter conditions. Wood burners can really kick the heat out - the drier the fuel the better - as a lot of heat will be consumed in evaporating the moisture in the wood. Our burner draws air in from outside and not from the room - so more heat is saved.

we just put a boost on every now and again if it gets a bit nippy.
The cycle is an hour but it can be interrupted.

Lucky enough to have an open fire for backup but it only heats one room (no back boiler)

17 to 20 is just fine though.

Btw,Dried Ash,  P+V Giant.

Great fuel.

Bit pricey though..

We have storage heaters as until 2012 it was an `all electric` house. Then we had a gas supply and a combi boiler installed so we could have the hot water cylinder and immersion heaters removed. So the boiler is only used for water heating, except for a small radiator near the boiler.

We could have full central heating installed but because we have solid floors downstairs all the pipework would have to be routed under the bedroom floors, and down the walls to the downstairs radiators. Because of the disruption that would cause we are keeping the storage heaters.

We turned ours on a couple of days ago, but only on the lowest settings.

Ash logs are a great fuel and can be burned 'green'.

Oak is the best, in my opinion, as it is a very dense wood and will burn for a long time with high heat output - but it must be well seasoned and it can take 2 years for the cut logs to dry-out, and it can be expensive! 

We've been fortunate to 'inherit' a stack of old plank-type fencing and posts from a few neighbours and this is bone dry and free - if you don't count the great length of time it's taking me to 'process' it! 

Apologies for going off topic on this thread! 

Edit: Forgot to mention that we often use sawdust briquettes - these are very dry, burn for a long time with great heat output, produce little smoke and aren't expensive. We've found the quality of traditional logs supplied in our area to vary - sometimes they are properly seasoned - sometimes they are damp - or a mixture of the two! As long as you store the sawdust briquettes in a dry place then you're guaranteed a very hot fire!! 

Not too much heat comes through the lined chimney, in my experience. My bedroom is above the lounge, with the chimney passing up the wall, and when we had an open fire downstairs that wall would feel very warm to the touch after the fire had been going for a while.

When we had the woodburner fitted they lined the chimney and then filled the gap around the liner with insulation (vermiculite) - I was told this was to prevent condensation corroding the liner, but it does have the effect of making that wall now barely warm at all.

On balance though the woodburner does make the house a lot warmer, as the heat comes up the stairs. And it also prevents draughts coming down the chimney, so you feel the benefit even when it is not lit!

It was on briefly here this evening, I was surprised how chilly it had become despite recent nights being very mild (mid-teens minimum on Monday night!). I mean, I was sat there in a light fleece/hoody and feeling a shiver.

Heating has survived being switched on following ground frost in sheltered valley hereabouts this morning.  House temperatures holding up well.

Are you all nudists or summat? 

Cant believe people have heating on when I am in shorts and t-shirt with the back door wide open, after a poor nights sleep due to it being too warm (knew I shouldnt have bought a new 4.5 tog duvet - its much heavier and thicker than my old one and waaay to warm for all but the coldest of nights )

There was no switch off date. It's been on all year due to there being no warmth at all and another lousy summer. 2013 is the only year since 2007 it hasn't been needed during the summer.

Central heating still off and will be for a few weeks yet.

Though I did use a fan heater in my living room for a while yesterday evening as it was a littlie chilly.

As I posted earlier, mine's been on for a while with the thermostat set low and hasn't kicked in much at all, but it did last night and it's on again tonight.

Switched the switch on every morning on waking. Not needed under Duvet and throws or Quilts.

We've got 9" solid brick walls, older style metal framed double glazing and suspended timber floors downstairs and the house responds quite fast to changes in outside temperature. To avoid an ugly household mutiny I have had the heating come on for an hour or so early in the morning and for most of the evening since around the beginning of the month. The main living room TRV is set to 3 which is too hot for me but seems to keep the family happy. TRVs in the rest of the used rooms are set to between 1 and 2, which keeps the chill off. Unused room TRVs are on frost setting.