Wood Burner v Coal Fire

I guess where you live will have a bearing on it.

Firstly to consider whether you would be allowed to burn wood.

Secondly wood is bulky and if you are a town dweller would add to the cost as you're not going to have suppliers nearby.

I'm in the country and had a Swedish wood burner at my previous house and it was brilliant but we got through a hell of a lot of wood.

I used to buy twenty feed bags at £1.00 per bag, from the woodman in the next village.

That was more convenient than having a load dropped as it had to be stacked first in the garage and then taken in as required and stacked again either side of the brick "Inglenook" style fireplace the stove was well stacked it could give out something like 10kw.

The brickwork behind the stove acted as a storeage heater as it got really hot and because it was the full height of two storeys and onto an open plan balcony/landing it heated upstairs too.

We could close the doors and damp it down at night so it just slumbered and then would blaze into life the next morning.

God knows how much wood is today.I've seen it in small bags, at filling stations, for lunatic money, and it wouldn't last half a day if well stoked.

Best bet would be to check the local regs first and then get a multi-fuel stove so you can use whatever fuel is allowed.

Have a look here....
.
http://www.stovax.com/faqs/solid-fuel/can-install-wood-burning-appliance-smoke-control-area/

I have a multi fuel stove (small 5kw ish), they are well worth the initial outlay IMO. And you can install them yourself, i did mine, it was quite straight forward. The hardest part was getting the lining down the chimney. You might need to get your work "signed off" by your local authority.

With regards to wood or coal, i started out with the intention of using just wood, but the effort of getting up and down all day n night to load log after log and having to re-light it every morning, well my enthusiasm soon wore thin

And the cost of wood compared to coal isn't much of a saving as it used to be. So i just use smokeless ovals/ovoids now.
If you can get your logs for free and have a couple of years to wait for them to season then of course logs would be the best option.

Be careful when buying logs though, if they aren't properly seasoned you can end up with a chimney lining covered in resin, which at some point will catch fire

if they aren't properly seasoned you can end up with a chimney lining covered in resin

Good advice there. Mine had twenty years of use before we were there, and I have to say it was spectacular, if a little embarrassing!

Yes i fitted a carbon monoxide alarm in the room a couple of metres from the stove, you can get a 7 to 10 year one for less than £20 now.

[   This image is no longer available.   ]

Flipped....

FFS Auntie ...

It seems like only a few days ago we were chit-chatting about late barbecues and now this ... you have an unhealthy interest in fires, IMO.  Are you a closet pyromaniac? ... no, no, no, don't even try it.

And more importantly, have you tried chorizo sausages on the barbie or cajun salmon?  Especially with this fine weather.

Thanks for the input all, good work!