Has anyone installed a wood burner?

I'm just about to start redecorating my living room and after returning from Canada where my girlfriends dad had an ace wood burning fire, I'm considering fitting one also.

I've had a look at burners and as I'm only in a terrace house would only need a fairly small one which seem to be a reasonable price. I'll need to have my fireplace reinstated though as I boarded it up a few years ago but after that I'm not sure exactly what needs to be done. Will I need a liner/flue installed or will i not need that if the chimney is sound and has enough draw? Is there any way of testing the chimneys draw without bashing a big hole in the wall first? And if I need the whole job done for me, any ideas on the cost?

It's just an idea at the moment but if I can get one installed fairly cheaply and hassle free I think I'd like to do it and I suppose if the central heating isn't on as much it'll pay for itself over time!

You don't need a liner if the chimney/flue is in good shape. You won't know without having it looked at though.
You can test the draw with a smoke making device (a tablet thing that you light or similar) but you'll need to open up a hole in the fireplace to put it in and to get the air flowing.
I opened up our fireplace when I renovated the house 5 years ago. I had a fella come round to price up fitting a liner and he quoted £1600 without the burner. We decided to get a £300 burner from a local place, fit it, and see how things went. The smoke test proved a good draw and the chimney was good as the previous owner had had a coal fire before fitting oil central heating. That was almost two years ago. The fire is going strong and there have been no issues at all from having no liner. We'll get the chimney swept after this winter but nothing else needs attending to.
And we haven't had to pay for any wood in all this time

Been thinking about one of these ourselves, got a lovely Claygate fireplace that's just crying out to be used for something more than a parking area for the kids toys. I believe that a liner is only needed if the chimney is faulty in some way but a lined chimney is also easier to clean and less likely to trap debris that could present a fire hazard. Also some recent research suggested that wood burners give of harmful particulates which over time can cause respiratory problems, even cancer which with two young kids I don't fancy risking... However I also get the impression that this is in part due to the recent increase in popularity of wood burners which has led to a lot of cheap ones appearing on the market. I was advised only to consider stoves from reputable German and Scandanavian manufacturers for example which are obviously more expensive but burn much more cleanly and to use dry well seasoned timber not twigs and cut offs.

I guess how much it saves on your heating bill depends on the layout of the house and where the stove is located but speaking to a couple of local suppliers I don't think they save a lot. Probably take a full blown wood chip central heating system to do that and of course once they become viable and popular due to the increasing prices of other fuels the cost of wood chip goes up which sort of defeats the object.

I'm still interested in getting one but the juries out as yet.

Our log burner saved on a lot of heating bills as the chimney went through the main bedrooms so heated most of the house.

As does ours. We only put the heating on for the first time twice this week, and only for an hour or so, and only because I was too lazy to get some more wood in.

[chris8886]

open fireplaces are the nuts, the smell, the saving on heating bills, chopping the wood etc tis all brilliant!

[Dipper]

We've got a quality Scandanavian woodburner and live in a 3 year old large 4 bed detached house that is well insulated to current regs and a modern boiler, our gas bill is £20/month, we very rarely use the central heating. Two years supply of wood costs us £250 (about 5 tons, 12 cubic metres) delivered but lasts 4 years with scavenged wood topping this up. Get friendly with a local tree surgeon or two some still pay to dispose of their waste as they've nowhere to store it. We've storage in the back garden for 18 cu m - 2 years to season 1 year to use as no one I have found sells properly seasoned wood at sensible money. I get to play will cool toys like chain saws, wood splitters and mauls, it's a bit of a lifestyle choice really but does save money if done properly.

I put one of these in a few years ago, with no flue, and have had no problems. I had the sweep comment on my chimney rather than getting someone that installs flues for a living inspect it. I got a more honest answer.

If there is enough draw, no smoke escaping from the chimney (check your loft when lighting a small fire at the bottom) and also no tar or anything that penetrated the bricks over time and stained any of your paintwork, you should be ok with no flue.

I made my register plate out of 1.6mm thick steel plate and mounted it with some steel angle. Just dont forget to make an access hole for future sweeps! (...and of course get it inspected afterwards, all official like...)

[BoltonSte]

I've got one...but our chimney was shot...pretty sure it had the draw but the mortar wasn't the best in the loft after having a leaking ridge.

We decided to go with a liner ~£30/m if I remember. Because it's off the chimney sides, you don't heat the chimney and connected rooms as well as if you just used the chimney (worth thinking about). You can fit the liner yourself though, and the theory is that you don't get chimney fires in them either as the liner will fully heat up, unlike a chimney where coldspots deposit crosote etc which if you neglect sweeping can eventually catch (don't know how often you need to neglect this though...and can't quote the sites I read this on, but was deffinately what I took from my research) but for the look, warmth and cost...can't beat it.

Originally Posted by BoltonSte

I've got one...but our chimney was shot...pretty sure it had the draw but the mortar wasn't the best in the loft after having a leaking ridge.

We decided to go with a liner ~£30/m if I remember. Because it's off the chimney sides, you don't heat the chimney and connected rooms as well as if you just used the chimney (worth thinking about). You can fit the liner yourself though, and the theory is that you don't get chimney fires in them either as the liner will fully heat up, unlike a chimney where coldspots deposit crosote etc which if you neglect sweeping can eventually catch (don't know how often you need to neglect this though...and can't quote the sites I read this on, but was deffinately what I took from my research) but for the look, warmth and cost...can't beat it.

Where did you get the liner from, as I've seen people band about prices like £100/m? And is it twin walled? The other solution I'd heard is get a single wall liner then fill the area of the chimney around it with Vermiculite? or something so just trying to get a better idea of the best way to go and more importantly costs.