Tips on how to pick and run a stove

Kya deLongchamps looks at the practicalities of choosing and fitting a stove as part of a single room or a whole house heating plan using wood, coal or oil.

Acontrollable stove is the economical, contemporary take on an open flame fire. Containing the heat and directing it to where we need it, (be that out into the room or into a back boiler too, for central heating radiators), today’s stoves can wring the BTUs out of a variety of fuels, instead of gifting the heavens up to 70% of our hard-earned heat.

A properly maintained, correctly installed stove fuelled by wood, peat, bituminous or anthracitic coal is also cleaner than a traditional fire, easier to light, and is relatively safe to leave alight overnight.