Some like it hot: How to choose a stove to suit your living space

Wood, multifuel and pellet stoves, electric and space heaters: We take you through the varieties, and their pros and cons 
Some like it hot: How to choose a stove to suit your living space

The Swedish Contura is EcoDesign certified, €510.

A leggy Victorian, receding into the wall or a Scandinavian pillar-box of fire, solid fuel-style stoves come in a range of choices.

Here’s a warming introduction to their varieties, benefits, and challenges.

WOOD AND MULTI-FUEL

Dealers I’ve spoken to have witnessed a dramatic fall in the sales of multi-fuel fires fed by coal and anthracite in favour of log burners with outdoor air supplies and automatic air regulation. These super-combustors, using wood with a 25% moisture content, release the same amount of CO2 in action as wood decomposing on a forest floor, making them close to carbon neutral.

Waterford Stanley Solis pellet stove. K1200, 10.3kW max pellet boiler shown. With gas and oil prohibited in new builds, a pellet stove could answer that primal need for backup warmth 
Waterford Stanley Solis pellet stove. K1200, 10.3kW max pellet boiler shown. With gas and oil prohibited in new builds, a pellet stove could answer that primal need for backup warmth 

With multi-fuel stoves, the amount of heat to the room and the length of the burn varies by fuel type. Avoid peat (where possible) and green, wet-wood. 

A hybrid like the Lismore Eco by Waterford Stanley while burning a smokeless fuel would deliver as much as 10.6kW to a large room. When burning wood you could expect 11kW — worth noting. With either fuel, the net efficiency is 79.9%, rating this stove as a firm A; €2,799, various suppliers.

All legal wood burners will be EcoDesign-certified. These stoves reduce the amount of smoke and particle pollution created by the fire and ensure at least 70% efficiency (open fires were around 30% efficient with heat whipping up the chimney). Because EcoDesign stoves create more heat, use less fuel and are easier on the environment, makers prefer to hit 75%-78%, over the 70% demanded by the Stove Industry Alliance (SIA). 

Burning logs and hauling bags of smokeless fuel has a physicality to it. If you have never hauled logs, stored wood, or split kindling, find someone who has done the obligatory round of drying and handling for many years for an unvarnished review. You don’t need a chimney, but you will need a twin-walled flue pipe of the right diameter.

LIFE ELECTRIC

Modelled on authentic Victorian charmers, you can expect to see electric stoves offered up right alongside wood and multi-fuel stoves. Some makers, including Stanley, have placed them in the opening pages of their seasonal brochures. Models including the popular Winchester by Broseley come in electric, gas or multi-fuel models. 

The 24-hour/7-day thermostatically controlled electric stoves offer advantages for a smaller, or highly insulated space. The best models provide a convincing point of focus with a flame picture of glowing pebbles, flakes of ember, and crackling log sets.

Livivo 1.8kW electric fire in retro-styled pod with legs; from €120. 
Livivo 1.8kW electric fire in retro-styled pod with legs; from €120. 

Electric fires can go anywhere — built-in, recessed, wall-hung, or free-standing with up to three sides of the faux blaze on view. If you have a position and a three-pin plug, you can have flickering flames anywhere, deftly remote-controlled, Wi-Fi enabled, and which will shut off a heat setting if the fire detects a window is open. 

At 1kw-2kW these stoves are ideal for an NZEB or passive property, or to complement another central heating source. There’s even an optional top flue spigot for some models (to install a dummy 125mm flue pipe); from €120.

GAS OPTIONS

Not prepared to winkle out ash pans? Free-standing gas fires with varied, natural flames and ceramic “logs” can also re-invent your ideas about the classic free-standing wood stove. With remote operation or the flick of a manual switch, gas is free of the dust of biomass, exquisitely controllable and throws out variable heat to the room from 2kW up. 

A gas stove with balanced flue that demands just an outside wall, will be several times the cost of a comparable wood burner (non-boiler) offering the same warmth for the same kW output. Still, with instant ignition, 80%-plus efficiencies, seven-day timers, room stats, and zero particulate matter to worry about, weigh up the benefits.

Gazco Vogue Midi T Midline three-sided Balanced Flue gas stove with its stunning flame show and log box; €4,350, thegascompany.ie.
Gazco Vogue Midi T Midline three-sided Balanced Flue gas stove with its stunning flame show and log box; €4,350, thegascompany.ie.

Some gas stoves offer dual-burner technology to increase flame-play without increased consumption — heartwarming.

My pick is the sleek Gazco Vogue Midi T Midline 3-Sided Balanced Flue gas stove with stunning flame show and log box. 1.90kW-4.4kW/80% efficiency. €4,350, thegascompany.ie.

PELLET POWER

C02 neutral, highly automated pellet stoves offer talents not possible with traditional solid fuel types, boasting efficiencies up at 95%-96%, superb contemporary chassis, and dry, radiant heat. Pellets are made with sawdust from the wood processing industry — a sustainable choice. 

Uptake has cooled since the end of SEAI grant support, but pellet stoves remain a positive option for remote, electronic operation and clean handling. 6mm low-moisture pellets are a predictable size and weight, so you can set times and temperatures, and plan the run period for a fill, using thermostatic controls with confidence. Your stove will hold between 1.5 and four bags, and 30kg of pellets can run for up to 27 hours with a self-cleaning burner. 

A new house with an A2 rating will only require a smaller feature wood or electric stove for the atmosphere rather than high kW thermal performance.

Because they combust the fuel more fully, pellet stoves release less particulate matter that could harm your lungs. An integrated fan distributes heat back into the room, so they do require a touch of electricity and create a low noise, comparable to a small blow-heater (32dB in a quality unit). For whole-boiler operation, CH, pellet stoves generally cost more to run than log burners, expressed in kilograms per hour.

With gas and oil prohibited in new builds in the coming years, a log or pellet stove could answer that primal need for back-up feature heating (even if at a BER of A2/A3 you don’t need it). Pellets cost €10 per 15kg bag/66c per kg bought in bulk, or from 56c per kg bought by the tonne (blown loose), which should be stored in a dry building.

STOVE TO SPACE

As a space heater, your stove must be sized to the room it is in. Now, that sounds simple enough (just working out the cubic metres of the room), but the stove will succeed best in an environment of high insulation and minimal drafts. 

If you have glittering metres of single-glazed windows, perceptibly cold walls and a northerly snake airlifting your shoulders, the size of the stove may have to be increased to deal with these challenges. The sensible approach would be to address the insulation and weatherproofing issues first. 

There will be a kW rating with the stove, an indication of the area it can cope with, and the number of radiators it can support in the case of a back-boiler stove. Finesse this detail with your heating engineer.

Measure the room in cubic metres and divide by 14. Use 10 for a weakly insulated room. A full survey by a HETA-registered heating engineer is the only way to determine the kW number and the extent of invasive renovations needed for any stove. 

For a back-boiler dealing with central heating, you might get 5kW to the room while the maximum boiler output was 10.5kW (enough for seven standard radiators).

  • Note: To prevent carbon monoxide (CO), check your CO alarm batteries, and ensure all heating appliances are installed and serviced annually by a qualified service agent for your fuel type, NSAI

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