What is a wood burner?

Typically referred to as wood or log burners, wood burning stoves are appliances that burn wood to provide heat for singular rooms. Generally, the wood is in the form of logs or pellets, but can also be a plant or animal-based material.   

A wood burning stove itself, is a closed, solid metal firebox. These appliances are seen as a modern replacement for older styled open fires, but are just more efficient. Wood burning stoves can only heat up one room at a time, although they can be connected to central heating systems as well.    

Burning wood to provide heat, can be deemed as a carbon neutral process, meaning that additional carbon emissions aren’t released into the atmosphere. Wood burning stoves are not only efficient heating systems, they’re aesthetically appealing. In comparison to components of a traditional heating system like radiators, wood burning stoves are more effective at heating a room, while also being more stylish.    

Using wood as the fuel to heat your home is a cost-effective option, especially compared to the price of other energy sources like gas, oil and electricity. Turning to wood burning stoves also means that you’re no longer reliant on typical energy suppliers and their fluctuating prices.  

While wood burning stoves can comfortably heat singular rooms, they can also be utilised to provide hot water for central heating systems. Although, it’s unlikely wood burning stoves can produce the necessary amount of hot water needed to supply a household’s demand, they can take some of the slack for the current heating system.  

The process of connecting a wood burning stove to a central heating system varies, depending on the property. It’s important that the system comes equipped with a vent, because otherwise the pressure would have nowhere to escape. Therefore, a wood burning stove can’t be connected to a heating system that’s paired with a combi boiler, due to a lack of ventilation. You should never attempt to connect a wood burner to the central heating system yourself, as this is only something that should be performed by a qualified heating engineer.  

With a back boiler stove, you get hot water as well as central heating. However, if you don’t have a back boiler stove, and just own a wood burner instead, then it can still supply hot water for your home, by being connected to a hot water cylinder. To do this, an engineer can apply an indirect connection. When the wood burner fires up, it heats up a coil within the cylinder, to provide hot water.  

Once upon a time, households in possession of a back boiler could connect it to their wood burner, to provide more hot water. However, in the modern day, back boilers are no longer being manufactured. In the instance, that you still have a back boiler, a heating engineer will likely recommend that you replace it with a modern boiler.