In these days of high fuel costs the fashion in assessing stoves size has changed. Many people are buying the largest stoves that can possibly fit their fireplace, often too large for the actual room, but lighting a smaller fire with less fuel when present in the room and when leaving the room they stoke the fire with excess fuel, leave the room doors open, often an eco fan onto top to circulate the heat, and using these techniques the heat then travels from the room round a good part of their home. This is what Tom and Sue at Country Kiln Stoves do in their own home.

All wood burning stoves and multi fuel stoves have a kilowatt rating. That is the approximate nominal or average temperature the casting is able to cope with. It has NOTHING to do with how warm the heat production is, the heat production depends on which wood, coal, peat etc you use, how much of it you use and in what combinations. If you require less warm burn a smaller fire.

The method used to calculate the kw or heat production required to heat the room is Room Hieght in meters x Room Width in meters x Room Depth in meters divided by 14. This gives the kw needed to keep your room heated. It does not give the kw rating of the stove required nor does this calculation consider insulation or drafts or heat loss up a large chimney or a vast range of other variables. It is a very approx guide. A very very rough guide.

As I write, I`m sitting beside a 15kw stove. It`s a calm autumn day and we have a small fire, maybe two kilowatts burning. Come winter we`ll add more fuel and raise the stove to a higher temperature. Our room really only needs 6kw of heat bit I like the option of being able to build a larger fire and spread the heat into other rooms. This method saved us £1000 on our oil bill in the first six months as it negated our need for the oil central heating except for a day or so here and there.

We also chose this method rather than installing a wood burner with a back boiler for running central heating as the installation costs of this method are much cheaper than installing a wood burner with a boiler/ water jacket. Therefore we were able to save money and recoup our outlay far faster.

In this day and age I`d advise buying the biggest stove you can fit in your fireplace and light a fire to suit your needs which vary seasonally.

Tom, Sue and The Country Kiln Team 01560 483966

Email info@WoodburningStovesLimited.com (Tom & Sue respond to all emails in under 12 hours)