March 29, 2024

As the last couple of winters has been very cold, the amount households in the country have had to pay on their energy bills has increased dramatically.  This, as I’m sure many readers will agree, leaves you in a bit of a pickle.  You either risk the large energy bills to keep you and the rest of your household warm or you keep the heating down and layered up your clothing and all use blankets to keep the cold at bay. 

However, there is a way around this rather than relying on your gas or electric central heating investments in quality inset wood-burning stoves or modern balanced flue gas fires.  These appliances alone could help you reduce the amount of fuel your household uses by as much as 80% and even more importantly save you huge amounts on your energy bills.

wood fire

Here are two ways that these appliances can save you money:

By opting for an inset wood-burning stove you not only reduce the amount of fuel used, but also the level of carbon emissions by a maximum of around 80%.  If you want to get 7kW of heat from an open fire, for example, you need to burn at least 10.58 kg.  This is particularly true if the open fire has an efficiency rate as low as 15%.  However, to get the same amount of heat from an inset wood-burning stove with an efficiency rating of about 78%, you only have to burn 2.03kg of wood.  This means that you need to use around 80% less wood, making it therefore 80% cheaper to maintain and use.

Another way is if you replace an open-fronted gas fire with a balanced flue gas fire, you could decrease the amount of fuel used by your household by as much as 75%.  What’s more, while saving on fuel consumption, these also produce more heat,

An open-fronted gas fire that is more than 5 years old will probably have an efficiency rating of as low as 25%.  This means that it would take as much as 13.20 kW of energy to produce a measly 3.30 kW of actual heat.  While the more modern balanced flue gas fires have as much as an efficiency rating of 86%.  In terms of energy produced this means that it would only require 4.1 kW of gas to produce 3.5 kW of heat.

Whether you are currently using an open gas or wood-burning fire to warm your house, if you upgrade either or purchase one of these to replace your current, inefficient system, you will be able to heat your home to a comfortable temperature during the cold winter months.  The best part is that you will be able to do this guilt-free without worrying too much about your utility bills during the winter months and know you will not be using too much fuel and energy to produce little actual heat.

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