The first thing I should mention is insulation - it makes sense both environmentally and economically to make sure your house is well insulated before adding heat sources. Look to your cavity walls and roof insulation first as this is where adding insulation can be most effective.

Coal is a fossil fuel, a major source of CO2, and therefore contributes to climate change. Sustainably sourced wood is a renewable resource and in itself is carbon neutral. Once you add in the processing and transport of firewood it is not quite carbon neutral but still pretty close.

There are more commercial boilers available that will burn wood chip or wood pellets – I am not writing about these here but they can be a very good, low maintenance option.

When budgeting for a stove bear in mind that you may end up paying as much or more for your flue/chimney system.

Types of woodburning stove

When choosing your stove try to choose a dedicated woodburner instead of a multi fuel stove. A dedicated woodburner will be unlikely to have a grate in it which means even if you felt the temptation one cold night you would not be able to burn coal in your stove.

A dedicated woodburner is also likely to be the best type of stove to burn just wood in efficiently. This is because wood burns best on a bed of ash with a supply of air from above, whilst coal needs a supply of air from below (hence the need for a grate in multi fuel stoves).

Styles of stove

Traditional style stoves are box shaped with one or two doors at the front. They are either made of cast iron or steel. Steel used to be shunned as it often used to bend and burn out in when exposed to the high temperatures found inside a stove's firebox. Steel quality has now greatly improved so which stove you want is now more a case of quality and aesthetics. Cast iron stoves are sometimes built better than steel stoves (which is of course reflected in their price), but this is not necessarily to do with the fact that they are made from cast iron.

Common makes of steel stove available in the UK include Aarrow, Clearview, Hunter, Stovax, and Villager.

Cast iron stoves include Dovre, Franco Belge, Jotul, Morso, and Saey.

Prices range from around £300-£2000 depending on the make and model. As with anything else in life you generally get what you pay for although there are obviously some extra good value stoves to be found.

Modern contemporary designer stoves

Contemporary stoves tend to be tall and often with relatively small fireboxes. Contemporary stoves are usually very efficient and are cleanburning. Often the outer skin of the stove will be separate from the firebox making the outside of the stove cooler to the touch. With kW outputs in the range of 4 – 9kW these stoves are most often used as impressive secondary heating, or as heating in very well insulated houses.

Makes of contemporary stove available in the UK include Morso, Saey and Westfire. One of my favourite stoves is the Saey Scope which is kind of half way between a traditional and a contemporary stove. It weighs in at around 200kg of cast iron and is very good quality.

These stoves are often relatively expensive (compared with traditional stoves) with prices in the range of £800-£4000 depending on the make and model.

Second hand stoves

Stoves are of course available second hand on place like Ebay, gumtree, and free papers like Loot or Tradeit. You might also try Freecycle- it's worth a go.

Check the perishable parts like the grate, the firebricks, the baffle plate. These may need replacing and so bear in mind that you might also have to buy replacement parts. If many parts are perished then the stove may have been mistreated and perhaps you should go for another one. Look out for cracks on the body of a cast iron stove and look out for deformation of the body on a steel stove. Make sure that the doors close well and make a good seal to the body of the stove - door rope is easy and cheap to replace but if the door closes at a funny angle then that is not good.

Central heating stoves

Many traditional style stoves can come with a clip in or a wraparound backboiler. The backboiler is a metal envelope of water which replaces one or more firebricks inside the stove. Often backboilers are made of stainless steel or lined with some other material to slow down corrosion. The heat from the fire heats up the water which is then passed on to your hot water or central heating.

A stove usually needs to be connected to a vented system – this means that the heating system is not pressurised and you would also have a small header tank to keep the system topped up with water and to cope with changes in pressure. If you have an existing system with a boiler then if there is a pressure gauge on the boiler then you are likely to have an unvented, pressurised system and it will be hard to incorporate a stove with a backboiler into it.

The water from the stove backboiler can either be pumped around your system or the system may use thermosyphoning (the fact that hot water rises) to circulate the water. If thermosyphoning is to be used then the pipes for the heating loop should be larger than normal, ideally 28mm or larger. Either way you need to make sure that above the stove there is a radiator or water tank into which the hot water from the backboiler can go if your pump or electricity fails. If the pump is not working then you need to get rid of the heat from the backboiler somehow.

Stoves and other heat sources (e.g. Solar and a boiler) can be combined using multiple coil water tanks, accumulator tanks or similar. Always consult a competent heating engineer.

Makes of central heating stove available in the UK include Stratford, Dunsley, Hunter, and Villager.

My house is wood heated by two stoves one of which is made by Hunter – it is a Hunter Herald 14 stove with a wraparound 45,000 BTU boiler, the other is an antique range with custom made backboiler – both are hooked up to the central heating system.

Range cooker stoves

You will no doubt be familiar with the name Aga and Rayburn which are the traditional heavyweight range cookers made in the UK. These provide heating, hot water, a hotplate and ovens for cooking and are good stoves. European style range cookers are more lightweight, can be a bit more more controllable and are definitely cheaper.

Smoke control areas

Before you rush off and buy a stove remember that most towns in the UK are smoke control areas. This means that burning wood in them is illegal unless burnt on an "exempt appliance". There are many makes of stove which are smoke control exempt including stoves from Clearview, Dovre, Dunsley, Morso, Westfire and others too.

To check if you are in a smoke control area, or to see the list of exempt appliances simply visit: www.uksmokecontrolareas.co.uk.

Getting the most out of your stove

A woodburning stove is best run with a good supply of air so that there are lots of flames visible in the firebox without smoke. However you should not run the stove at full blast all the time as this can be bad for it and is a sign that you probably need a bigger stove.
Slumber burning is very inefficient as you are not getting full combustion of the wood (because you have limited the air supply), so try to avoid slow overnight burning. Slow burning will also tend to tar up your window (even if your stove does have an airwash system) as well as your chimney (leading to an increased risk of chimney fire).
When burning wood use the top air inlet and burn the wood on a nice bed of ash.

Independent stove reviews

www.whatstove.co.uk is the UK's only stove review website. Manufacturer's blurb and salesman's wording are no match for actually using the stove. On Whatstove you can read a growing number of reviews left by people who actually use and own stoves.
If you own a stove please leave a review to help others make an informed choice.

Buzz words

Cleanburning
A second supply of usually preheated air is introduced into the firebox. Unburnt flue gases are combusted. In efficient stoves (like the Morso badger) you can see flames hanging in the air as the gases burn. This increases the stove's efficiency and heat output.

Airwash
Air is passed over the window of the stove to reduce tar deposits. This works fairly well as long as you do not turn the stove down too much (for slumber/overnight burning).

Grate
A series of metal bars on which coal is burn. The bars allow a flow of air to the bottom of the firebox which is needed for burning coal. Wood does not need to be burnt on a grate.

Baffle plate
A plate of metal or vermiculite placed at an angle at the top of the stove. This increases the distance travelled by the gases in the firebox before they can escape and therefore extracts more heat from the fuel into the room.

Clip-in
A boiler that can be retrofitted - fitted into an existing stove.

Wraparound
A boiler that goes around several sides inside the firebox (typically 3 sides) and is factory fitted.

BTU
British Thermal Units are a measure of heat. 10,000 BTU are roughly equivalent to 3kW (being pedantic it is more like 2.93kW).