If you’re looking for the perfect focal point for your lounge and one that creates a nice and cosy, warm feel – you should consider buying a wood burning stove or look at the large range of multi fuel stoves that have a wood burning option. They can also be an effective heating source that will help reduce the cost of your heating and utility bills. However, if you are new to the world of stoves, you may feel unsure what to look for and consider when buying one. This post can help you, as we highlight 7 important aspects to factor into your buying decision.
Output of Heat
It is important to factor in the heat output of a stove required for your lounge, because they ultimately operate best at higher temperatures. As a general rule of thumb, for every 14 sq. m. of space in the room, you need to allow for 1 kW to heat it.
Type of Fuel
Wood burning stoves, as the name suggests, are designed to run only on firewood or similar solid biomass fuels. In order to get the benefits of an efficient fire using just logs you need to make sure you only use seasoned wood that has a maximum moisture level of 20%. If space is something you lack or you do not have a local, reliable supplier of good seasoned wood, you should probably consider a multi fuel stove as a suitable alternative.
Efficiency Rating
Speaking of efficiency. This is something of a buzzword these days and one thing more than many others that people are looking for from most appliances. Modern stoves tend to have an efficiency rating that falls between 65% and 80%. The rule is – the higher the efficiency rating, the lower the volume of fuel you will require to adequately warm your house.
Air Intake Automatic Control
You will find that many stoves feature automatic control for regulating the air intake. This helps the stove to work at maximum efficiency. You then don’t have to control it manually. It also means you have a constantly easy flowing flame and more economic use of wood.
Air wash System
This helps to stop the build-up of soot on the stove glass surface. It does this by causing the air to divert along the front of the stove, burning off all black sooty particles and therefore keeping it clean.
It’s worth noting that the performance of the air wash system is affected by the fuel used in the stove’s quality. If the wood used has a moisture content of over 20%, it can introduce moisture to the inside of the fire chamber and lower the temperature, reducing the air wash system’s effectiveness.
Heat Retention
It is known as heat retention when a stove can radiate heat long after the fire has reduced. There are components called accumulation stones that can help by storing some the heat produced by the fire that can then gradually release it, which is ideal if you’re looking for a continuous heating solution.
Online you will find numerous wood burning stoves to choose from, keeping the points noted above in mind will help make your search for the right one for you a little easier.