Choosing a wood burning or multifuel stove can be mind blowing. There are literally thousands to choose from!
Maybe you have a really cold room and like to be hot and are thinking of buying a stove that is hotter than recommended for your room size. Maybe you are wanting a stove larger in size to fit a large fireplace and have not considered the increase in kilowatt output. If so, there are a couple of important things to think about.
One, you are obviously going to be really hot and will need a lot of fuel to burn. A high kilowatt stove doesn’t magically turn the fuel into higher heat, they burn more fuel to create the heat!
Two, if you are too hot and because of this burn small fires to keep the heat down, or use with the air flow turned very low, you will be burning the fuel inefficiently which will produce more soot and let more pollutants into the atmosphere. A fire burning inefficiently produces a lot of soot that will coat the inside of your liner and run the risk of a fire in the liner, which could spread to the house. Also any soot left sitting in the liner over time, will corrode the liner which will mean it will not last the recommended time suggested by your installer or the manufacturer of the liner. Thus needing replacing more often than the usual 10 years.
A high kilowatt output stove should be installed in a large room, or a open plan room, or a large draughty room. Any stove over 5kw will also need a permanently open air vent to feed air to the stove in order to work properly and safely. A stove pipe thermometer would also be a must, so that you can see when your stove is operating at an optimum temperature and not getting too hot or cold. Bearing in mind that around 38% of air pollution comes from open fires and old woodburners and / or people burning unseasoned wood or house coal, it makes sense not to add to those figures by making sure your installation is the cleanest it can be.
Always check with your installer or use an online calculator to work out the ideal size output for your room. Take a look at some high kilowatt stoves on woodburnerwarehouse.co.uk
Here are some helpful ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ from the burnright website.
https://www.burnright.co.uk/quick-guide/dos-donts/
