FAQ – Stoves

kW means kilowatt. It is the measure of each stove’s heat energy output, so it basically measures how hot it gets! Typically, different stove heat outputs range from about 3kW to 9kW. The kilowattage of your stove is most often determined by the size of the room your stove is going to be in. Generally, you can work out what kW stove you need by measuring the length, width and height of your room, times them all together and then divide by 14.

For example, if your stove is going in a room that is 7m long, 4m wide, and 2.5m high, then that would equal 70 cubic m. Divide that by 14, and you get 5, so you would need a 5kW stove for that room. Don’t worry if you don’t get a round number like that, just round it to the nearest whole number (e.g 4.7 would be 5kW, or 4.2 would be 4kW). From there, you can choose your stove!

For solid fuel stoves, you can take a sheet of newspaper, scrunch it up, dip into some water, then dip into the ash in your ash pan. Lightly scrub the inside of the glass door until it clears up!

For gas stoves, take out the glass, and you may be able to get the soot off by wiping with a damp microfiber cloth. However, if the soot is too stubborn, making a paste with a small measure of baking soda and white vinegar and scrubbing with a microfiber cloth should help lift it!

For different fuels and some stove types, we can compare the energy efficiency, so how hot it gets for how much fuel you use.

Using the Stovax Stockton 5 as a base stove model, the different versions are as follows:

• Wood – 79% Class A, average output of 5kW

• Multifuel – 79% Class A, average output of 5kW

• Gas (Balanced Flue) – 91.8% Class B, average output of 3kW

• Gas (Conventional Flue) – 65.8% Class E, average output of 3kW

• Electric – average output of 2kW

Wood burning stoves are pretty self explanatory, they only burn wood, and are generally seen as more eco-friendly because of this.

Multi-Fuel stoves can burn multiple different types of fuel (although NOT at the same time) such as; wood, coal, anthracite, briquettes, peat, and more. It’s important to check that your fuel is smokeless, if you’re in a smoke controlled zone. The eco-friendliness of a multi-fuel stove is only determined by the fuel you burn in it. For example, burning anthracite or wood would be more eco-friendly to burn than coal, due to the different emissions they let off.

Lots of stove manufacturers make their wood stoves also available as multi fuel, such as Stovax’s Huntingdon 30. Often you will be able to find the same designs of stove in both wood only and multifuel. However, some stove manufacturers, like Arada, just cut out the middle man and only make multifuel stoves, since they can burn wood anyway!

Now you might be thinking ‘Which wood? Surely it’s all the same, right?’… It’s not!

Typically, when buying wood already cut and bagged, it will be labelled either ‘softwood’ or ‘hardwood’. While in the bags they may look the same, they produce a noticeable difference when burning them!

Softwood will always burn quicker than hardwood will. It’s great for getting a fire started up and going quickly, but not the best for a sustained fire over a longer time (over an hour or so). It’s great at producing an instant heat for a quick warm up.

Hardwood is best for keeping a fire going. It burns hot, but slow, as the flames work their way through the tight grain. On average, one hardwood log could burn for up to 5 hours, so they’re great for just chucking on the fire and forgetting about. Plus, while hardwood is generally more expensive (not by a lot though), you get a lot more bang for your buck!

But of course, all wood will be pretty much useless if it isn’t seasoned properly. This is when it’s dried out enough to burn, below 20% moisture. If you don’t know how to test your wood, look at the tip below this one!

It’s always recommended to have your chimney swept at least once a year regardless of what type of solid fuel stove you have. A sweep will get rid of any blockages or build up you may have in your flue, as well as highlighting anything in need of repairs.

It’s important to have your chimney swept annually (as a bare minimum) in order to lessen the risk of chimney fires (which can be caused by excess build up). Stay safe and sweep your chimneys!!

You can lessen the amount of build up in your chimney by burning your fires correctly, with plenty of air, as well as using clean burning fuels like <20% moisture content wood, and smokeless coals (for multifuel stoves).

Wood burning is significantly more sustainable than burning non-renewables like oil or gas. This is because the carbon output from burning wood is offset by the amount of carbon absorbed by that tree in its lifetime. As long as log-cutting companies promise to re-plant the trees that are cut down, it’s essentially carbon neutral!