Hi Community members - have you switched from wood-fired heating to an electric alternative in your home?
As we get into winter, I’m looking to chat to long-time users of wood-fired heaters (fireplaces) who have recently changed to another method of keeping their house warm, particularly if it involves an electric appliance.
Why did you do it? What was the process like? What do you miss about your fireplace and what do you like most about your new heating solution?
I’m also keen to hear from anyone still relying on a fire for heat this winter who’s perhaps just thinking about giving it up for something else - what’s behind your thinking? Thanks!
When we bought the property there was no air conditioning, but a Regal wood fire standing in the lounge.
My husband resented the amount of floor space it took up. We were on a farm with a lot of dead timber, so fuel was never an issue. Our overnight temperatures never got below zero. The house was well insulated. We tended to rug up at night, but wanted warmth for early morning starts. The fire takes a while to get going, heats up slowly, but once going gets too hot. I was getting up first to start it, then once the sun was up the day warmed quickly and I would be shutting it down.
I installed a reverse cycle inverter, split system air conditioner, more for summer cooling than heating. So easy to turn it on, regulate the temperature, and run it for the short time needed. Husband was convinced it would use masses of power, until one day he absent-mindedly turned it on while we were on generator power and the genny didn’t miss a beat. Now he uses it when ever he needs it. Our power usage didn’t change.
The fire is still sitting in the lounge and can be used any time. I missed putting the kettle on it rather than boiling the jug several times for tea, coffee & Weetbix. I don’t miss the worry of bringing timber upstairs from white ant infested land into a timber house and turning timber into ash and releasing particulates into the air. I didn’t mind chopping and chainsawing. But I liked the convenience of the air-con and wouldn’t go back to the fire.
I live in the suburbs and I have a wood heater. Central gas heating is my main method so the wood burner is just something I fire up on the really cold days and nights for a bit of ambience of a cosy fire.
The wood yards I could go to to get a boot load of cut wood and briquettes have largely disappeared, and buying packaged wood is really expensive.
I could get a yard or two delivered, but then spend hours with a log splitter getting it into right sized pieces, and the prices have tripled in recent years.
And then there is the smoke which could annoy neighbours. And the cleaning it out.
Just cannot see that it would be worth the bother anymore when my current wood supply runs out. The Coonara will be an ‘architectural feature’ no longer used.
I’ve had wood heaters (slow combustion) in the past and found it just too much of a PITA to be splitting the wood, ready for the evening and night. Had an oil heater in a past house, the big old Vulcan, too expensive to run, likewise gas, which I could have in this house but choose not to, after having had one which even on its lowest setting was too hot, ever mind that it was unflued… daft. Also too expensive to run.
I have oil filled column heaters which work extremely well but only if turned on at the beginning of winter with a set temperature and turned off when the cold weather departs. I have stored them and may get rid of them I’ve discovered I prefer the good old radiator which is instant heat, and is bright enough to remind you to switch off when leaving the house or going to bed. Oil filled are best when you have an active cat or dog, radiators for when they get older and just want to be warm.
I was a long time user of wood heating, when I was on the farm (unlimited supply of wood) now I’ve moved into town & have to purchase wood I couldn’t afford it.
Having wood heating had it benefits & pitfalls, one which annoyed me the most was cleaning the ashes out of the heater, ashes flying all over, breathing it in then the cleanup of the surrounding area of ash dust.
I now use reverse cycle air conditioning, which is supposed to be more economical & energy efficient.
We’ve a slow combustion stove with wetback, HW storage and hydronics supplying 2 x 3.6kW radiators. When we moved in it was our go to for the colder weeks of winter. For other times an electric oil column heater and bedroom AC (wall rattler) provided warmth as required. Being on a small rural lot we have a sustainable supply of our own wood. The block splitter doubles as a poor man’s home gym.
Subsequently we added reverse cycle split system air conditioning for summer to our home. The previously modest 5kWh daily electricity consumption took off briefly until we added rooftop Solar PV. The PV solved the running cost concerns for summer. In winter the PV provided sufficient credits from daytime export to offset the evening demands of using the split system AC’s sufficient to not be too out of pocket. We still use wood, just not as often. From the next round of rate increases for electricity applying from 01 July in SE QLD, our average daily export will not even pay for the daily connection charge. We at least have a choice on how to heat this winter.
All up it cost around $16,000 for the two main splits, two bedroom splits and 5kW solar PV. SE QLD. It’s a substantial outlay, justified by the benefits of cooling in summer, and reduced electricity costs. It would make a useful comparison to consider whether the same could be justified if the priority was winter heating.
We are right on the point of moving house from a lovely, very solar passive home with a wood heater to a home with 2 heat pumps (ie reverse cycle air conditioners). I love the wood heater and as we always had a sustainable wood supply, along with a log splitter and wood chipper it was no problem to keep a good supply of fuel on hand. However, as we’re aging it’s not quite as easy as it was.
I won’t miss the dirt from the wood or the dust floating around and settling everywhere and especially won’t miss the European wasps that hide in any crack or under bark, emerging as soon as they feel the warmth in the house. I will really miss the comfort of backing up to the fire on a cold, miserable winters day while I watch rain pelting down outside. I’ll also miss pre-warming plates and cooking utensils on top of the good old Saxon heater as well as the 2 kettles of hot water whenever I want them plus cooking toast on the coals as a treat on one of those gloomy, wintry days. I suspect my 2 cats will also miss lying on the warm hearth and soaking up the heat.
I’ve only experienced heated air from heat pumps when staying with our son or in hotel accommodation and I’m not really looking forward to that being our only option.
From travels in colder places it’s not uncommon to find a humidifier or two as a solution to improve the feel of the air. It’s not quite the same as the radiated warmth from a fire or rising off the cooking plate on the wood stove.
Our druthers (luxury more than necessity) for winter would be several more radiator panels piped to the hydronics.
For those not keen to burn more ……
There are multi coil insulated SS storage tanks that can service hot water and provide the heat source for a hydronics system. How one heats the tank includes solar flat plate and evacuated tube collectors, electric powered heat pumps, and combustion (wood stove/heater, chip burner, gas, ….). The cost equation for the greenest alternative is between the cost of extra tank capacity, vs battery storage to top up on cloudy days or winter evenings. All a little daunting considering the cost relative to running a split system for a limited number of mornings and evenings each year.
Typically we only heat selectively the kitchen on colder mornings (12-14C or less inside) and less often the living area in the evenings.
I grew up in a small country town where wood chopping was one of my household chores. In numerous rented houses, there were slow combustion and open fires places.
On one or two occasions even a kerosene heater was used but the smell was a bit too much.
Our current family house had a slow combustion wood heater, later replaced with an oil heater, then an un-flued gas heater. This was eventually replaced with a natural gas central heater and even this is being replaced with a reverse cycle HVAC system. The convenience of being able to control the temperature of the various zones within our house now far exceeds the romance and nostalgia of a burning wood fire.
As far as wood heaters are concerned, I miss the cosiness and the relaxing crackle of the fire getting the room heated. I don’t miss the smokey atmosphere and clothing, removing ashes and the smoke stains above the fireplace.
We still have access to timber and use it in an outdoor firepit 2 or 3 times a year for outdoor dinner parties, so I guess we still miss the our fires.
I grew up on a farm with a wood fire and easily accessible wood.
We have now had 2 homes with wood heaters, both in coastal areas, so we don’t get the freezing winter temperatures of many of our inland cousins.
Our first coastal home (1989 - 2008) we had split chopped wood delivered for a reasonable cost.
We are now in our 2nd coastal home and finding it more difficult to source wood and the price is becoming prohibitive. I appreciate that is because we need it cut and split because neither of us is getting any younger and block busters are no longer something we want to have a close relationship with!
Over summer we installed a ducted reverse cycle system throughout our 4 x 2 home. I have to say, we have been very pleasantly surprised by the electricity bill, which was only minimally impacted. We have bought some wood, but are just starting to use it now we are into the colder weather. The heat pump has been fine until now.
In summary: I love the cosiness of the wood heater which is something the heat pump will never be able to replicate IMHO. It also dries wet washing much better, and I love the ability to put a pot on top. Of course the mess and carting wood in are the downsides. The heat pump was a boon when mornings and evenings were cool, but days were nice. It heated up the required rooms quickly and cost effectively and could then be turned right down to kick in again when the temperature dropped. The ability to control the temperature in individual rooms with the ducted system is also a big plus.
Today you would have to drive a diesel truck 500 kilometres to emit as much air pollution as a wood heater does in a single day. And that figure is for a wood heater that meets the current regulatory standards in Australia. Most do not.
On the solutions:
Buy-back schemes, home efficiency subsidies, regulation and enforcement, including property market regulation (ensuring wood heaters are removed prior to sale), and restrictions on new installations all have a role to play.
We are conducting economic modelling to determine the most cost-effective policy settings for maximising the benefits of policies to manage the problem of wood heaters.
There is much more to this problem than economics and public health. Whatever they come up with it will not be accepted universally. Factors like poverty, tradition, ignorance and conservatism may all predispose one against this change. In regions outside cities those factors can overlay quite a bit, in some households all four apply.
If nothing else the more one is surrounded by agriculture and rural life, the more one is exposed to more than just smoke from the home wood stove or heater.
Our local council charges the community to dispose of their trailer loads of green waste at the recycling centre. The council piles up periodically bringing in a tub grinder and grab excavator to chip it all for mulch. No surprise those on rural residential lots find it more convenient to hold regular bonfires.
For any regulation to be taken seriously and to be effective, at least in my backyard, it will need more than a token effort to restrict household wood burning.
It might need much more than cash to change the thinking, given the preferences of the demographic.
Pasture burning is a time honoured quick fix for weed infestation that envelopes some districts in smoke every year in late winter or early spring. The same people who will bend your ear about the terrible smoke from a bushfire will shrug about deliberately lit grass fires. I reckon at least three of the four factors I mentioned are relevant.
We all breathe the same air regardless of the reason it may be polluted.
The same goes for backburning to keep communities safe. As a fire brigade member I know that it causes concern with some but it needs to be done on a regular basis to keep the bush ‘fuel load’ low and managable. Landholders of rural blocks apply the same strategy to keep themselves and their neighbours safe from major disaster
Lots of thoughtful contributions here.
We have wood heating in a well-insulated suburban house and are not thinking of changing - although I sense social pressure will increase to change to electricity, ostensibly for health reasons.*
I’m in my mid-70s and still enjoy scavenging, sawing, splitting, stacking and drying firewood. We have about two years supply under cover with half of that drying out for winter 2024. I gather all our wood for free.
I am surprised that no one has mentioned the security of being self-sufficient for heating in the event of a power outage. Most extreme weather events occur in the warmer months, but this is not guaranteed.
What plans do you have for keeping warm if your electricity is out for a week or two in winter?
[* I say “ostensibly” because shifting to electricity is another example of governments extending their control - and reducing the independence of families and citizens - in a lot of areas. I find this uncomfortable.]
I must say I get most of my wood from scavenging too. A friend did some restumping, so took the old stumps off him for free, and some circular saw work gave me years of quality hardwood for heating in the Coonara.
Often see wood on the nature strips left out for the taking. It’s in my boot after a quick stop. Same with wood pallets often seen just lying around at the back of shops just begging to be taken to a good reuse.
A while ago now we in Victoria had to turn off the gas after an explosion at the Longford gas processing plant. That knocked out my central heating. But the wood heater kept me warm as a backup.
