The Main Energy Saving Light Bulb Options

It might or might not be news to you, but it is nevertheless a fact that for the past few years now most industrialized countries have been phasing out traditional incandescent light bulbs. In many places all incandescent bulbs of 60 watts and above are already unavailable as governments quietly enact legislation to enforce low energy lighting as part of a package of measures aimed at reducing global warming.

So then, whether or not you take global warming seriously, your government certainly does and consequently you will henceforth be required to light your own patch of darkness with low energy light bulbs. So what should you be looking for as you poke around the lighting shelves and find them now devoid of the old familiar light bulbs of yore?

For a start, low energy light bulbs currently come in two main forms: the fairly common CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp) which has been around a few years already; and the, as yet, less well known LED (Light Emitting Diode).

A Tale Of Two Technologies

In terms of purchase price and availability, CFLs are the cheaper option and having been around longer are more plentiful. Compared to incandescent bulbs, CFL are about 4 times cheaper to run and last longer, but given that they are also presently twice as expensive to buy, many wonder at the true savings to be had with CFLs.

LEDs cost at least twice as much again as CFLs and are still something of a novelty in lighting. Many DIY and general hardware stores only offer low power LED spot lights and color changing bulbs, which serve adequately for ambient and mood lighting, but are not realistic as replacements for much existing incandescent lighting.

However, high quality LED light bulbs are easily available from specialist lighting stockists and online, and these really are more than capable of replacing halogen lamps and conventional incandescent light bulbs. For example, the Cree EvoLux LED globe is available with preset dimmer settings to emulate general service lighting ranging from 40w through 60w and right upto 100w, which is plenty bright enough for most folk. Similarly, the Sharp Zenigata LED spotlight produces light virtually indistinguishable from a 50w halogen lamp.

The principal difference between an LED spotlight and say an equivalent halogen spot is energy consumption, or more precisely energy wastage through heat. Some 90% of the energy used to run a conventional light bulb disappears as heat; barely 10% goes towards the very job it is supposed to do, which is produce light. As you can see, the world’s electricity bill (of which 20% is accounted for by lighting) represents wasted money and resources, not to mention environmental harm, on a staggering scale.

This also brings us to a crucial point when considering the cost of electric lighting, which is that the cost is almost entirely made of the running cost i.e. the amount of electricity used to power the lights. The purchase price of the light bulb is for most practical purposes irrelevant.

Getting back to the LED then, this technology presently reverses the heat to light ratio since over 90% of the input energy is converted to light with very little heat loss. The word “presently” however conceals the really astounding feature of LEDs which is that they constantly decrease in cost yet double in power roughly every 18 months. Since they are at heart simply electronic devices, their development parallels that of integrated circuits following what is known as Haitz’s Law (a variation of the famous Moore’s Law describing how computer chips get ever smaller yet cheaper and more powerful).

So we have in LED light bulbs a means to right now reduce energy consumption (and hence running costs and environmental damage) to 1/10th the current levels with the promise that this technology could improve 300 hundred fold within a decade. Put another way, where today you might replace a 60w light bulb with a 6w LED, in just 9 years time you could produce the same amount of light using an LED that consumes a mere 0.003w (3/1000th of a watt).

How To Assess Which LED Light Bulbs Are Right For You

So back to your purchasing decision then. CFLs are the easy option and you’ll certainly walk out of the store having spent less. But in terms of what they actually will save you, then as we have seen they simply don’t bear comparison with LEDs. In fact there are many other serious problems with CFLs relating to their poor aesthetic characteristics, disposal issues (they contain small but not insignificant amounts mercury), and production costs (they have a more complicated design).

On all these points, LEDs perform favourably, but the final nail in the coffin for CFLs is not so much that LEDs are already a better technology for producing high quality, low energy light, but Haitz’s Law. A quite literally dazzling future awaits LED lighting, where for CFLs their future is pretty much already behind them since leading lighting manufacturers such as Philips have already declared that they will discontinue research and development into CFL technology, diverting their resources instead towards LED lighting.

So should you be buying LED light bulbs (which are still fairly expensive) to replace existing lighting? Would it make sense to wait for prices to drop and power to increase? The fact is that if you run the maths it turns out that it’s considerably more cost effective to switch to LED at the earliest opportunity, even if you then upgrade again some years down the line to take advantage of subsequent improvements. To put it as simply as possible: any time you can purchase lighting hardware that significantly decreases the running costs you should do so.

An analogy with computers bears this out - if you kept waiting for the price to be “right” you would still not own a computer and would have pretty much missed out on the modern world as most of us now experience it. People expect to have to replace their computers every so often - not because they’re worn out, but simply to take advantage of the latest improvements.

So assuming you’re at least now interested in the possibility of LED lighting, what should you specifically look for to ensure you end up pleased with your purchase?

Checklist For Buying LED Lights

The thing to remember above all else is that at present cheap, low power LEDs are simply not capable of replacing most existing lighting. Budget LEDs are a false economy. Look for more expensive (yes, the prices will make your eyes water a bit) brand name products such as those mentioned above. These will deliver the both fantastic light quality and remarkable cost savings. I repeat, if you try to install LED lighting on the cheap you WILL be disappointed by the result.

Next comes the issue of assessing brightness. We are accustomed to rating light levels according to wattage i.e. 100w very bright, 40-60w comfortable, below 25w getting somewhat dim. This doesn’t work terribly well as a measure for LEDs. At the moment a reasonable estimate is that an LED will produce as the same level of light as a conventional bulb rated at 10 times its power, so for example a 5w LED should be quite sufficient to replace a typical 50w halogen spot lamp. But obviously, this is set to change as Haitz’ Law does its thing.

A better (or at least more direct) way to assess brightness is by luminosity, measured in lumens (for example, a standard 40w bulbs outputs 360 lumens). However, luminosity by itself is not enough to determine how bright a light source actually appears, since both beam angle and light “colour” are also key components to perceived brightness. Light color is graded using the Kelvin temperature scale where 2000k is referred to as “warm white” and values above 4000k are defined as “cool white”.

Up until recently, LEDs have tended to betray their intrinsically highly directional nature with a very narrow beam, and they have also until recently tended to be on the cool side of things, producing a bluish light. This produces a rather harsh effect with small pools of very bright light surrounded by dark spots. Modern high quality LED spotlights however have much wider beam angles (120 degrees fro example) which give a uniform light pool and their light color is also much warmer.

As a general rule then, the wider the beam angle and the warmer the color, the more an LED will emulate traditional incandescent light quality. Contemporary LED spot lights are especially well suited as low energy a stylish kitchen lighting alternative to halogen lamps.

To sum up, check the suitability of any particular LED light bulb for its intended application by checking the packaging (or if buying from a catalogue or online, the product description) for the following items:

• brand name, price and guarantee (plus an estimated lifespan - 50,000+ hours normally)
• luminosity (or equivalent brightness i.e. “same as 60w”)
• light colour temperature (stated as “cool” or “warm” or given in Kelvins - see above)
• beam angle

If there is scant description, then chances are you’re looking at a cheap low quality LED which is probably best avoided (an exception here being outdoor LED lights where low power is not usually a problem, though reliability is still an issue).

Decide Why You Want To Install A Wood Burning Stove

It might sound obvious, but before you get to the “how” part, you really should sort out why you want to install a wood burning stove in the first place. Many folk overlook this and in so doing lessen their chances of an unltimately satisfying outcome.

Knowing more precisely why you want a wood burner will greatly help when it comes to sorting out the logistics of how to set about installing a wood burning stove. Otherwise, prepare to become swiftly mired in the bewildering and apparently endless range of choices, options and features that await the novice to the world of wood burning stoves.

There are two main areas to consider, and most people who are new to the idea of installing a wood burner start with the wrong one, namely appearance.

It’s understandable, because after all that’s what tends to draw most folk into the whole wood burner concept in the first place - they’ve seen one at a friend’s house, or on the TV or in a glossy magazine and thought “That looks wonderful, let’s have one!”. And indeed the style and appearance of a wood burning stove are very important factors to consider, not least because it’s going to end up installed in a prominent position and act forever more as a focal point.

Decide How Much Heat You Need From A Wood Burning Stove

But as is so often the case, going by looks alone is not always a reliable guide. The other central aspect to consider is arguably more important and will help steer a path through the minefield of choices yet to come; and that is heat output.

Heat output can be represented in a number of ways (here we go again - more choice than you might either need or welcome), amongst them being Joules, Calories and Kilo-calories, but the most common in modern parlance are Btu (British Thermal Units) and kWh (Kilowatt Hours). For reference, 1 kWh is equivalent to 3,413 Btu. In reality all you need to understand is what size area you intend to heat and from that simply calculate the required wood burner heat output.

That said, there is more to take into account than size alone. Much depends on where you live and thus how mild or harsh conditions can be, and also on the quality of insulation and draft proofing in your house. As a rough guide though, you’re probably better to err slightly on the side of under rather than over specifying the heat output of your wood burning stove.

This surprises many people, as the natural assumption when installing any wood burning stove would be to opt for one that is more than capable of delivering the required heat output. The reason is simple enough though; wood burning stoves function best when run at full rate and combustion is optimal, resulting in better fuel consumption, greater efficiency and reduced soot. When run at below its normal nominal output, a wood burning stove will deliver much reduced efficiency, possibly cause problems such as condensation within the flue, and will appear less visually appealing due to smaller flames and poor airflow.

Hopefully, by first setting parameters such as heat output and type (is the wood burning stove intended as a space heater for a single area, or to heat hot water and/or central heating radiators, or to include cooking capabilities?) the remaining choices will be more manageable.

Set Your Budget For Installing A Wood Burning Stove

At this point it’s time to consider another crucial factor. Cost. You now know how much heat output you will require, what form the heat is to take (stored as hot water and/or radiant heat) and quite probably where to locate the wood burning stove. Now you need to consider how much this is going to cost.

This is rather more complicated than simply checking the purchase prices of suitably rated wood burning stoves. You will almost certainly have to pay for specialist installation and there may be further costs if for example a chimney liner is needed or there is no obvious existing flue. Don’t forget also to check compliance with local planning and environmental control policies and to ensure you have access to a reliable supply of suitable wood fuel plus the wherewithal to properly store it.

Much of this can be easily sorted out at this stage by consulting a HETAS approved wood burner installer. As a rule of thumb, expect to pay as much again as your chosen wood burning stove costs for installation.

So after all that, back to the fun part: style and appearance. The limiting factor here is likely to be how long is takes before drooling over catalogues and visiting showrooms starts to lose its appeal and the urge to finally settle for something that ticks the right boxes kicks in.

The Number One Reason Most People Install A Wood Burning Stove

The first question to ask anyone considering installing a woodburner is why? Why do you want to do such a thing? Because the answer to that (and typically there is no single or correct answer) will really help clarify the important features to look for when researching and buying a woodburner.

For many people the attraction of a wood burning stove is simply that it looks and feels good. There is no substitute for a real fire, even if it is safely enclosed behind glass or metal doors. Burning well seasoned wood smells different and feels different and no hot water radiator can ever hope to compete on those terms or even as a feature in a room, come to that. This is basic, primal stuff that’s rooted deep - fire means warmth and comfort and has done since we lived in caves.

Some people install a wood burning stove that they subsequently rarely use - they just like the whole look and use it to provide an eye-catching focal point in a kitchen or living room. This is not unusual when people buy a house that has an existing, but unused, chimney breast and fireplace - they feel the need to put something in its place. Quite often there’s also an Aga or Rayburn in the kitchen doing a similar job - looking decorative while the day to day heating and cooking functions are in reality conducted using a conventional boiler, oven and hob.

Install A Wood Burning Stove To Save Money And Save The Planet

On a more logical plane, there are good financial reasons to install a wood burner. When used as the primary heat source a wood burning stove can save significant sums of money since wood biofuel is much cheaper than oil, gas or electricity powered heating systems.

Even people who install a woodburner as a complementary heating or cooking capability that coexists with an existing central heating system can realise serious savings. That’s because it’s common to want to heat the rooms most in use, such as the lounge and kitchen, and a wood burning stove does just that without needlessly heating empty bedrooms. When the whole house needs heat then the regular central heating system can take over, but it’s not wasting heat when it doesn’t need to.

Wood burning stoves are also surprisingly efficient. An open fireplace is typically rather less than 25% efficient, meaning that three quarters of the available energy is wasted (as smoke, particles and simply up the chimney); however, a modern woodburning stove reverses this ratio and is likely to be more than 75% efficient, which is close to what gas and oil boilers can achieve. This greater efficiency is largely due to better combustion of the fuel and as a result, far less smoke and soot is created.

People concerned about the environment and the world we might be leaving for our children (which is increasingly ever more of us) can take comfort from the fact that burning wood is among the most ecologically sound sources of energy available. In many cases, the wood used to fuel a woodburner is recycled waste material anyway (wood chips and wood pellets, which are manufactured from compressed sawdust). But even when not recycled, trees are still an abundant resource on the planet and are endlessly renewable - plant a new tree for each one cut down and the sun and CO2 will do the rest.

In fact, trees are arguably the ultimate in solar power since they not only store the sun’s energy in a convenient and easy to use form that can be stored until needed, but they also absorb and lock away carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

This process is not totally “carbon neutral” but it comes close and the maths produce a compelling argument in favour of using wood biofuel. When a tree dies or is cut down the carbon it has locked up is release back to the atmosphere - regardless of whether the wood is burned or left to rot naturally. But a live tree not only contains a significant amount of carbon (it’s basically what trees are made of), it is continually absorbing CO2, storing the carbon and releasing pure oxygen back into the air.

And the point is that in order to exploit wood as a biofuel, it is necessary at any given time to stock far more live trees than are cut down for use in wood burners. The math is simple: if your annual requirement for wood amounts to (for the sake of argument) the equivalent of a single tree and it takes, say, fifteen years to grow that tree to harvestable size, then you personally would need to permanently maintain a stock of no less than fifteen trees and plant a new one each year (to replace the one you used).

As you can see, each extra person opting to burn wood would require an additional 15 live trees adding to the forest and all those extra trees are at any moment in time absorbing and locking away 15 times as much CO2 as the one you burn during the course of the year. This is way superior to carbon-neutral - so long as the supply is responsibly managed it can actually help soak up excess carbon dioxide. Renewable, recyclable and scalable energy - there’s not much else that can make a similar claim.

Why Most People Want To Install A Wood Burning Stove

One very big reason that people consider installing a wood burning stove is however rarely mentioned. And the reason is that many folk focus only on the positive aspects and fail to grasp the full costs of buying, installing and maintaining a wood burning stove.

Take the rose tinted glasses off and understand that yes, there are many positive aspects to owning a woodburning stove, but like much else of any value in life, there are both disadvantages and advantages to installing woodburning stoves and it don’t always come cheap or easy. You get what you pay for - though a lot depends of course on what you actually want from your wood burner (which is what this article is all about really).

Finally, you should consider any necessary modifications (such as constructing a flue, fitting a liner to your chimney, etc) and installation costs which can easily be double or triple the cost of buying the woodburner itself. And when you’re done with all that, you’ll have the reality of sourcing wood, storing and loading wood, and having your wood burner and chimney regularly cleaned.

If, having thoroughly checked the many options and costs associated with installing a wood burning stove, you properly understand what’s involved and why you want to do it, the next step is to to look at how to install a woodburning stove.

LED Home Lighting and Kitchen Lighting Design

Modern LED home lighting is well suited to most kitchen lighting applications. Kitchen lighting design typically requires clean, crisp light with good CRI (Color Rendering Index) characteristics - it is always a good idea when preparing food that you can clearly see what you are doing and what condition it is in.

Ideally, kitchen lighting design should aim to strike a balance: sufficiently bright and suitably positioned to provide good illumination especially around work spaces such as the hob, sink and food preparation areas; yet without appearing unduly harsh. In many, if not most, households, the kitchen is the heart of the home and should therefore be a warm and welcoming place, not stark and sterile. It’s a kitchen after all, not an operating theatre.

Some of the best kitchen lighting ideas are achieved by using lots of lighting, which doesn’t just mean adding a few more ceiling roses. Kitchen lighting design requires many different types of lighting fitted in different places. In fact, probably the worst way to light a kitchen is to hang a few bright fluorescent tubes from the ceiling. Sure, you’ll get bright light - but it will be flat and cold and almost guaranteed to give you a headache in short order.

One of the obvious problems with using central ceiling lights for kitchen lighting is that you invariably end up with dark spots and find yourself perpetually standing in your own shadow. Until recently, a common solution to these problems with kitchen lighting was to install numerous halogen spotlights as downlights spread uniformly across the ceiling and supplement these with targeted lighting for work surfaces and cooking, using under cabinet lighting and hob lights.

If you can’t stand the heat, use LED Kitchen Lighting

This solution works reasonably well, but it is not without drawbacks. The main problems associated with halogen lamps are that they run very hot, they don’t last terribly well and they are a fiendishly expensive way to light a kitchen. Most of the cost (i.e. more than 90%) of incandescent lighting in general and halogen lamps in particular is to be found in the electricity they consume; as a rough guide, the more heat a light bulb throws out the more wasteful and thus expensive it is to run.

The same problem applies, albeit to a lesser extent, to under cabinet lighting, where the proximity to the underside of a shelf means that items in the cupboard above are invariably exposed to some amount of heat.

However, these days there is a very good solution that is well suited to most kitchen lighting designs: LED kitchen lighting. Simply replace existing halogen spotlights and under-cabinet lighting with 12v LED equivalent light fittings. This is pretty much a matter of replacing existing 12v transformers with one (or more, depending on the number of lights involved) constant voltage 12v LED driver and then swapping out the halogen lamps for LED equivalents. If using mains voltage lighting this is even easier as all that is required is to remove existing GU10 spotlights and replace them with GU10 LEDs.

Here’s a handy checklist for what to look for when buying low energy light bulbs.

How to Get the Best from LED Spotlights

When installing LED spotlights it is important to try and match the luminosity (brightness), color temperature (how cool/blue or warm/yellow) and beam angle of the type of halogen lamps you might otherwise have considered using.

You can find out more about choosing LEDs but as a rule, the wattage rating for an LED light bulb should not presently drop much below 10% that of the equivalent halogen lamp (or indeed, most any incandescent light bulb). So in order to replace a 35w halogen lamp look for an LED rated above 3w, to replace 50w then choose a 5w LED and so on. This ratio is certain to change over the coming months and years, with ever lower LED wattages able to deliver ever increasing levels of brightness, but for now 1:10 is about right.

The colour temperature affects how cool or warm a light source appears. It is a common myth that LEDs create a bluish light that is rather cold in appearance. LED lights come in a whole variety of color temperatures (and indeed, colors) but since it has always been easier to manufacture bluish LEDs, that is what many cheap LEDs are. If you look for what is termed “warm white” or a colour temperature below 3500K you should get a close approximation to the kind of crisp white light normally associated with halogens.

Finally beam angle should be considered. The narrower the angle (say 45 degrees) the more focused and spot-like the light will appear, whereas 120 degrees for example will give an evenly spread distribution of light without “hot-spots” or glare. At present, arguably the best LED spotlight to opt for as a direct replacement for halogen spots is the Zenigata LED from Sharp.

The determining factors for which brightness levels, color or beam angle to adopt in the end come down to how far from any surfaces the lights are to be placed, the nature of the surface(s) and personal taste. If you’re after a sharp, modern look and have a lot of reflective materials (such as steel) then many smaller, cool LEDs set close to reflective surfaces could look effective. Alternatively, wider angles using warm white LED lights would produce a slightly softer ambience and more flexibility as regards location.

Always remember that one of the biggest elements in how any artificial light appears is the nature of surface(s) it shines on. If you want to warm things up then direct your lighting at warm colored areas (terracotta tiles or natural wood or simply a creamy yellow painted surface). Conversely, to add dramatic effects try directing blue LEDs at predominantly dark surfaces (blue, green, gray and black for example). There’s nothing to stop you using lights with differing characteristics to match different textures and colors in order to achieve specific effects in separate areas of the kitchen.

New Possibilities With LED Kitchen Lighting Ideas

LED kitchen lighting ideas extend way beyond simply replacing expensive halogen downlights, offering a whole new set of possibilities unimaginable with regular incandescent lighting. As mentioned above, LEDs can provide zero-heat under cabinet lights to throw light onto worktops below. These come in the form of recessed and surface mount miniature spots and also as LED strip lights. As with all LED applications, these are low voltage 12v lights that have extremely low energy consumption, exhibit zero UV/IR radiation or heat and are thus inherently safe even in a demanding environment such as a kitchen.

LED strip lights are ideal for kitchen lighting. These come in connect-together 300mm lengths (the standard unit of measure for kitchen units) and are a series of closely packed LEDs inside a waterproof transparent plastic cover which both protects and creates an even and consistent light source. A single LED strip light typically consumes rather less than 1w of electrical power and emits up to 50 lumens light - in other words, accent lighting.

The versatile nature of LED strip lighting is such that it can be used to accent just about anything. They are available as fixed length or flexible strips and are lightweight, quick and easy to install, usually using little more than self adhesive backing. Use them as LED plinth lights, to pick out coving or simply to illuminate worktops.

LED plinth lights using either LED strip lighting or individual LED mini-spots lends a contemporary feel to any kitchen and looks especially good on polished floors. Being water resistant makes them ideal for lighting kitchen areas where water might splash (as a side note, this type of LED lighting application is also perfect for use in bathroom to again introduce a modern feel, as well as for use around ponds or decking outdoors).

Some of the more extravagant applications for LED kitchen lighting design include LED drawer lights - these are usually battery operated and attached to a sensor that detects when a drawer or cupboard has been opened or closed and switch an internal LED light on or off accordingly. Or how about illuminated shelf lighting, as in lit from actually within the shelf itself? Or LED wall wash effects bounced off ceramic tiles behind the hob? Or picking out edges below or at the back of worktops? The list of LED kitchen lighting ideas just seems to go on and on.

Of course, if you go overboard you run the risk of looking like Santa’s Grotto crashed into your kitchen, but pick one or two lighting ideas and you’ll be surprised how stunning even a small amount of LED Kitchen Lighting can look.

The Differences Between a Wood Boiler, a Wood Burning Stove and a Gas Boiler

How does a wood burning boiler stove (or more commonly, a wood boiler) differ from a regular wood burning stove (or wood burner) or a conventional oil or gas boiler?

The central and obvious difference between a wood burning stove and a wood boiler is the addition of a metal box containing water that uses heat from the wood burner to heat that water, which is then piped to household radiators and/or stored in a hot water cylinder for washing and so on. A wood boiler differs from a normal oil or gas boiler simply by virtue of the fact that it burns wood to produce heat with which to heat water.

For the record, the term boiler has its origins in the Steam Age of the Industrial Revolution, where water was indeed heated to boiling point in order to produce steam to power pistons and the like. Modern boilers do not in fact boil water and typically have safety devices to prevent this happening. Water heated in a “boiler” is typically in the range 50 to 70 degrees centigrade.

As ever in the world of wood burning appliances, there is a bewildering variety of styles, sizes and makes of wood burner to confuse you choose from. Some look very much like the traditional woodburner - black metal with a glass window - we’re all familiar with while others more closely resemble a conventional gas boiler.

The differences in aesthetic styling are usually a function of the intended purpose and location of the wood boiler. If it is to be installed in a main room, say the lounge, then it is probable that it will also be required to provide space heating and to look like a typical wood burning stove. If on the other hand the wood boiler is purely for the utilitarian purpose of heating water for radiators and bathing then most people prefer that it be fitted in a kitchen or utility room and that the wood boiler conforms to the expected outward appearance of a normal gas boiler.

How a Wood Boiler Works

Regardless of the apparently endless permutations in looks though, all wood boiler stoves perform the same function the same way by transferring heat from the wood burning stove to water in the “boiler”, which is then pumped to heat radiators or stored as domestic hot water.

The boiler is, as noted above, nothing more complicated than a water-filled metal box with a number of what are called “tappings” that permit water pipes to be attached. Obviously there is at least one input, providing cool water and one output for the heated water to flow away once it becomes hot enough (but before it actually boils). A common design of wood boiler involves replacing the firebricks that insulate the back of the firebox with the boiler itself - these being termed wood burning back boilers for self-evident reasons.

Connecting a wood boiler to the household heating system is little different to installing a conventional gas boiler system, but even if you are capable of installing a conventional heating system you would still be well advised to consult a heating engineer experienced with wood boiler systems. But in principle, connect an output tapping to the domestic radiator feed pipe and connect the radiator return pipe to an input tapping. If using under floor heating then you need to connect the wood boiler to a hot water tank (quite commonly an “accumulator” tank capable of keeping a large quantity of water hot for extended periods) and connect the underfloor heating system to the tank.

Points to Consider Before Installing a Wood Boiler

A wood boiler stove can run the central heating system and provide plentiful hot water for houses of all sizes, but there are a number of points worth bearing in mind if you are thinking of installing a wood boiler. Most of these are the exact same set of things to consider when installing a woodburner of any kind, but there are a couple of considerations specific to wood boilers.

A key difference between a modern oil or gas boiler and a wood boiler is the length of time needed for the water output from the wood boiler to reach the required temperature. Many modern gas boilers deliver hot water on demand, but a wood boiler takes time (not unlike filling a large kettle). The solution to having constantly available hot water has been around for a very long time and is simply to have the wood boiler store the heated water in a hot water tank and draw the water from that as and when needed.

The other point to pay attention to is the heat output rating for a wood boiler. This is quoted in BTUs (British Thermal Units) and wood boiler stoves can deliver heat output from 5,000 to 90,000 or more BTUs. To calculate roughly how many BTU’s heat you would need simply work out how many square feet of space you want to heat and do the sums as follows.

BTUs = square feet * 40

So if your house covers 1200 square feet in total (easiest is to count each room separately then add it all up) you would need a wood boiler that could output 48,000 BTU. The weighting factor of 40 used for this example will vary according to where you live. A value of 40 is good for latitudes on a par with New York, so much of Northern Europe upto and including the UK. If you live nearer to Canada or in Scandinavia then consider a value of 50-55; Southern United States and Mediterranean Europe could drop to 30. As ever, if you don’t know - ask someone who does, like a professional heating engineer.

However, we’re not quite done with BTU ratings. Always check with a wood boiler BTU rating whether the figure quoted is the maximum or nominal rated output. In general you want the nominal BTU rating, as this states the output for the boiler’s normal operation. Like most things in life, a wood boiler will not benefit from being run at maximum output all the time, so ensure you install a wood boiler whose “nominal” output matches your heating requirements.