We were delighted to be part of the latest episode of Sarah Beeney’s Double Your House for Half the Money, where our Alpine Eiger was selected to increase the value of the home of Sarah and Jason. There is lots of evidence to show that installing a quality wood burning stove into a house increases the sale value and desirability and it is great to see that this is being championed by a prominent interior designer such as Sarah Beeney and great that she picked one of our range to showcase.
Category Archives: Alpine Stoves
Environmental Benefits
Alpine wood burning stoves are becoming better in an environmental sense due to no small part of the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere being the same as that absorbed by the tree during growth.
It is also a renewable fuel source; this is most effectively so when wood is taken from cultivated woodland. When using your alpine wood burning stove, for the best results, we recommend logs that have been seasoned for 2 years or more. This will give you up to twice the output of freshly chopped timber and help prevent a build-up of tar in your alpine wood burning stoves flue.
Burning wood with advanced Alpine wood burning stoves, a stove that is CE certified makes the flames big and colourful; this makes a huge difference form the dark, ragged flames you would get in an open fireplace.
Not only do the advanced modern alpine wood burning stoves burn much cleaner and more efficiently than older conventional stoves, but the view of the flames are better to boot!
These are some of the benefits of upgrading to CE certified Alpine wood burning stoves, you can save wood (fuel), reduce smoke pollution and enjoy a great view all winter.
Carbon Benefits
The Forestry Commission (recognized by UK government) have begun steps to plant millions of trees to cover an extra targeted 4% of the UK in forest, this equals up to an estimated 29,000 football pitches, they are going to make this a yearly goal to create an increase of 16% the UK’s total land.
A recent study from the Solid Fuel Technology Institute said that logs are in fact the cheapest form of heating fuel. The cost per KW of fuel is now around 4p (estimate). The comparison is 5p for anthracite, 7p for gas, 8p for oil and 12p for electricity. Therefore Alpine wood burning stoves are a great environmental alternative to regular heating solutions.
Stoves Buyer Guide Part 2
Are Alpine Wood Burning Stoves an Eco Friendly Choice?
Wood as a fuel is an eco-friendly choice in itself. Sustainable, renewable, and if used correctly and cleanly can become a completely carbon neutral way of heating at living space/home. Wood pellet stoves burn pellets made from recycled wood waste or sawdust; don’t be shy to browse our Alpine Stoves collection. However, the flame effect of a pellet stove is not as good as a log-burning stove.
Size of Alpine Stoves
Wood burning stoves from Alpine push out far more heat than a traditional open grate where nearly most of the heat escapes up through the chimney. Heat output is measured in kilowatts and the stove size as well as the type of chimney, flue used and wood burned are all factors that determine how much heat is radiated. If you place an Alpine stove that is too big for the room, the room will become too hot on standard settings. If you attempt to run the stove continuously on a lower setting to reduce heat output, this can cause a build-up of resin. Over time, this increases the risk of a chimney fire.
Where Can Alpine Stoves be Placed?
Alpine stoves need a flue to take the expelled gases out of the room. In a large fireplace opening or inglenook, the stove’s flue pipe rises straight up the chimney, while stoves set in front of a smaller fireplace have a short horizontal flue leading to the chimney opening.
In a contemporary setting Alpine stoves can sit in the room rather than before the chimney, and the flue can be on view, rising straight to the ceiling instead of up the chimney, but beware if you have a young family, the body of the stove gets very hot so wherever you site it, you’ll need a good fireguard. The stove needs to sit on a ‘constructional’ hearth made from concrete, stone, slate or terracotta.
Stoves Buyers Guide Part 1
What would You like Your Stove To Do?
Heating up a room in your home or supplying hot water to a room has always been options but people see wood burning stoves as a lifestyle choice as well. Picking a stylish designer stove can transform any living space in your home. Whatever your home styling you live in, either a compact urban townhouse or a country cottage setting, both traditional cast iron and contemporary wood burning stoves work equally well in either home setting.
Clean Glass System
A clean glass burning system offers an unrestricted view of open flames from inside the stove. This is of course very pleasing to the eye and after all, as well as giving you with a practical heating option, a wood burner creates a great ambience as well. Without the Clean Glass system, the glass may blacken and it’s a tricky job to keep clean.
Are they Efficient?
Wood burning stoves and multi fuel stoves are all highly efficient, most stoves run at up to 87% efficiency, which compared with up to 25% for a traditional open coal fire is a great amount of difference! The most efficient wood burning stoves use something called ‘cleanburn’ technology, this works by introducing pre-heated air into the smoke at the top of the firebox that combusts the hydrocarbons from the smoke, which results in less pollution.
What Are The Latest and greatest Designs?
The styling of modern wood burners are in such a wide variety these days, they include freestanding versions, three-legged models and some that can swivel so you are able to direct the heat where you want. If you’re looking for a traditional, old-style stove in black or a colourfully painted or enamel style are very easy to find, in contrast to their period looks, they’re stuffed with modern technology. Made from cast iron or steel, stoves are super-efficient heaters; look out for eco-friendly versions that burn eco-friendly pellets, or practical boiler stoves that will heat water as well as the room.
Wood Burning Or Multifuel?
Being clear about what each term means is therefore invaluable and will help you to come to a final purchasing decision more easily. Many of Alpine stoves for example the 250 cast iron stove, are made to be either log burning or multifuel burners, it is necessary to be clear on which would best for your individual heating needs.
What is a multifuel stove?
A multi-fuel wood burning stove is designed to burn a range of fuels:
- Wooden logs
- Smokeless fuel
This is possible by the central riddling grate and ash pan, or a raised grate that has bars which allows the stove to efficiently burn many types of materials. Unlike wood burning stoves, the fuel bed needs to be de-ashed to help create and manage for the best combustion and the best burning as well. The design of Alpines multifuel stoves includes an ash pan underneath the grate to both collect and enable the safe removal of the ashes that are created during burning times.
Innovations in Alpines stoves design have helped with this burning process and make a quicker, easier and cleaner air wash process. It is worth noting also the improvement that an air inlet makes to efficient combustion as it introduces air from underneath the grate.
What is a wood burning stove?
A wood burning stove runs far more effectively when the fuel is allowed to sit on a bed of ashes. For this reason you will note that a wood stove usually has a fixed grate with a flat base. This ensures that the ashes created when logs are burning are collected in the base of the firebox to allow fresh logs to be placed on top: this greatly assists the combustion process.