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Mythbusting Wood Burner Stoves

In her first article for the newsletter, Melanie Quaniton, Senior Account Handler  & Team Leader in our schemes team, demonstrates the benefits of swithcing from wood burning stoves.
In the last 10 years wood burners have become a must have fashion item for many UK households, with over 175,000 being sold annually in the UK.

Statistics have shown that their energy efficency make them a desirable alternative to open fires and with emmissions only of only 0.008 kg CO2per kWh – compared to 0.198kg for gas, and 0.517kg for electricity, anyone can understand the appeal.

The government are also encouraging new build properties to install them as a secondary heat source.

Amongst the information and statistics, there is a hidden truth that most wood burners don’t fit in Thatch properties from an insurance, efficiency and, ultimately, a safety perspective.

  • With insurers quoting rates 50% above their normal rates as soon as there is mention of one, we’d always recommend clients don’t install them.
  • Critically they centralise heat and force it through a narrow chimeny – a great hazard for many thatch owners where chimney flues often go directly through the roof.
  • Wood burning and coal burning stoves and fires account for 38% of air polluting particulate in the atmosphere – electric sources of heating can often produce a similar level of heat without the environmental impact
  • Embers from the flue are ejected at high pressure due the concentration of heat. These are mostly the source of igntion for roof fires.
  • Open fires are more traditional and often have a great asthetic appeal!

One client of ours wrote:

“I recently renewed my house thatch insurance through County Insurance Services. I have found over 20 years that they quote the most competitive prices. But I also found out this year that the additional premium for our wood burning stove meant that it doubled the annual premium. I had no idea this was the case. I asked Sarah Burrows if I could swap the fire for an LPG stove instead and what difference this would make. She said the entire wood burning premium would be removed and that she would be able to refund the difference once the work was done. I…….changed the stove, sent photos to Sarah, who responded immediately, and she refunded the additional premium that day. The new gas stove (which is excellent) will pay for itself within three years. Sarah could not have been more helpful and efficient in handling this.”

To find out more about our decommissioning advice and the savings policyholders are able to achieve, click here