Woodburner in the house!

I’ve always had a woodburner in my previous homes. I’m drawn to flames and the smell of woodsmoke. Some would say I’m just a socially well adjusted pyromaniac… maybe not even that well adjusted.

There’s nothing more relaxing on a cold winters day than curling up on a comfy sofa with the woodburner softly glowing and crackling away in a corner.

A SIP house with as much extra insulation as ours and underfloor heating to boot isn’t really in need of an additional heat source.

However, electrical outages and power cuts are common here in the islands during the colder months. Suppliers can take days, and sometimes weeks, to restore power to these remote areas.

The logical part of me reasoned that a secondary power source not dependant on the grid would be sensible for such times, providing warmth and the ability to heat basic food on the top, or potatoes in the body of the stove.

The wildly romantic and emotional side of me admitted that this wasn’t the main reason to have one at all.

The woodburner arrived with the installers yesterday afternoon. It’s an Opus 5kW stove, DEFRA approved and Eco design ready, meaning it matches the European regulations being brought in to clamp down on emissions of wood burning stoves that’ll come in later this year.

A day of hard work by Mathew and Kev and she sits resplendent in her corner ready for action. We need to repair the plasterboard on the ceiling where the flue has been cut through, but it’s nearly there.. We have a wee chimney too, firmly braced and tied into the roof against the prevailing winds. We will have fires this winter.

We’re receiving threats of visits with marshmallows on sticks…😊

One more step towards this house becoming a home! 😊