Cheap heating
Everyone is aware these days of the cost of fuel, and thus the cost of heating our homes. The days when we would just bang the heating on full in the winter are long over……. unless you’re a billionaire of course! What everyone ideally wants now, is a house that has an efficient heating system, and a level of insulation that retains that heat once you’ve bought the fuel to provide it. Insulation is compulsory in all new buildings and this aspect of the building regulations is forever being upgraded. (higher and higher levels of insulation required. ) The choice of heating though is still wide.
With the advent of modern insulation, double glazing, and other advances, a solid fuel heat source can be ever more practical. There was a time, when no matter how attractive was your roaring fire in your stone fireplace, the fact is that the majority of the heat was going straight up the chimney, and what little heat did remain in the room was quickly cooled by cold walls and single glazed windows. It was no exaggeration to say that a lot of people woke to ice on the inside of their windows.
There is no need though for that to be the case any longer. You can insulate your house to a level now, where a wood burning stove, will heat most of the house as the heat produced is retained very efficiently.
There is still no substitute for a big roaring log fire in a beautiful stone fireplace, and even that heat source will provide significant amounts of space heating once you’ve taken care of the insulation. Also, if you don’t mind a bit of hard work. You can venture out along roadsides, or in your local woods and collect logs for yourself. That’s practically ‘free’ home heating. (and a bit of keep fit too!)