News

It appears that over in the UK there is a widespread infatuation with wood fires.  “Escape to the Country” is a BBC lifestyle show based on the concept of showing houses for sale to couples who want to relocate from an urban environment to a rural or country village setting.  Virtually every house shown on the program has at least one wood heater, many have two or three, and a large number have an open fireplace as well.  The cameras always zoom in on the fireplace, especially if it is alight, and the hosts of the show never fail to mention the “wood burner” or “inglenook fireplace” as a selling feature (an inglenook is a seat inside a large open fireplace).  Invariably the prospective buyers make a great fuss about the anticipated joy of burning a wood fire and many stipulate a wood burner as a “must have”.  One interesting observation from this show is that all of the houses have some other type of heaters, mostly hydronic radiators, as their main heating.  The appeal of having a wood fire appears to be the ambience created by the flames and the radiant heat that they generate.  Around 50% of all of the energy consumed in the UK is used for space heating, which means that heating the average house is a substantial cost burden.  No doubt wood fires help to reduce those energy costs as well.