All about stoves
Heat your home with a pellet stove
One of the best ways to heat your home - and save money while doing it - is by installing a pellet stove or even a biomass boiler.
Pellet stoves add a great deal of character to a room and can burn hotter than a traditional wood burning stove and very often they can also burn longer.
They allow you to burn a wide variety of biofuels - which can include standard wood pellets, usually available to buy online or via many of the UK's fireplace and stove shops, or you can "dig a little deeper" and find suppliers of pellets made from other materials, such as corn or even sunflower seeds.
Wood pellets are very tightly compacted and dense which helps them burn very efficiently and powerfully.
They are usually a by-product of sawmills and can be delivered easily due to their conformity of size and weight.
Pellet burning stoves are usually smaller than standard wood burning stoves and they can be either freestanding or inserts which can, as the name suggests, be inserted into a fireplace.
Wooden pellets used to heat rooms are eco friendly and made from recycled wood or chippings that would normally have to be disposed of.
When it comes to installing a biomass boiler, the Government's Renewable Heat Incentive can help to dramatically cut the running costs of your home heating.
Its purpose is to adopt a spread of technologies across Great Britain, including biomass, solar thermal and air source heat pumps.
A UK householder taking advantage of the technology must agree to monitor the heat performance of their home and the focus of the scheme is for people "living away from the gas grid:, where fossil fuels like heating oil are usually more expensive.
You can find out more about the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme here: www.decc.gov.uk