How does the cost of running a woodburner compare with other types of heating?
The cost of running a woodburner can be a key consideration for anyone thinking about buying one — particularly for households that have never a woodburner before.
Price is inevitably a major factor when considering buying a woodburner. While there is significant outlay in order to buy and install your stove, will a woodburner save your money in the long-term?
To answer that we need to look at running costs in comparison to other forms of heating, which is easier said than done for a few reasons…
In this article
- Difficulties comparing woodburner running costs with other heating
- Average prices for popular forms of heating
- Monthly woodburner running costs
- How the cost of running a woodburner in 2023 compares to previous years
- Other factors in woodburner running costs
- Do woodburner running costs stack up for you?
Difficulties comparing woodburner running costs with other heating
It’s tricky to make a like-for-like comparison between the cost of running a woodburner and other heating running costs.
1. Different units of heat measurement
Different forms of heating use different units of measurements to track the amount of energy generated and how much it costs you. BTU, litres, therms, kWh and cubic metres are just a handful of units you come against. It means a like-for-like comparison is difficult to achieve.
2. Differences in use
The price of electricity might differ slightly between different utility companies, but its efficiency is the same for all of us when we put the power on. Not so for wood. Various factors can have an impact on the efficiency and therefore the cost to us.
This includes:
- Moisture content. Whether or not the logs have been seasoned correctly.
- Stove use. Whether you’re operating the stove efficiently, with an acceptable amount of fuel and oxygen allowed into the appliance when it’s in use.
- Wood type. Different types of wood burn in different ways, so buying a kilo of one type of logs might provide far more heat or last far longer than a kilo of another wood type.
3. Regional variations
The price of a bag of logs in London will be different than the price in the Scottish Highlands. In fact, there will be price differences in all fuel types around the country. This has a knock-on effect for the cost of running a woodburner and other heating appliances.
4. Price fluctuations
Prices for many heating types are closely tied to the global costs of oil and gas, which means they are liable to change at short notice. There can be significant variations between different energy suppliers and even between different tariffs from the same supplier.
That’s always been the case to some degree, but the situation has been heightened by the geopolitical and economic uncertainty of recent years. Dramatically rising gas, oil and electricity prices — as well as government intervention in the form of price caps — have made it increasingly difficult to keep tabs on the true cost of each form of heating.
Putting all those things to one side, we’ll compile a guide that does the best possible job of comparing the cost of running a woodburner with the price of oil, gas and electricity given the information currently available.
Average prices for popular forms of heating
Based on latest standardised energy costs prepared by the enormously helpful Nottingham Energy Partnership, we’ve compiled a list of average prices for popular forms of heating.
Each form of heating is broken down to a cost per kilowatt hour (kWh). This indicates how many pence it will cost to generate a kilowatt of heat for one hour using that particular form of heating. This is the fairest way of comparing the cost of running a woodburner with other heating options.
Fuel | Cost (pence/kWh) |
Gas | 12.51 |
Oil | 6.75 |
Coal | 11.12 |
Smokeless Fuel | 14.12 |
Kiln-dried logs | 10.88 |
Electricity | 39.05 |
Based on the figures shown above, the running costs of a woodburner are comparable to most forms of central heating and significantly cheaper than electricity and gas.
These figures are correct as of June 2023. All prices are based on fuel supply for a medium-sized home and are based on the prices of fuel suppliers in the East Midlands.
Monthly woodburner running costs
Another way of measuring the cost of running a woodburner is to look at how much you’ll spend on logs each month. The Stove Industry Alliance calculates that you will burn around 3.5 cubic metres of logs each heating season if you’re using a woodburner during evenings and weekends.
The SIA puts the price of kiln-dried logs at between £150 and £190 per cubic metre. That makes the approximate annual cost of logs at £600 to £700 per year, which is equivalent to a heating bill of £50-£79 per month.
How the cost of running a woodburner in 2023 compares to previous years
You won’t need us to tell you that the price of logs has gone up in 2023 because you’ll be well aware that the price of everything has gone up given the current levels of inflation. From the average energy prices above, it’s notable that the average price of kiln-dried logs has not risen as dramatically as other forms of heating.
The prices of both gas and particularly electricity have increased significantly in recent years. The cost per kWh of electricity has almost doubled since 2019, while gas — previously slightly cheaper than oil heating — is now considerably pricier than kerosene.
Other factors in woodburner running costs
Woodburners do have a few tricks up their sleeve in comparison to other forms of heating. It’s worth thinking about these when weighing up the running costs of a woodburner. Let’s consider some of those now…
Free wood = free energy
The price shown in the table above is based on the cost of buying logs. If you can source fuel for your woodburner for free, you will immediately be able to bring your running costs down to zero.
Unseasoned logs are cheaper
The price featured refers to the cost of buying kiln-dried logs. While you should only use well seasoned logs on a woodburner, one alternative option is to buy or source unseasoned logs and then leave them to dry. That will bring down the cost of logs and the cost per kWh of running your log burner. You’ll just need to make sure to chop, split and stack your logs, leaving them to season for several months or longer Learn more about seasoning wood.
You get energy independence
As we’ve seen in recent years, most forms of heating are subject to the vagaries of the international energy market. We’re now well aware that events in Russia or elsewhere can have a significant impact on the amount we pay to heat our homes.
With logs, you can at least ensure that any costs are local to you. If you’re able to source free wood you can make useful completely independent of the global energy market.
Do woodburner running costs stack up for you?
So, the question of whether a woodburner saves you money on your heating is dependent on what you’re burning, where and if you’re buying the logs and how you’re burning them. It will also depend on the size of your home, where in the country your property happens to be and what alternatives forms of heating available to you.
In all cases, if you have reasonably priced or free logs available, the running costs of a woodburner should compare very favourably with other types of heating. Of course, this is dependent on how carefully the stove is being operated. Follow these tips to operate your woodburner efficiently.
Interesting comparison table. We have bottled gas which works out around 12p per kWh, and our electricity was 18p per kWh until we switched supplier and reduced it to 14p. It’s really good to know that our planned wood burner installation should still halve the cost of keeping ourselves warm!