Solid Fuel Ranges - Good idea?

wiredup

The missus and I are thinking of doing up the kitchen. We've always wanted a range and as we work from home we are thinking a sold fuel range might be the way to go. The oil/gas ones are appealing but as we are at home we can keep the thing topped up but I'd like to hear from anyone here who has either and can give me an idea of running costs and instillation costs.

We are currently looking at the Stanley and Rayburn ranges. Aga seem a bit of a status system with a price to match and they no longer produce a solid fuel range. The Stanley seems to cost around €5000 but I prefer the look of the rayburns. I'm not sure of their price as yet. Are there any other makes I should look at? What are the instillation costs?

Regarding the solid fuel. How often does it need topping up? We will be using it for our hotwater/heating as well although we might keep the oil boiler that we currently have installed to take advantage of the timer and use it to heat the house in the morning for a couple of hours.

So we can assume our range is going to be on all day/evening everyday of the year. I guess as we wouldn't require the heating for some of the summer months it might not burn so much fuel or does it burn away regardless of whether you use its full potential or not?
We would probably use a mixture of turf, coal and wood. We have a little land so we might be able to increase the wood fuel over time. How much in fuel would we be looking to spend each year.

Before I rule oil/gas out how does that compare?

Hope someone can give me their experience.
Thanks.

fastrac

A solid fuel range is great in the kitchen.The downside is the fuel and cleaning.If it going most of the time you will need to have a good supply of timber and coal to keep it going.You need to have time to cut,split and store the logs and clean out the ashes.If your clever you can pick up timber,turf during the summer time and enjoy it for the cold nights