Automatic wood-fired heating systems are now an established and mature technology and can offer an equal level of convenience to fossil fuel equivalents. However, the capital costs associated with them are unattractive to householders at current prices, even with the availability of significant grants. Consequently, payback periods for pellets stoves, compared to most conventional electric or gas heaters are likely to be unattractive.

Although pellets are currently a marginally cheaper fuel than oil, capital and running costs for a pellet boiler compared to an equivalent oil system result in payback times of over 10 years at current prices. The situation is not helped by the standard rate of 17.5% VAT on procurement wood boilers compared to 5% on most fossil fuel equivalents.

Although wood logs are significantly cheaper than pellets or oil, higher capital costs and practicalities associated with fuel storage will limit the growth of small-scale wood-fired systems in the domestic sector. Logs are the cheapest way of heating your space – around 1/5 the price of electricity per kWh.

It is likely that wood fuelled stoves will become more attractive as fossil fuel prices rise, and carbon-neutral fuels get tax breaks.

• Carbon savings

Wood is a carbon-neutral fuel in that burning releases CO2 (the same amount as if the trees died and rotted) but new trees absorb it. Growing trees absorb more CO2 than mature trees, so as far as global warming is concerned, it is better to harvest mature trees and continually replace them with new ones.

Wood is a renewable resource that provides a habitat for wildlife. It also has a good energy balance, i.e. can be locally produced, requiring very little processing or transport energy (logs more so than pellets, although pellets release less of the pollutants that cause acid rain).

Emissions from wood stoves are better than coal, oil or gas as regards NOx and SOx (acid rain) and carbon monoxide but worse for particulates. For space heating, emissions and energy losses from power stations make electricity the worst option environmentally.

Modern ‘clean burn’ stoves can be used in smokeless zones; they use secondary combustion, baffles or catalyts to maximise combustion of gases and particulates, reducing emissions and increasing efficiency.