Costs for a standalone stove are around £3,000 including installation. A typical automatically fed boiler for an average home costs around £9,000 including installation and installing a suitable flue. Manually fed log systems are slightly cheaper.

Savings in CO2 emissions are significant - up to 9.6 tonnes per year when a wood boiler replaces a solid (coal) fired system.

Fuel savings are less significant, and if you replace a gas heating system with a wood burning system you may end up paying more for your fuel. But if you replace solid or electricity you could save between £170 and £410 per year.

Wood costs often depend on the distance from your home to a wood supplier and whether you can buy and store wood in large quantities. If you have your own supply of wood fuel then this can significantly reduce your costs. Typically, heating and hot water costs for a year will be around £1,000 in a detached property.

To reduce your home's CO2 emissions further, consider installing solar electricity or some other form of renewable electricity generating system.