If you're wondering why they're so popular, it's because wood counts as "renewable fuel", so it helps EU countries meet their renewable energy targets.
* people have wood anyway so they might as well use it for something
* it often suits the design of houses here which were historically built for a central stove burner like this
* many people have wood-burning stoves for cooking that are extremely large and heavy permanent fixtures in their kitchen and cannot easily be removed or adapted and are designed to permanently be burning wood so you can't really turn them off either
* people like the smell and aesthetic (note this article is in just about the most middle-class publication there is in the UK)
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PL0yBdvSxA
12 minute video from an owner:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQc8p-roy-E
Popular for off-grid situations.
But there is a lot more maintenance with something like this. I have to have about 6 cords of wood to make it through winter (which mostly comes off my property) but that also means handling the fuel (bucking and then splitting the wood as well as having the space to let it season for a year to dry it). Filling up the furnace once or twice a day depending on the weather. Cleaning out the ash once a month. And now that it's getting older (8 years) I have to fix up some of the welds inside the main chamber.
I don't mind the extra work as it saves a lot of money in electricity bills and all that splitting of wood has been good exercise. But I wouldn't recommend it unless you have the time and energy to do the work.
I also live in a very rural area on a 1 hectare lot surrounded by other 1 and 2 hectare lots. I would not want to run this in a typical suburb and I agree with most the other comments that wood burning really shouldn't be a thing in densely populated areas.
Unfortunately for me my only other real option is electricity which can be relatively intermittent where I am and also expensive. It would end up costing $700-$1000 extra during winter months. I'm heating two homes with it. A newer one with walls at an R40+ rating and an older one with walls at a recently upgraded from nothing to an R20 rating. The money I'm saving on electricity will be going into add more insulation into the older home for even better long term benefits.
Check out the below site if you'd like to learn a bit more about what the typical issues are and what's trying to be done to help reduce the problems. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/strateg...
The problem here and described in the article is that people are not using direct vent stoves/fireplaces. What is being talking about are units that vent out a chimney/flue, but take the air for combustion from the house itself. This is not what you want for health or efficiency reasons.
What you want is to take air from the outside, have it combust the fuel, and then be vented outside:
* https://www.napoleon.com/en/ca/fireplaces/blog/how-direct-ve...
* https://www.northcountryfire.com/blogs/news/what-is-a-direct...
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKCwg8jwHd8
The only thing that should enter the living space is radiant heat.
Also: if the smoke exiting your fireplace/stove is dark (or even grey), then you have an inefficient unit. The exhaust air should be clear, as that means 'everything' has been burned. In the US, the now-mandated EPA BurnWise standard has stoves being between 60-80% efficient (depending on the design):
* https://www.epa.gov/burnwise/frequent-questions-about-wood-b...
You can find people saying that they use one-half or even one-third of the wood that they used to after upgrading.
Also a useful hint: if you're going to use one in a domicile where you live for long periods of time, it may be worth looking at soapstone designs, as they retain heat more (though warm up is longer). For shorter periods, e.g., in a cabin/cottage, then iron could be better as it heats/cools quicker, so that may be fine for a (long) weekend stay.
For best results, regardless of heating method, make sure you make your domicile more airtight to reduce drafts, and increase insulation.
Why would that matter? The amount of heat transferred to the living space is the same.
I can see the benefit of radiating some residual heat when not active (for example, through the night) but that seems to be offset by the delay you'd have when you start it up again.
Also, even if the fire goes out you'll get some residual heat and so you have some time to get it going again. This may not be a big deal at 0C, but if it's -20C outside then it may be a higher priority.
From various reviews I've read, the heat 'feels' different: not as intense but rather 'softer' and 'even'.
Could you elaborate? Is it because then you have draft in the room?
Further, creating drafts in houses isn't a good thing as it forces air in via crevices, door jams, windows casings, etc. As it moves these holes who knows what kind of nasty things the air is picking up from behind your walls.
A lot of folks are under the mistaken impression that houses need to 'breathe'; they do not:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIcrXut_EFA
You want your house to be as airtight as possible, and then bring in air in a controlled fashion on your own terms: conditioned and filtered.
Also, there seems to be the dogma with professional renewable planners that room temperature should not rise above 18°C. I know people where their renewable heating was dimensioned too small, who then supplement by wood stove to at least get a cozy living room in winter.
And power mix in central europe, which you feed into your heat pump, is largely coal. Photovoltaics in winter are only a very small part of the mix. Wind depends on the weather pattern, but around here cold weather usually brings calm. Winter is also dry season, so hydro is lacking as well. So your typical heat pump will be far from emission free.
I live in Scotland (1C just now), and through gas central heating (very common) we have the house between 18-20C degrees, depending on how we feel.
When we travel somewhere hot on vacation, and are using AC indoors, we usually have it between 20C and 21C.
When I travel for business to India, the AC in offices is generally set at 25C, and I find that really unpleasantly warm, to the point where it makes me sweat (I'm not a particularly large person) and makes me sleepy.