After submitting meter readings a few days, we’ve received a new energy bill. The previous readings/bill had reduced our monthly electricity and gas costs to just £34. While it was clear that the new stove would have reduced our energy costs, we realised that a drop from £120 a month was unrealistic. 

So, I’d intended to pay above the £34 to avoid a sharp increase after another winter. However, that didn’t happen, and so I’m now faced with another change in payments. A drop to £25 a month. 

Taking into the cost of firewood, that means our last year’s energy costs have been an impressive £618. Better still, taking into account the new decrease, that could be around £510 for the next year. 

Pre-stoves, our annual costs were around £1,440. Which gives us a saving of at least £798 over the past year. I’d not actually anticipated saving anything overall, so this is a nice bonus. 

Of course, this has been a mild winter, so we`ve needed only six tons to firewood. But it does mean that the new stove has already paid for itself. 

And, since wood is a carbon neutral fuel, our environmental impact is looking pretty good.