With the credit crunch really starting to bite in a lot of households families are starting to take a long hard look at the family expenditure to see where they can cut back. For many this includes cutting out eating out or buying take outs, clothing and unnecessary fuel guzzling trips. Also high on the agenda is the cost of heating and household electricity use.
Apart from the economic gloom mongers out there, there is also a constant buzz about global warming and saving the environment so how do you put the two together?
Lighting is for the most part quite easy with a little discipline. Simply make sure you switch off all unused appliances and lighting if nobody is in the room and don’t leave your electrical appliances on standby as you will be astounded at the cumulative cost of all that wasted electricity.
A little household focus will have you saving money in no time as well as doing your bit for the environment too.
That only leaves the heating bills which can soon add up depending what part of the country you live in. I was recently introduced to cast iron stoves as an alternative method of not only heating the house but also for cooking too.
These woodburners as they are also known have been in use for years and I’m sure that we have all seen the odd cowboy film or two where a family is all huddled around the family stove, but seriously though they really do work.
Not only are they economical so you can save money on your heating bills but they also help the environment too as they don’t have to use fossil fuels to work so you can use local wood or even recycled wood fuel.
Once you start investigating them you will quickly find that cast iron wood burning stoves come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and are useful for a whole range of options for example:
You could if your fortunate enough to have a spacious kitchen choose to get a massive range style stove that will serve as the focal point of a busy kitchen or family kitchen come diner. Even smaller stoves come with back boilers so you can heat your home or use it to heat your domestic hot water supply and save money that way.
In the past some people have been put off these very cost effective and environmentally friendly stoves as they only ran on wood but manufactures (bless their cotton socks) have introduced cast iron multi fuel stoves as well.
Multi fuel stoves are really the answer for those who want their cake and want to eat it. You can for the most part switch from using real or recycled wood (or even peat depending on your locality) to your normal gas or electric supply so you never need to worry about running out of fuel.
Save your self money and do your bit for the environment and check out the latest range of cast iron stoves at your local supplier as soon as possible.