When it’s cold and snowing outside there’s nothing better than walking into a warm, cosy house other than walking into a warm, cosy house with a roaring, open fire. There are some great advantages to having a real fire through the winter, the main one being the fact that it prevents your heating bills from going through the roof so you won’t get any surprise bills in the New Year. Real fires are also brilliant through the winter storms when you’re left with no power for hours on end, a real fire carries on working so you can still stay warm and toasty.
Late autumn and early winter sees a dramatic drop in people’s moods, supposedly because of the weather. The cold mornings and dark nights not only cause depression but can also cause tiredness and weight gain as people begin to eat heartier meals to keep themselves awake and salad is definitely a no no in the winter. A real fire creates a gentle and calm atmosphere and in some respects lifts the mood due to its natural light; it means people can turn off the lights throughout the home and take in the dance of the flames.
Real fires are also a great way to warm the home quickly and once you’ve got it going – as long as you keep feeding it – it will keep going all day and all night long. This is not only a great form of heat but also light too, you can turn off the electric lights and enjoy dinner by fire light instead.
Winter is pretty bad time for the less well-off families as everyone knows you can’t possibly manage without the heating being on 27/7 but there’s also the anticipation of the next month’s electric bill which is never a gift. A real fire can reduce the monthly utility bills dramatically and they’re not expensive to keep going either. If you have a big garden, every time you cut a tree down make sure you cut it down into logs and save them for winter for your fire. You can also keep it going with kindling wood – which you can buy from garden centres and petrol stations – and newspaper too.
Real fires are not only good to your wallet but they’re also good to the environment. Many people think that because you’re pummelling smoke into the atmosphere it’s causing real damage but this is simply not true when you think about the ways that you’d be heating your home otherwise – electricity, oil and natural gas. All of these count as fossil fuels and are therefore not renewable but wood is as it can be continually reproduced.
Shane Molns shares his interest in Fire Surrounds for the home.
The Benefits Of Having A Real Fire
