Why we chose a bioethanol stove

I’ve always loved the cosy warmth and soothing glow of a real flame, and a working fireplace was high on the wish-list when we moved from the city to the countryside. 

Sadly the original fireplace had long since been removed from the living room of our little cottage, leaving the space looking soulless and in desperate need of a focal point. So, we decided to create a new one from scratch, building a chimney breast from studwork and plasterboard and commissioning a bespoke hearth, inner chamber and fire surrounded carved from locally quarried Bath stone.

The question then was what kind of fire to put in it. A wood-burner or gas fire would have been the obvious choices, but various factors meant these weren’t right for us. Instead, we decided on a bioethanol stove, which uses a plant-based liquid fuel produced by fermenting the sugar and starch components of crops like corn, wheat and beets.

Here are the reasons why we opted for a bioethanol stove, along with my verdict on whether ours has proven any good…

Bioethanol stoves are clean-burning 

Unlike wood-burners (even the most modern of which send harmful small particles into the air), bioethanol stoves don’t emit any smoke, soot or fumes. They’re clean-burning, producing only heat, water vapour and trace amounts of carbon dioxide (comparable to burning a few candles).

Bioethanol stoves don’t need a chimney, a flue or any pipework

Because bioethanol stoves don’t create smoke, they don’t require a chimney or flue – ideal for use with false stud-wall chimney breasts such as ours, or in any space where adding a flue would be difficult or downright impossible. We opted to attach a fake flue pipe to our stove to create an authentic look, but it’s just for show. It doesn’t actually do anything! 

Similarly, bioethanol stoves don’t require any of the pipework or wiring of a gas or electric fire, and you don’t need to worry about getting an energy supply to them. 

There’s a huge array of styles to choose from 

Bioethanol stoves come in all sorts of guises, so there’s something to suit almost any taste and space. We chose a rustic wood-burner style (the Leo V model from Stoveworld), but you can also get contemporary ceiling-mounted stoves, curvaceous cocoon designs, and sleek inset stoves that slot into walls. There are even bioethanol firepits, small tabletop stoves and grate inserts that can be added to existing fireplaces. What’s more, most can be accessorised with heat-resistant ceramic logs or coals. 

Bioethanol stoves are easy to install

Freestanding bioethanol stoves such as ours are incredibly simple to install – it’s literally a case of taking them out of the box, placing them in situ, and attaching the false flue if you’ve opted for one. 

Wall- and ceiling-mounted models will of course require a bit more work, but normally the kind of thing you or your builder can do – there’s no need for a registered engineer, as there would be with a wood-burner or gas fire. 

Bioethanol stoves are simple to operate

Bioethanol stoves are also very easy to use. All you need to do is pour fuel into the burner box in the bottom and light it at arm’s length with a long match or taper. There’s no faffing around with log arrangements, no waiting for kindling to catch and no constant adjustment of air vents or flue dampers.

When you want to extinguish a bioethanol stove, all you need to do is close the burner-box lid using the tool provided. This instantly starves the flame of oxygen and it will generally go out straightaway. You don’t need to wait for logs to stop smouldering or for embers to die down – very handy at the end of an evening when you’re tired and just want to go to bed. 

There’s no mess 

And of course, there’s no grate to empty, no ash to clear up, no soot to wipe off the inside of the doors, and no annual chimney sweep to schedule. Bioethanol stove maintenance is as simple as dusting the exterior and wiping down the burner box every now and then. 

Bioethanol fuel is renewable 

Unlike fossil fuels such as gas, bioethanol fuel is renewable. It’s also widely considered carbon-neutral because the amount of CO₂ released during its combustion is roughly equal to the amount the plants used to make it absorb during their growth. 

That said, its production often involves land-use change (for example food-growing farmland being switched over), so it’s important to research the fuel you’re buying. The most sustainable options are those made from agricultural by-products rather than dedicated fuel crops – we use EkoFuel, which is produced using waste molasses from the growing of sugar beet. 

Bioethanol stoves are cheaper than wood-burners

As with anything there are some very expensive models and some cheaper ones, but in general bioethanol stoves cost less to buy than wood-burners. We paid £395 for ours, another £20 for the false flue and around £40 for a set of ceramic logs. A wood-burner of the same size would have been at least twice the price, and we’d have had to pay for professional installation on top of that. 

It’s worth noting that bioethanol fuel is generally more expensive than logs, but if you have somewhere to store the bottles you can reduce the cost by buying in bulk. And the extra fuel expense if offset by the fact you don’t need to pay for chimney sweeping, as you would with a wood-burner. 

You can move bioethanol stoves around

As bioethanol stoves don’t need a flue, a chimney or any pipework, freestanding models can be moved from room to room or even home to home. We’re not planning to sell our cottage any time soon (if ever), but it’s good to know that if we did, we could simply pack up our stove and take it with us. 

Things to be aware of

Bioethanol stoves don’t emit as much heat as wood-burners or gas fires, but they still give off an inviting warmth (normally around 2-3kW – about the same as an electric heater) and have the comforting flicker of a real flame. Of course, they don’t create the lovely woodsmoke smell or log-crackle sound of a wood-burner, but you can always fake those by lighting a scented candle with a wooden wick at the same time. 

Bioethanol stoves are very safe, but they do need to be placed on a flat, stable surface at least a metre away from curtains, furniture and flammable materials – and if they’re positioned directly against a wall, you’ll need to install a heatproof fireboard behind. As bioethanol stoves consume oxygen, they also need to be situated in a well-ventilated space – but the same applies to wood-burners and gas fires, and they bring the additional risk of carbon monoxide poisoning. 

Finally, you can’t refuel a bioethanol stove while it’s hot, so there’s no throwing another log on the fire to keep it going. Most will burn for three-four hours at a time, though – enough to get you through an afternoon or evening. 

The verdict on our bioethanol stove

Our stove arrived on the hottest day of the hottest summer on record, so it was a while before we tried it out. But once we did, we loved it. It makes the living room feel wonderfully warm and cosy without overheating the house, and it really is hassle-free to use. It looks fantastic even when it’s not lit, and for us the benefits far outweigh any minor cons. I can’t wait to curl up in front of it during autumn and winter – bring on colder weather!

All photography by Abi Dare