Guest Post Author Bio: John lives in the countryside and is weighing up alternative methods to heating up his cottage.

Whether you are renovating or selling your home, some additional features could help to add value or sell your property. One of the homeliest of these is the hearth or stove. Whether you go for an open fireplace or a wood burning stove* you are guaranteed to bring a warm glow into your home.

There are so many woodburners and multi fuel stoves on the market that it can be hard to work out what stove is best for you, especially if you have very specific requirements. One common problem scenario is finding a suitable stove for a small living room, a boat, a caravan, a mobile home or even an outbuilding. To help you along the way this post rounds up suggestions for tiny woodburners with a heat output of 3-4kW. I've picked a mixture of top sellers in this output range and lesser known models.

Working in the fireplace industry there are certain facts about fireplaces I tend to see as so obvious they don't need to be explained. Every so often someone asks an unexpected question, which of course makes me wonder how many other people are unsure about the same thing. Recently one of our customers asked what a fireplace hearth does, and I decided to share the answer in case anybody else is wondering.

Dumfries and Galloway Fire and Rescue Service recently issued some safety guidance in the wake of a number of house fires linked to wood burning stoves. Substantial energy price rises in recent years, coupled with the struggle to cope with recession, have made woodburners a popular way to save money on home heating bills. The trouble is that the pressing need to save money can tempt people to cut corners when installing their wood burning stove, increasing the risk of a house fire.

Rising fuel costs and the green living movement have triggered a lot of interest in woodburners amongst people who have never had one before. While I know a wood burning stove is a great choice for many people, it isn't right for everyone. It's easy for stove shoppers to get caught up in working out how to choose the right woodburner, but you really need to begin by answering the question of whether a wood burning stove is right for you.

The internet has been buzzing for the last few days with pictures of a wood burning stove installed in a car. While the pictures are great, this video is even better!

The March edition of 25 Beautiful Homes recommends the Stovax Huntingdon 35 woodburning stove as a similar model to the traditional woodburner shown on p.96 in the Hampshire villa belonging to Sarah Bedford and John Pyne. The gothic lattice work on the stove door is a great fit for a Victorian building, as is the solid cast iron construction. But what if you want to get this look but need a different type of stove?

There's nothing like the ambiance and comfort of a real fire, but decades of reliance on central heating seem to have left some gaps in our understanding of fire safety. I've seen too many news stories lately about house fires which started because ash from an open fire or woodburner wasn't disposed of safely. Many people don't realise how dangerous hot ashes can be, assuming the risk of fire disappears as the flames die down. However, even when it looks as though the fire is dead embers can stay hot enough to start a fire for several days afterwards.

The Morso Squirrel woodburner has long been one of the most popular Scandinavian stoves on the British market. Over the years the Morso Squirrel stove family has grown, but always retained a traditional appearance. The latest addition, the Morso Squirrel 1416 stove, is a departure from tradition with clean, contemporary styling to suit modern homes.

Today one of the leading UK's leading financial websites recommended wood burning stoves as a way of saving money on energy costs. The article appears on www.thismoney.co.uk and suggests a range of simple tips for saving energy, and therefore money. These include switching energy suppliers, improving home insulation, using a water conditioner to remove limescale, using rugs on wooden floors during winter, turning down the heating thermostat by one degree, and using a wood burning stove.