Ummm. Not wanting to buck the trend here, but my parents have a normal fire place & chimney, which in ~25 years has been cleaned about twice... I think some people here have been in CH too long...

Yeah, but it's in foreign...

How long you can safely go between cleanings will depend alot on what you burn. My grandparents had a chimney fire once when they burned normal coal, not to be recommended especially as they were charged by the fire brigade for the call out since it could have been prevented if they had had their chimney cleaned (this was not in CH though).

I know, but there is this - maybe I've already been in one fire too many. Yes my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles all have normal fires too. And my neighbours. And lots of them don't get cleaned very often. I've seen several chimneys catch fire over the years (none ours), it happens so easily and the fire brigade are never impressed. And it ain't fun trying to locate a slow fire that's gotten in between brick walls etc from a flue or chimney, and the fire brigade have to spend ages slowly pulling out your ceilings and your neighbours roof...

Also, for those renting, there's a good chance its in your contract for an annual clean plus another as part of your 'exit' clean. The flues on these wood burny thingies is very narrow compared to a brick chimney, and they do fur up with soot quickly so better to be on the safe side I reckon.

We get ours from the local farmer but then, we live in the sticks.

Just get your local chimney sweep to come and clean it and tell you if all is OK. In Switzerland all woodburners have to be cleaned by law every year- and this should have been done automatically. Our local chimneysweep just send a note saying the date and approximate time.
We have a similar one but a bit bigger (7.5KW) and it is amazing how much heat it gives out. Be careful if you have small kids, the 'pierre olaire' (alpine stone cladding) gets very hot and acts a bit as a storage heater. Brilliant.

http://www.flurlingen.ch/GMI_20_2010.pdf

anyone here can figure out the pricing of the firewood (near last page)

My guess chf 80, 1 stere, 1 schnitt which is maybe 1 x cut in half, delivered...

What you are looking at is from last year. Are you sure there is not a more current one? But the pricing is on the second to last page.

there's not a more recent one yet. but am i right, i would pay 80+40+20+20 = 160 for 1 ster?

Oops I forgot 80...yes looks like it, 80 for the wood and 80 for all the nebenkosten.

Here is one in Schaffhausen

http://www.beringen.ch/cgi-bin/uploa...aufspreise.pdf

I know you were just joking with this comment, but still, I wanted to say that you should definitely NOT burn treated or coated wood like that (especially considering that most Ikea stuff is treated with formaldehyde).

Some friends of mine once tore down a wooden childrens' swingset and burnt it in their backyard and ended up getting really light-headed and nauseous from the fumes because of the chemicals that the wood had been treated with.

why is everything so complicated. buy wood burn it. why are there 15 different types of wood to burn and in 5 different sizes?

Schweizer Qualität, natürli...







You've just been Switzerlanded

not yet. but i wouldn't be surprised at being fined for burning the wrong kind of wood by the gemeinde that sold it to me with a smile