On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 11:05:33 +0100, Christian McArdle wrote:

An open fire is great to look at. Pathetic at providing low maintenance, low
cost comfortable day to day heat, but really nice now and again.

Hmm, I find an open fire with a properly designed back boiler to be an
excellent source of cheap comfortable heat. If the back boiler is feeding a
heat bank, it's also a good way to provide UFH as well.