Stephen McKerr and his Aoife Stove

Why did he choose a Stanley stove? "A couple we know well had bought a Stanley stove and I had seen it in their home and we were really impressed by the look and heat coming from it. When we met with Alastair in The Stove Works, he understood what we were looking for and was able to recommend a stove that he thought would be most suitable for generating the right amount of heat based on the size of room we had - we were very impressed and didn't shop around any further! We also liked the idea that Stanley stoves are made in Ireland as my wife and I both think it is important to support the local economy and to give our business to The Stove Works which is situated close to where we live."

What do they love about their Aoife? "It’s a dream compared to the open fire and is much more fuel efficient! If you set the stove properly with wood and stove coal it can last most of the day. We light the fire initially with wood and then put on stove coal and it burns for hours! It is also much easier to clean, we had the stove lit last night and this morning we cleaned the glass with vinegar and a cloth and the glass came up like new. We find that using dry wood and stove coal tends to reduce the problem of darkened glass and the air wash feature is very helpful too!

So have you noticed a change in your home heating bills? "Even though our stove is fitted to heat our room and is not attached to a back boiler we are not putting on our central heating as often and so we are using less oil - thankfully! There are two radiators in our living room but when the Aoife stove is lit we always turn them off because the room gets too warm. In terms of how much we have saved it is quite difficult to quantify as we have access to free dry wood, but there is no doubt that we have definitely reduced our home heating bill in terms of the amount of oil we are using. We use wood that has been seasoned for over 5 years...anything from Oak, Ash or Blackthorn. "

When prompted about their favourite moment. Stephen recalls the first time they lit the stove "The day the Aoife was installed the room wasn’t decorated but we were really excited to get the stove lit as the nights were starting to get darker earlier. My wife and I just kept watching the flames and my wife commented on how much more homely the room felt. Having the stove fitted gave us the prompt we needed to get the rest of the room decorated and we have thoroughly enjoyed entertaining friends in the warmth of our home this winter!