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Why not Burn Wood on a Open Fire

An open fire is OK if you just want an occasional cosy blaze but there are a number of disadvantages:

Open fires are very inefficient and most of the heat goes up the chimney.

Open fires are typically only around 20% efficient.

A woodburning stove re-circulates combustion products and is designed to burn at a much higher temperature. This means gases present in the smoke are fully burned. This results in a thermal efficiency of around 80%. In other words, you can get around 4 times as much heat from a log burnt on a modern wood stove than from an open fire.

Wood stoves don't need to be relit like an open fire. You can close them up when you don't need them and as soon as you open the air vents and let the oxygen in the fire comes to life again. Wood burning stoves are less smoky than an ordinary open fire and produce less ash.

Wood burners are safer because the fire is enclosed so you don't get the danger of stray sparks or hot coals on the carpet.