The only heating we have is our wood heater and since we are out of the house most days it does not get used a lot. It costs us nothing to run as the only wood we use is fallen branches from trees on our property. This weekend it has been wet and cold so the fire has been on for the best part of each day.
While any heating is designed primarily for heating the room to a comfortable temperature it can be used for other purposes at the same time.
I put the kettle on top of the heater to heat some water and you can also see the wood drying out which will be added to the fire later.
Our wood fire is very versatile and will dry the clothes as well. I have a clothes dryer which I use from time to time but the fire is better as I can even dry knitted and delicate items which I would not normally put in the dryer.
So the humble fire can keep the room warm, dry out the firewood, dry the clothes and heat water – all at the same time!
Can your heating do double duty?
organised castle 
One of the houses we owned had a fire like yours and I cooked heaps of stuff on top, always had a kettle on and slow cooked soup, stews etc.
Now we have an electric heater and if I need to I will dry things in front of it but mostly I just string up a clothes line in the sunroom.
We don’t have the fire on for long enough to really cook anything but it is usefull to heat the water – even if it is only for the washing up.