Are you thinking about adding a wood burning stove to your home? These stoves add tons of charm and — you guessed it — heat to any living space. And best of all, you can cook on them and save money on your utility bills.
The benefits don’t end there. Read on to learn more about getting a wood burning stove for your home.
Get the Whole House Heating You Need
If you’re tired of relying on your furnace to heat up your home, turn to a wood burning stove. One of these stoves will produce enough heat to warm a large house with several bedrooms!
Know the Basics of the Design First
Wood burning stoves will have a glass door on the front. This enables you to load wood. And you can enjoy the ambiance of watching the wood burn.
The frame of the stove will be made of cast iron or steel. And the flue on top will help the gas byproducts travel away from the stove.
The heavy-duty materials mean that you can use the top to warm a loaf of bread while you’re watching a football game. Just be careful since the exterior of the stove may be a little warm to the touch.
Understand the Heating Process
Think of a wood burning stove as a box with fireproof walls, a ceiling, and a floor. The box has air vents on it — usually one or two vents — that allow heat from the wood burning inside into the surrounding area. You can control these vents to determine how quickly or slowly the wood burns.
In newer stoves, any waste byproducts from the burning process continue to burn during the second state of combustion. And all of this creates more heat that heads into your living space. While you can’t control the rate of burn in a fireplace, you can with a wood burning stove.
They’re Better than Fireplaces
You might think of a fireplace as the only wood burning option for a house. But it turns out that wood burning stoves are more efficient. Because you can control the heat flow and rate of burn, you’ll get more heat from a smaller number of logs.
If you’ve huddled around a fireplace, you know that the heat lessens when you head into another room. But with a wood burning stove, you can be confident that the entire house will be warm. If you’re planning some home renovations, consider going with a stove over a traditional fireplace.
Wood Burning Stoves Are Environmentally Friendly
With a wood burning stove, you get plenty of heat — but not a lot of smoke. If you have concerns about the environmental impact of these stoves, don’t worry. The modern versions are efficient and many even come with government certification.
Check the Label for EPA Certification
Many people may assume that wood burning stoves are bad for the environment. That is an outdated stigma. Better and newer approaches to combustion technology mean that today’s stoves emit far less smoke.
Look for stoves that have the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) seal of approval. These stoves will meet the criteria of being 70% efficient — and many are even better than that. You’ll get a lot of heat without producing a lot of smoke.
Use Renewable Resources to Heat Your Home
Wood is considered a renewable resource, so you can feel good about using it with your stove. With other methods of heating your home, you may be relying on fossil fuels. If you can avoid using oil or coal to heat your home, you’ll be taking a good step to help conserve energy.
Be aware that older stoves won’t do as well on this matter. They will consume more wood, produce more smoke, and give off more CO2 emissions. Know the age and condition of the stove you get!
Use Your Wood Burning Stove for Cooking
You can do more than just heat the house with a wood burning stove. You can cook with it, too! You can conserve energy and time by doubling up your heat source as a cooktop.
You’re Not Limited by Burners
When you use your wood burning stove as a cooktop, you won’t have a limit on burners. With a standard stove, you may have two or four burners at your disposal. But with a wood burning stove, you have a flat surface that accommodates pots and pans of different sizes.
Learn the Cooking Basics
Since every stove is different, you’ll need to experiment to figure out where the hottest areas are. Figure out where you can warm tortillas at a milder temperature. And figure out where the hotter areas are so you can boil water.
As another tip, you can place an empty pan on your stove to warm it up. This will get you to sauteed veggies a lot faster than starting with a cold skillet will. Take notes on how long it takes things to cook, too, since your stovetop will have a personality of its own.
Step Back in Time with a Wood Burning Stove
Grab your cast iron skillet and start cooking just the way your ancestors did. These stoves emerged in the 1700s before finding their way into homes in the 19th century. Their convenience and effectiveness made them an easy choice for families.
To fry up some bacon and eggs, you just need to keep the stove going with a steady supply of wood. Fortunately, buying fire wood is easier than ever. When you need to find kiln-dried wood for your stove, visit https://www.buyfirewooddirect.co.uk to explore the options.
Stoves Come in a Variety of Styles
You’re not limited when it comes to the style of a wood burning stove. Some classic designs dating back centuries can still work today. But modern innovation may give you a healthier stove.
Go with the Classic Potbelly Stove
You won’t have any trouble identifying these stoves with their swell in the center of the body. These stoves are workhorses and can produce a lot of heat. Invented in the 1800s, they come with a cooktop so you can boil a pot of soup and stay warm.
Go with an Antique Design Like the Franklin
Go with the classic Franklin stove for a rustic look. Benjamin Franklin is the namesake for this stove. He also is believed to be the one to have invented it in the mid-1700s.
These cast iron stoves feature broad flues, and the smoke exits through a chimney — a modern addition to Franklin’s original design. These stoves typically sat in the middle of living spaces. Even though the design is over 200 years old, you can still find Franklin stoves today!
Go with Something More Modern
With a modern stove, you get better efficiency and less pollution in the air. The 1990s brought stricter government regulations. As a result, newer stoves remove emissions through better combustion processes.
You don’t have to sacrifice style, however. Plenty of new styles are high on vintage spirit. You can find newer models with visual embellishments, bold color choices, or a rustic style that will accentuate any living space.
Live Off the Grid
One of the biggest perks of owning a wood burning stove is the flexibility it offers. If your neighborhood experiences a power outage in the dead of winter, it won’t affect you. Your stove will be creating the heat you need to stay warm.
Don’t Worry About Furnace Problems
There’s nothing worse than realizing that your furnace has stopped working on a frigid night. Not only is it annoying and potentially dangerous, but it also may require an expensive fix. In fact, you could spend up to $6,000 if you need to replace your furnace altogether.
A wood burning stove can cost anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. The bigger the stove, the more heat it will produce — and the more it will cost. But even with the upfront investment, you can expect a solid stove to last a few decades.
Convert Your Fireplace
If your living room has a fireplace, you may be wondering if it’s possible to include a wood burning stove, too. It is possible to convert your fireplace into a stove! All you need is a fireplace insert.
This insert will allow you to control the heat and maximize the heat you get from the burning wood. You may need to install a venting solution since the chimney flue may not work. While the cost can add up to a few thousand dollars for the insert and chimney liner, it will be worth it for the added heat.
Maintain Your Wood Burning Stove
Even though you’ll love feeling the warmth of your wood burning stove, you can’t stop there. Don’t overlook the importance of maintenance. Without it, your stove could become a danger to you and your family.
Schedule Maintenance
Make it part of your routine to schedule yearly maintenance for your stove. A professional can inspect the chimney and check your venting system.
They also can make sure that the stove complies with fire code regulations. Additionally, ask your maintenance person to check your stove’s gasket to see if it needs to be replaced.
Otherwise, you can use a soft brush on your vacuum to clean the surface of your stove. Avoid using damp towels on your stove since they may damage the surface and cause rust.
Use the Stove Properly
When it comes to finding fuel, always be sure to use hardwoods in your wood burning stove. You only want to use wood that has been kiln dried. Clean your chimney and stovepipe annually, too.
Finally, clean up creosote. Creosote is a byproduct of wood combustion that you’ll notice once you start using your stove. It may be flaky or look more like tar. It’s critical to remove this from your chimney since it’s toxic and can cause fires in your chimney.
Wood Burning Stoves Offer Good Value
You’ll get a lot for your money with a wood burning stove. And you can trust that modern stoves are perfectly safe.
Save Money
Wood burning stoves will save you money on home heating. One big advantage is that modern stoves don’t need the same level of fire wood as older stoves. You could save about a quarter of your monthly heating bill if you make the switch to one of these stoves over a furnace.
It’s far more inexpensive to use wood than oil, natural gas, or electricity. With a wood burning stove, you could see hundreds of dollars in savings over the course of a year!
Wood Burning Stoves Are Safe
Wondering about the safety of wood burning stoves? As long as you have a professional install it, your stove will be safe. A professional will know if your chimney is compatible — and how to solve the problem if it isn’t.
And no need to worry about black smoke filling up your home. While this may have been a problem in airtight stoves from the 1970s, better technology makes new stoves a cleaner choice.
This means that you won’t be breathing in as many contaminants in the air. Newer stoves use a damper system to ensure that all smoke and byproducts go through a second combustion process. This translates to cleaner and healthier air inside your home.
Get the House Heating You Need
A wood burning stove is an efficient and effective way to keep your home toasty when it’s cold outside. You’ll love the vintage charm of having one in your living space. And you’ll love its ability to cook your next family meal, too!
For more tips to make your house a little homier, check back for new and informative articles.
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