Updated on March 13, 2023
Is a Wood Burning Stove Worth It?
Any house would benefit greatly from the installation of a wood-burning stove.
In comparison to conventional open fireplaces, wood stoves may increase efficiency and heat production while burning wood, but the initial cost of a stove must be considered when considering whether or not a stove is the appropriate decision for your house..
While the initial cost of a wood stove may be high, there are several reasons why it may be worth it.
If you want to save money by using less wood and get more heat from your fireplace, a wood stove can be a good investment for you. Wood stoves’ efficiency may be substantially greater than that of open wood fires, making the initial investment in a stove worthwhile over time.
In our family, we have two wood-burning stoves, one of which was put in a typical open fireplace, while the other was already in place when we purchased a new home.
Our own stoves have been used as examples to show why, in most cases, a wood stove is a worthwhile investment.
There are many different types of wood burning stoves, but the most common are metal fireboxes that have doors, legs, and a stovepipe that vents smoke and exhaust fumes out of your house.
The primary purpose of a wood stove is to overcome the difficulties of burning wood in an open fireplace.
Using an open wood-burning fireplace might be a waste of money and energy. According to the EPA, the efficiency of open fireplaces may fall as low as 10%.
Open Wood-Burning Fireplaces
There are a few major drawbacks of open wood-burning fireplaces:
Rather of being utilized to heat a house, most of the heat escapes via the chimney.
Due to the open nature of open fireplaces, airflow cannot be regulated.
Instead of warming a house, they may actually make it colder by sucking warm air out of it.
There is little heat transmitted into a room by an open fireplace. In order to feel the heat, move closer to the fire if you’re sitting further away.
During the winter, we utilize our living room open fireplace to burn firewood, however the heat provided by this open fireplace and the heat produced by our stoves is vastly different.
It is possible to increase the amount of heat generated by a fireplace by installing a wood-burning stove, together with inserts.
We have a multi-fuel stove and a wood-burning stove in the household.
When we acquired the home, the wood stove was pre-installed in the living room’s open fireplace, making it easy to operate.
Investing In A Wood Stove
A wood-burning stove’s initial cost must be taken into account when evaluating whether or not it is worth the investment for you and your house.
You may save money on your heating bill by purchasing an energy-efficient stove:
- You intend to remain in your current residence for some time.
- For lengthy periods of time, use wood as a source of heat.
- You’re trying to make a room’s primary point stand out.
- You’d want to contribute to a rise in the worth of your own house.
Wood burning stoves are a good investment if you don’t intend on relocating very soon, particularly if you burn wood frequently in your house or plan to do so.
Decorate your space and furnishings around the stove to make it the room’s centre point.
In addition, research shows that adding a wood stove to a house may raise its market value.
Investing in wood stoves was a wise decision for us since we didn’t want to move and a stove provides an attractive focal point for our living rooms that we can use and enjoy when entertaining guests.
When it comes to generating heat, open wood burning fireplaces may have efficiency ratings as low as 10%, whereas wood stoves typically have efficiency ratings between 60% and 80%.
Between 70 and 80 percent, our two stoves have efficiency ratings, and it is common to spend more for a stove that is more efficient. An efficient wood stove often produces more heat per burn than a less efficient one.
Wood stove efficiency is well-explained in this article.
In order to ensure that our stoves would survive for a long period, we decided to buy more costly stoves from well-known manufacturers.
