With winter arriving in just a couple of months, it’s time to think about how you’ll heat your home through the cold winter months. An extra cold winter has been predicted for many areas, and if you haven’t gotten your heating situation arranged yet, it’s time.
As far as heating goes, wood stoves offer some of the best benefits. They’re cost-effective, efficient, and with the exception of pellet stoves, they’ll work during a power outage. If you’re looking to buy a wood stove, check out this wood stove buyer’s guide and then consider the following points.
1. A traditional wood stove is cost-effective
Traditional wood stoves burn split firewood for fuel and are by far the most cost-effective way to heat your home. Firewood is usually cheaper than paying for electricity, and heat from burning wood will heat your home more efficiently. Wood stoves produce infrared heat, which means you’ll retain the heat longer. Infrared heat works by heating objects in your space, including your own body and clothing.
Of course, if you wait until winter to buy your seasoned, split firewood, you’ll pay a premium. However, if you get in the habit of buying green wood and letting it season for at least six months, you’ll save a ton of money. For example, you’ll probably save around $30 per full cord buying green wood. After 10 cords, that’s a savings of $300. The trick is rotating your wood to make sure you always have seasoned wood on hand while you’re still buying green.
If you don’t want to buy split firewood you can always buy logs or rounds and split it yourself. If you live on a large property in a rural area, you can even cut your own firewood from fallen trees, or have someone fell some trees for you to use for firewood.
2. Wood pellet stoves are easy to use
If you don’t want to build a fire or split wood, and you’re looking for something easy, wood pellet stoves are ideal. The fuel can be a little more expensive than split firewood, but it’s easier to use and the heat output is the same.
A pellet stove works by burning pellets made from compressed wood particles. You buy the pellets in bags and to run the stove, you fill the hopper on your pellet stove and push a button. The fire is ignited automatically and pellets are fed as needed, so you never have to mess with building and maintaining a fire.
The only downside is that pellet stoves rely on electricity to function. If the power goes out, you won’t have a source of heat. However, if you’re not in an area with many power outages, you don’t have to worry much.
3. You might like a wood cookstove
Another consideration is whether or not you want to cook on top of your wood stove. You can put a pot of water or a pan on top of a traditional cast iron wood burning stove and use the heat to cook, but it does take a while since the heat won’t be concentrated in any particular area.
On the other hand, some wood stoves are made with “burners” on top that make it easier to cook by concentrating some of the heat in specific areas. To take that one step further, there are also wood cookstoves that have multiple burners and an oven that are powered entirely by split firewood. These are meant for cooking, but will also heat your home.
If you’ve always wanted to cook your meals the old-fashioned way, you may like using a wood cookstove. It won’t heat your entire home, but it will definitely make your kitchen and adjacent rooms toasty.
4. Make sure it’s legal
Last, but not least, make sure the wood stove you buy is legal and EPA-approved. In some locations, non-approved wood stoves are illegal to give away or sell, but are legal to use if it’s your only source of heat. However, it’s best to buy an approved stove from the start.
EPA-approved stoves will heat your home more efficiently, which means you’ll burn less wood and save more money while being compliant with the law.
Wood stoves are the ideal source of heat in the winter
If you’ve chosen to get a wood stove to heat your home this winter, you’ve made a good choice. Wood stoves are the ideal way to heat your home. Not only are they cost-effective, but they’ll make your home warmer than a space heater and they look great, too.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.