Wood Stoves









Wood stoves were once a very popular way to heat your home. One of the advantages that a wood stove offers over a fireplace is that it uses less wood. This means that if you are buying wood that you will be buying less. Or, if you are cutting and splitting your own wood you will be cutting and splitting less and saving yourself time as well. Wood stoves can be an excellent alternative to electric and gas furnaces if you are willing to do the work. Here I will list some advantages and disadvantages of wood stoves.

Advantages

As aforementioned wood stoves are a good alternative to heating with a fireplace because they use less wood. This is because you can regulate the flow of oxygen better with a wood stove using the dampers. If you remember from Heating With a Fireplace, fireplaces need oxygen to keep the fire going. Wood stoves do as well but are able to use less. One of the things that makes wood stoves great is the fact that they are made out of cast iron. This holds much of the heat. And since the wood stove is in the house instead of in the wall we do not lose as much of the heat from the wood stove out the chimney like with a fireplace. Wood stoves can also be purchased with fans that help disperse the heat throughout the house.

Wood stoves can also be used to cook with. In fact, there are models that can be purchased specifically with this in mind. A normal wood stove can be used to cook with in the event that the power goes out and there is no other alternative. Wood stoves are great for putting in a workshop or garage because they are great at heating up large spaces. What makes them great about putting them in a workshop or garage is that these are places that sometimes are not used frequently and the expense of putting in a gas or electric furnace would not be worth the cost.

Disadvantages

Some of the disadvantages of wood stoves are that they can be dangerous, you will need to put a hole in the side of your house, you have to collect wood, it can be difficult to regulate the temperature and they can dry out the house. Let’s be honest, any time you are putting a live fire inside your home there is danger involved. The danger of smoke inhalation, the fact that the wood stove itself is very hot and does burn people every year is something that definitely needs to be considered especially if you have small children before you decide that your main source of heat will be a wood stove.
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In order to have a wood stove you will need to have somewhere for the smoke to exit the house. This will need to be a hole in the side of your house and will need to be installed properly by a competent person other wise you could burn down you home. Wood stoves need wood. Big surprise but this means that you will need to have a good source of wood if you are trying to use your wood stove as your main source of heat. The wood will also need to be dry as dry wood burns hotter and longer.

Ask anyone who grew up with a wood stove and they will tell you that the heat is wonderful heat but they will certainly have a story or two about going to bed sweating and waking up freezing cold because the fire went out. This is because it is difficult to make the fire burn all night. So, what most people do is pack the wood stove before they go to bed. This makes it even hotter in the room but by the time that morning comes and the fire goes out it is freezing in the house. This can be remedied by someone getting up in the night to check the fire and put more wood in the stove if necessary. It can be difficult to regulate the temperature in your home with a wood stove. Your choice is either put more wood in if it is cold or let some burn off and open a window if it is too hot.

Wood stoves can also cause the air in your home to be dry. This is because they tend to suck the humidity out of the house. Some people fix this by putting a pot of water of top of the stove and letting it boil to create steam to put some humidity back in the house. If you choose to do this make sure that you use extreme caution because boiling water and steam can be extremely dangerous.

Alternatives

If you are dead set on using wood to heat with there is a better alternative and it is called a water stove. Stay tuned as I will cover water stoves in the next post. If you are looking for a wood stove pick one from the selection below.









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