How to Use Wood Stoves to Save Energy?

Wood stoves have been used for centuries, and today’s wood stove technology has improved to the point where the amount of wood needed to heat a house with a wood stove has dropped dramatically. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certifies the efficiency of the wood stoves that use design technology to burn wood efficiently and emit little smoke or particulates.

These wood stoves are much smaller than older wood stoves and create almost no air pollution. Since they burn wood so miserly, they cut down on the amount of wood that people have to cut or buy, which is another good way to help the environment. Trees are a renewable commodity, but grow slowly, so minimizing the use of firewood has positive effects on the environment.

Heat from a wood stove penetrates the entire home or building where it is used. The EPA certified wood stoves are safe to use and the radiant heat that they create can be adjusted either by the controlling the amount of firewood inside the stove or by adjusting the damper so the air flow is less.

People who use wood stoves need to tell their insurance company that they heat with wood and that they have followed the local regulations for safely installing the wood stove. The stove should be on a surface that will not burn and have a hearth in front of it to prevent embers from burning the carpet or flooring. The chimney pipes need to be a certain distance from the walls and require flashing around the ceiling and roof. Sometimes people are required to put screens over the top of the chimney so sparks cannot land on the roof.

Requirements for installing wood stoves are different for site-built homes compared to manufactured homes. Manufactured homes have stricter rules than site-built homes simply for safety considerations. Not all manufactured homes are built with the same materials that site-built homes are, and the walls, flooring and ceilings may be more flammable than the wallboard used in site-built homes.

Wood stoves can be an effective way to heat a home in any winter climate, whether it seldom freezes or where the Mercury dips below zero night after night. Today’s wood stoves can be one of the most energy efficient ways to heat a home inexpensively and with little pollution.