Blogging Fine Homebuilding: Heating with Wood

Lots of people are looking for a less expensive way to keep their house comfortable this fall and winter. In parts of the country with a nearby supply of firewood, a wood fireplace or stove might be the answer...

The October/November issue of Fine Homebuilding has the scoop, and you can download a PDF of the article at the Fine Homebuilding website. (For access to the article, you'll need to be a member, but you can sign up for a 14 day trial.) The article explores the pros and cons of the different options:

Woodstoves and inserts

Masonry heaters (such as those made by Tulikivi)

Wood furnaces or boilers

Pellet Stoves

Another good tip for anyone who burns wood: look for greener sources of wood. If you live near a sawmill, you may be able to purchase slab wood, the outer parts of trees with bark still attached. And if you have space in your yard for a lot of wood, landscapers may be more than happy to deliver felled trees to your house instead of to the dump.

Comments (2)

It may be less expensive, but what about the air pollution factor? I thought wood was even worse than the carbon footprint of oil - am I wrong?

posted by theseboots on October 14th 2008 at 2:00pm
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Depends how you burn the wood - if you get a hot fire going quickly and use well seasoned wood (preferably aged for 2 years), then air pollution isn't thought to be a big problem. Indoor air quality is a concern though, particularly if your house is well weatherproofed (low turnover of air inside). We primarily use a wood fire for heating and IAQ is my primary concern. It also takes at least 30 mins to get a decent fire going and 60 mins to actually get a decent temperature. That said, it also has the advantage of being a radiant heat as well as convective, so even if the air temperature is low, the heat radiated from the furnace can still warm you up.

posted by hughbert on October 14th 2008 at 6:32pm
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