Clean-Burning Woodstoves Ignite a Greener Heating Trend
Who doesn’t love the warm, crackling blaze of a real fire in fall and winter? While nothing can substitute the profound, radiating heat and meditative flicker of a good flame, the smoke, dust and bad air quality which conventional fireplaces and old woodstoves cause can make you feeling less comfy. If you want to appreciate your fire while making an environmentally sound option, it’s time to look to the brand new woodstoves. Designers in northern states (who know their chilly weather) have led the way in developing stoves with maximum efficiency and minimal environmental effect — and thankfully, lots of the same models are now available from the States.
Discover for yourself the pros and cons of employing a woodstove to heat your house, from aesthetics and installation to long-term expenses and efficacy.
Stone Interiors
Used for both heat and cooking, woodstoves were once a common sight in nearly every home — they are what many of us picture when imagining the “hearth” in the core of the house. But as other fuels became widely available, woodstoves lost prefer. Today we are seeing a resurgence in their popularity, largely thanks to jumps forward in efficient layouts which are equally beautiful and environmentally friendly.
Studio One-Off Design & Architecture
Guru: Some models are carbon neutral. European woodstoves employing the Nordic Ecolabel system are so effective that the carbon monoxide when they are used correctly is equal to the carbon a tree naturally emits while decomposing from the woods. A few of those stoves (including the one by Rais, shown here) will also be available in America.
Stove: Gabo, Rais
Siemasko + Verbridge
Guru: Lower long-term heating expenses. Based on Popular Mechanics, the average annual fuel price to maintain a woodstove going is nearly half the price of oil and marginally less than natural gas. Those able to harvest their own wood possess the potential to save even more.
Stove: Edofocus, Focus
kimberly peck architect
Con: Much more work. Firing up the woodstove every once in a while is a pleasant activity for a chilly night — but chopping and hauling wood on a daily basis is another matter. If you commit with a woodstove as your main heat source, you need to be happy to deal with buying, preserving and chopping all the wood, in addition to the daily work of tending the flame.
Stove: Rais
Smith & Vansant Architects PC
Guru: Biomass fuels reduce reliance on fossil fuels. By choosing renewable wood rather than oil, natural gas or propane to heat your house, you’re cutting down on nonrenewable energy consumption. With the woodstove getting steam, it is possible we may even see new homes — or even entire buildings — equipped with incorporated efficient woodstove heat later on.
Stove: Shaker with brief seat, Wittus
Architects, Webber + Studio
Guru: Aesthetically pleasing. Scandinavian-designed woodstoves are something of beauty. From utterly straightforward to modern, and wall mounted, built in or floating, there are options to suit every space.
Stove: Heterofocus, Concentrate
Kaplan Thompson Architects
Con: High price for the initial purchase and installation. With whole-house models ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 (as well as $10,000 or even more for custom layouts), woodstoves using the highest efficiency ratings do tend to cost more at the beginning compared to other systems. The one is $3,199.
Stove: version 7648, Morso
Charlie Allen Renovations, Inc..
Guru: The coziness factor. If your home is heated by a fire you can see dancing on your very own little woodstove, coziness and heat are givens.
Stove: Morso
Johnston Architects
Certification. When shopping for a clean-burning woodstove, start looking for a model that has been certified from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Underwriters’ Laboratories of Canada (ULC) or an global tagging system such as the Nordic Ecolabel.