When I was growing up, we supplemented our heat with a wood stove. It was smelly, smoky and a very dry heat. I have fond memories of cozening up to the woodstove after coming in from the cold. I have not so fond memories of filling the house with smoke trying to get it started and coming home to an icy house because it had gone out while we were gone. Now we have a wood furnace. It is a very different kind of heat.
Benefits of Wood Furnace
- Free Heat – We cut downed trees up to use for firewood during the winter. It doesn’t cost us anything but time and work. Generally it takes us a day to get a truckload of wood and that includes splitting and stacking.
- Free Hot Water – Our wood furnace uses hot water to heat the house. The hot water goes through a coil and heats the air in the house. We also use the furnace to heat our hot water during the winter.
- Moist Heat - Rather than having gas or electric burner heating the air in the house, it is heated by hot water. It does not dry out the air and cause sinus and dry skin.
- Burns Efficiently – The wood furnace has a draft fan on it that cuts on when the water temperature drops. This blows air over the wood and the fire heats up. When the water temperature reaches 200 degrees, the draft fan cuts off. At most during the coldest weather, we have to fill the furnace twice a day.
- Lower Electric Bills – Because we use the wood furnace for both heat and hot water, our electric bill drops significantly during the winter. I don’t believe we had one that was over $50 last winter. This saves us hundreds of dollars over the year.
- Renewable Resource – Unlike oil, coal, gas, etc. wood is a renewable source of fuel. We can plant more trees while we cannot manufacture more oil, coal, or gas.
Drawbacks of Wood Furnace
- Cost of Wood - The wood furnace suits us very well because we have an almost unlimited supply of wood but if you had to purchase wood you would have to weigh the cost of wood against the cost of oil, gas or electricity.
- Air Pollutant - While the newer wood furnaces burn efficiently and cause less pollution, they do cause some.
- Load Outside - Someone has to load the furnace twice a day. This means going out and putting wood into it even when it’s 10 degrees outside and snowing.
- Time, time, time – We do not buy wood but we do spend a few weeks a year cutting, splitting and stacking it. We don’t do it all at the same time but this week we have gotten a load every day and it has taken most of the day to do it. If you plan on cutting your own, you need to plan on spending several days per month getting wood.
Overall I love the wood furnace. I love the heat, the really hot water and I REALLY love our electric bill during the winter. I really don’t mind running out in the morning and loading the wood furnace. And loading and stacking wood is great exercise for arms and shoulders.
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Tags: wood heat
We have never run our heater since we’ve lived here, and it has gotten down to as cold as 8°F. I guess we just have really good insulation in our manufactured home. Too bad it doesn’t go both ways as in the summer our electricity bill skyrockets. It is cooling down enough that we’ll be able to start having our “Friday Night Fire Nights” as my son has dubbed them.
Yes a wood furnace definitely does have its advantages. It is not for everyone though. The biggest challenge is acquiring and storing firewood. If you can’t get that handled easily yourself, it may not be worth it. If you can handle the whole process, it is a huge money saver.