Wood stove or gas fireplace (help needed)

I'd say your dealer probably makes more money off the fireplace. If the SS chimney is already in place, have it inspected and hook a stove up. A T5 would probably be okay in your location.

The dealer is probably right about the fireplace warming it up faster, because it's on when you turn it on. Warming a cold house up everyday is the most inefficient to do it. Especially with radiant baseboards, you have to warm up the house and the stuff in it to get the air temp up, before you are comfortable. I don't think you will find much difference with a stove, or gas fireplace. A T5 should hold a fire through the average workday. If your insulation is questionable, a T6 probably won't be overkill.

I don't know what gas prices are like in your area, but even buying wood is likely less expensive. If you've been reading for a month, you probably already know you need dry wood, and should already have it stacked up. Truly seasoned wood is very hard to find.

A gas insert can have decent BTU output, at the flick of a remote control - and could really warm a room, and potentially part of the home. A gas "fireplace/logs" will not heat the room. If you go gas, propane can be rather expensive vs nat gas, I would go nat gas if at all possible.

Cost of Nat gas vs purchasing wood -- probably a close tie. Though someone could give a better cost/BTU that lives in your area and knows the fuel costs...

I would estimate that you should anticipate 3 plus cords/heating season, though you should anticipate storing at least 2x that amount for seasoning.

Welcome, and read and search these forums for a wealth of info

Maybe considered one of the Woodstock Soapstone N/G stoves, Ive suggest one for a Buddy's finished walk-out basement "Man Cave" as he has Zero room to store wood.

Pretty neat IMHO


http://www.woodstove.com/gas-stoves

What is EPA restrictions for solid burning for your area if you have them. I went with nat. gas stove, cheaper than buying wood. It will take a while to heat up the mass things inside house. Gas you can set the temp. or turn down when gone for the day turn up when you get home. Less time to heat things back up from 0 start cold. we have no solid fuel burn days some years can last for 2 months even EPA approved stoves no burn. Some gas stoves just set the thermostat and for get it. You also got to remember gas or wood are space heaters not the whole world heaters. If you know some body that heats with either check them out when it turns cold or talk to them. to get some ideas..I sure like mine nat. gas.

Ah...choices.

We've done both.

I prefer wood 80% of the time, but it's more work. The 20% when I prefer gas is because of the work (haul, split, stack, haul into house), ease of just turning the thermostat up or down, maintainance (stack cleaning, ash removal) and since we have no furnace here, the ability to go on vacation during heating season.

Wood is WAY cheaper for us. We scrounge most of ours-free postings on craigslist, picking it up from the curb. Natural gas is expensive here IMO, and electric is worse. Don't rightly know about propane, we still have some from what was here when we bought the Cottage and have no plans to refill so we haven't looked into it. We'll just run a small tank for the water heater and stove when the big one runs out.

You can heat with a gas stove...except don't believe the btu/capacity listed. Our Heritage Bay should have handled the 800 or so sq ft of the Old House no problem, but it works hard when the temps are 20 or lower, and it doesn't heat part of the upstairs or bathroom. We should have looked at the capacity and gone up a stove model.

It's harder to heat up from a colder room than just maintain it at a reasonable temp. For instance, with the wood stove, reload when you leave in the am to keep temps from dropping too low, otherwise it will be a while to get back up to a comfortable temp. Remember, it's not just heating the air, but everything inside...like furniture, walls, etc-think thermal mass. I think, personally, the gas stove does heat a bit faster, but I've never had both in the same house to compare apples to apples.

Two totally different worlds, really. I have both and they each have their pros and cons. Are you planning to feed and clean up after the wood stove...cutting, splitting, stacking, hauling, re-stacking, burning, cleaning ash, etc? Or do you prefer flipping a switch and watching the gas fire?

You can fire the wood stove hot for a big blast of heat when you arrive home in the evening...warm the house up fast, then throttle it back for even heat throughout the night. A gas fireplace is more of a smooth even heat. Ideally it would be 'just enough' to keep up with heating the house - that way you always have a fire going. If it's too big, it may kick on for a few minutes, then when the house is warm, it goes out and you loose the pretty fire.

Natural gas...at least around here...is getting pretty cheap - the byproduct of all the fracking going on in the oil shale regions. I don't know that paying for wood can really compare to cheap natural gas. Though savings in natural gas cost should probably be applied to a good water filter system in preparation for when the fracking chemicals start showing up in drinking water.

to take a stab at your questions:

1. Yes, if sized correctly. Hard to say on the heating, though if your house is really 40F at the end of a day, I don't suspect it has that much insulation. In days of 0F highs, mine will drop into the mid 50's indoor temp and it takes an 800F woodstove several hours to bring it back up to temp
2. paying for wood vs paying for nat gas, assuming roughly equal efficiency of the appliances, gas would probably win around here. We have $150-200 cord hardwoods. (~24 million BTU), so ~$8.50 per million BTU, natural gas is a couple bucks a therm, so ~$2-3 per million BTU
3. I make similar evening burns, through colder temps, but generally with hedge wood which will have much higher BTU than anything you'd find in the NW. I do maybe 3-4 cords in an average to cold winter (maybe 2.5 last winter) Though your consumption might be 1.5-2x more if you're burning pine or other less energetic woods
4. Wood stove takes abot 30-45 minutes to come up to full heat, but would probably give more heat under full fire than a gas fireplace. The fireplace would put out heat sooner, but probably less peak heat
5. Just wild guesses, but you'd probably want 100k btu for a quick warm-up in the evening but throttle back to 20K for maintaining heat.

No one may be home during the day, but in winter I assume you'll be using it most days. A decent sized enclosed log burning stove will provide radiant heat and will spread heat throughout a larger home more effectively than single source alternatives. Get it hot quick and open internal doors one by one. With a log burner there is more to it than just an 'approved' appliance. You must make sure the exhaust system is working for you to. Someone mentioned the neighbourhood fears and complaints from smoke. Proper dried fuel and a method to combat rapid cooling of the flue system/ negative pressure/ back flow/ down draft from the sinking cooler air above it is important. Not a lot is currently documented or studied thoroughly in regards to this but it is important from my experience for emissions, heat efficiency/ prolonged radiant heat and fuel conservation. My involvement/ experience is with an effective cap in New Zealand growing in popularity, that helps draw on the gases, keep the flue tip heated, and divert the cold air. It's only vague similarities are the H Cowl, Windkat, and maybe the Vedette. Most others, however as fancy as they look they only stop rain/ snow getting in. I won't name the cowl but it has proved more effective than the H cowl by observation and still yet to compare against the other two.

Without commercial bias there is much to consider. Heating is expensive. The right decisions can get you an excellent wood heating system. You may be buying wood at first but network and you may find other less expensive sources. Get to know some arborists and explore local trading websites and papers. It has to be dried and stored properly. In the end, as 'old fashioned' and by indoctrinated definition 'polluting' to the new enviro-energy market world order it is the cheapest, most sustainable, most efficient form of heating. My second option for you would be a flued gas unit in your main living area combined with low energy electric radiant heating in bedrooms.

In blackouts etc. you are safer off grid and off gas too. Nevertheless, It's not a simple decision to make.

shuaike said:

Thank you guys for all the useful info!

It's a tough choice, isn't it. But after reading all your comments, I tend to buy a natural gas fireplace. As a compromise, maybe a free standing gasplace be a better choice as it gives more BTU (~40000 input BTU).

Thanks again!

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It is a difficult choice! There are positives to both and negatives to both. I don't think running the wood stove is difficult, but there is some paying attention to it involved vs just having it serviced like a heating appliance and tunring it on and off when needed or wanted like a gas stove. Beyond the obvious of cleaning the ashes/flue and handling the wood, there's safely and properly starting and controlling the fire. Overfires suck and can really jangle the nerves. BUT there is nothing, absolutely NOTHING like sitting on the couch with a fire in the stove as the snow falls. It's something I truly pined for (lol) all the years at the Old House with the gas stove. As nice as both were, they just couldn't compare. I used to visit the stove shops every so often to soak in some of the wood heat. I was a little less in love with it this year while hauling and stacking now that I have a tendan issue in my one arm-it HURTS to stack (strangely, if I do it right, I can carry the unsplit rounds just fine with no pain). Which makes me rather crankly, because otherwise, I kinda like it. good exercise. Which is another consideration. If you or your significant other have medical issues like back injuries or arm/leg/shoulder problems, handling the wood can get to be a bear.

There are some very nice gas stoves out there, some with some very nice flame set ups. I like our Berkshire much better than the Heritage Bay. If you decide to go with a gas stove, I suggest going and looking at all the ones you're considering in person, burning. If the dealer doesn't have it plumbed, I wouldn't consider it. Brochures can be touched up, and you're going to be looking at it for a long time-might as well get one that you liket e looks of!

I love my wood stove but if I _had_ to choose, I'd take the gas first. Having a base form of heat that will keep the place warm enough is important; if that base heat is cheap like gas (although depends on local cost) and can serve as your main heat and you dont have free wood, it's probably a no-brainer.

If you had to stick with the electric and no gas, then putting in a good wood stove would be a no-brainer - keep the base heat on low and fire up the wood when at home.

Since you have two places where you can put stoves, you could always put a modest wood stove in later for ambience, and especially if it's in a room where you spend a lot of time. Wouldn't save you much money, but if you like it, you like it. But gas probably the safe bet to start.

I have both although my Woodstock is not big enough for a whole house. That's a space heater for 1,000 sq. feet and it does a fine job. A natural gas stove is nice. Keeps that room very warm and no problems or maintenance which everyone appreciates. I personally love my wood stove more. Real fire and the challenges that go with that are an immeasurable joy!!

Neither will heat your home from 40f to 75f fast.

Others have pointed out good suggestions here so far. I like wood, but i am young can get mine free (im a forester) other than fuel related to picking up, and its way cheaper than paying to use my heatpumps in my older poorly insulated home. Yes even here in SC i save $50-100+/month in the winter. We also do not have NG in the area, so its the propane man that delivers the liquid gold to the tune of something like $3 gallon i guess? I only use 20lb cyls for the grill, nothing else.

But as far as not being hom ein the day thats the way most of us here are. I load mine up between 6:30 and 7am and dont mess with it till 4-5pm when i get home, sometimes later. I still have plenty of coals to just rake around and throw more splits on top of, sometimes when its open more on cold days i need a bit of kindeling in smaller pieces and then go from there but never a match usually. And if its shoulder season my stove will run 24 hours between reloads.


The decesion for me is easy, but if your buying wood it would be different than my thinking, also the burn ban thing if applicable. But how i see it if im buying a stove i dont want to have a monthly bill also associated with it I just want to pay for my stove and get low cost heat etc from it!

ID use gas as the main source of heat and a wood stove for backup and when you have time to tend it. Dont forget one f the great benefits of a wood stove is you would probably spend less money for a wood stove than you would for a backup generator ,and even your gas stove will not work without power although some gas fireplace will.
I used to have a gas fireplace and most of the heat went up the chimney. I took it out.

Seasoned Oak said:

ID use gas as the main source of heat and a wood stove for backup and when you have time to tend it. Dont forget one f the great benefits of a wood stove is you would probably spend less money for a wood stove than you would for a backup generator ,and even your gas stove will not work without power although some gas fireplace will.
I used to have a gas fireplace and most of the heat went up the chimney. I took it out.

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I have a Generac whole house generator and a gas stove left on all the time with a thermostat. I have water issues and need my sump pumps to operate flawlessly. A $3,000 outlay for a generator is way better than taking days to clean up after a flooded basement if you have living space down there.

not to mention how much frozen water pipes cost if you have a blizzard like back in Feb '11. The $100 I waste on natural gas a year is more than worth my piece of mind knowing my house is safe. Wife loves coming home to a toasty basement too. Our H.E. nat gas furnace doesn't warm the basement enough without roasting the upstairs. As such, the lower efficiency of the gas space heater makes up for running it more often when not cranking the furnace.

Everyones situation is different. Where i live the power rarely goes out and when it does its back on quickly. A wood stove is a better backup heat source for me. Iv been here 24 yrs without a BuGen. At least i can use he wood stove for other things.

Seasoned Oak said:

your gas stove will not work without power although some gas fireplace will.

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Both of our gas (Lopi) stoves worked without any power. The blower obviously didn't, but they heated fine.

eclecticcottage said:

Both of our gas (Lopi) stoves worked without any power. The blower obviously didn't, but they heated fine.

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Gas as a primary heat source usually needs power,for a fan or a water pump as well as an ignition source since they dont use pilot lights anymore. Of course single zone heaters may not need power. I had a vent free(other name for toxic room heater) gas wall heater.It kept shutting off due to low oxygen,scary,instructions said use it with a window open,?huh. Got rid of that in a hurry.

Seasoned Oak said:

Gas a a primary heat source usually needs power,for a fan or a water pump as well as an ignition source since they dont use pilot lights anymore. Of course single zone heaters may not need power. I had a vent free(other name for toxic room heater) gas wall heater.It kept shutting off due to low oxygen,scary,instructions said use it with a window open,?huh. Got rid of that in a hurry.

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I grew up with vetless NG heaters in the house!! We had a free standing heater on a porch where we watched tv. We had one hanging on the wall in the bathroom that had a bar in it that the gas ran through and say 12 holes that let the gas out of, there was a lever under it that controlled the gas let into the pipe. You lit it and controled the flame height that way. The one on the porch is the ones your familiar with. Gas runs out of the bottom difuser pipe, wheel on bottom to control flame and there were cerramic rods or something in it that heated up and glowed red in it.

Wow the things and ways we lived back just a few decades ago. Im only 30 and i remember this. Actually used this till i was out of college in the bathroom! If i had kids (or i lived with those still) id rip those things out in a heartbeat or just leave them disconnected for asthetics of the old house look.

clemsonfor said:

I grew up with vetless NG heaters in the house!! We had a free standing heater on a porch where we watched tv. We had one hanging on the wall in the bathroom that had a bar in it that the gas ran through and say 12 holes that let the gas out of, there was a lever under it that controlled the gas let into the pipe. You lit it and controled the flame height that way. The one on the porch is the ones your familiar with. Gas runs out of the bottom difuser pipe, wheel on bottom to control flame and there were cerramic rods or something in it that heated up and glowed red in it.

Wow the things and ways we lived back just a few decades ago. Im only 30 and i remember this. Actually used this till i was out of college in the bathroom! If i had kids (or i lived with those still) id rip those things out in a heartbeat or just leave them disconnected for asthetics of the old house look.

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The little vented gas stoves like mine don't have a blower. As long as the gas flows, you have heat all winter with or without electricity.