Wood vs. natural gas stove--help!

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Oct 26, 2013
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Toronto, ON
Hi all,
I am looking for a stand-alone stove to serve as a secondary source of heat for the main floor of my house. I don't have an existing fireplace or chimney. I am trying to find a stove that can heat a 900 sq ft (poorly insulated) space, in a cold Canadian climate. I am also looking for something with relatively low clearances (corner installation), that will operate in a power outage, can be used as a stovetop to heat water or food, with good efficiency, and low emissions.
I thought I had settled on a Pacific Energy Vista Classic wood stove, but then started having doubts about wood vs natural gas. My primary source of heat is a natural gas furnace, and while we don't currently have any burn bans here I'm concerned they may become an issue in future. Also, the clearances are generally less for the gas stoves. On the other hand, I haven't been able to find a natural gas stoves that put out as much heat as even a small wood stove (such as the Vista). And if I opt for natural gas, I don't know what make/model would be a good match for my needs. I prefer direct vent over vent free, but beyond that I don't know which ones are the most reliable and safe. I've been looking at Napoleon (GDS60) and Hampton (H35)...any suggestions???
Thanks!
 
Daksy may be able to help you on the gas stove front. On the wood stove, if the place is really poorly insulated, you may want a larger stove. It gets cold up there. I would consider the PE Super 27 too.
 
I love my woodstove but we also have a freestanding gas stove in the living room (was there when we bought the house). It's a non-vented model which I had concerns about but now that I've used it for a winter I love it. There's no fumes at all and we use it to quickly bring the room up to temp while waiting for the woodstove to kick in. It's very efficient and requires no electricity. We generally run it for short periods of time, not extended use.
 
Novice said:
I am looking for a stand-alone stove to serve as a secondary source of heat for the main floor of my house. I don't have an existing fireplace or chimney. I am trying to find a stove that can heat a 900 sq ft (poorly insulated) space, in a cold Canadian climate.
Click to expand...

Have you looked at what is needed to increase your insulation. Nice thing about insulation is that you only need to do it once (usually). If you rent you may be able to talk landlord into it (depends on landlord).

One thing to consider about power outages is how long will it last and what is you base power needs for the other equipment. Usually you can get by pretty comfortably with a 2kWh generator...But power needs vary. A generator will be cheaper than a chimney.

Also, pellet stoves can have small clearances and still provide a nice wood heat, plus don't require the same chimney expense as wood stoves. Cons are you have to buy pellets (some people make their own), and they use electricity...

Also seeing how my stove acted in my leaky house mid winter, has me set on getting an OAK or other source of outside air for my next stove...Mid winter it just got too cold to spend too much time in the coaling stage, which led me to have a few runaway fires...Had I not been bringing in cold 0deg air through the house to feed the stove, then the 300-400 deg stove would have been mighty warm.

Nice thing about NG is there is still a bit of it and it's projected to remain more stable than other gases over the next few decades.
 
Calculate the cost per million BTUs for both. In my area, natural gas is barely more expensive. I would never ever consider wood if I had natural gas. Wood stoves are mostly for people who only have oil, propane, or electric as alternatives.
 
I wouldn't have gas in this joint on a bet. I have never heard of a wood stack or stack of pellets exploding.

But on the output side, like a pellet stove a gas stove puts out even heat over an infinite time period. Unlike the peaks with a wood stove. You don't need an equivalent max BTU rating in that case.
 
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I replaced the free standing natural gas stove that was in my rec room with my current wood stove. The gas was nice but as you've mentioned they don't have the heat required (at least mine). I have a natural gas furnace in my home but prefer the feel of wood heat. Also in BC we had a 14% increase in natural gas charges as of April 1. Heating with natural gas just got more expensive!
 
Yes there's about to be a BIG hike in NG prices here as well. Plus I do worry about the safety issues (i.e. natural gas leak)--call me crazy, but it happens. That's why it would be reassuring to get a gas stove with a strong safety record, if I go that route...
 
Burn bans meaning 'air quality advisory' or 'fire danger'.

There can be ways around both.
For air quality some munis/districts have accepted EPA cert appliances during those (since cars are really the culprit) {Well, some people blame the weather}, and rarely have I seen one in Denver during the winter.
For fire danger, some places allow you to have spark arrestors installed in the pipe/chimney somewhere. Not sure exactly where, but commercial operations have them so they can still bring you wood fired flavor, even during our strictest fire bans when over 100k acres was on fire in the state, and a few hundred in the county.

Your local Govt will have info I'm sure.
Here is Denver metro under 7,000 ft. Many other places don't understand why people aren't smouldering the smoke dragon. Epoch varies by location.

"Under this regulation, the only exceptions to the burning restrictions are for residences above 7,000 feet in the seven-county Denver-Boulder metropolitan area; and those who use Colorado Phase III (Phase II EPA) certified woodburning stoves, Colorado approved pellet stoves, approved masonry heaters or those whose stoves or fireplaces are their primary source of heat. "
http://www.colorado.gov/airquality/advisory.aspx

Yeah I wouldn't want to bet on gas, but there is a lot of NG domestically.
Still, Nature's Battery is best.
 
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If you do go with wood, I also vote for going bigger. I'm heating a 900 sq ft pretty much uninsulated cabin on the BC coast, and the Super 27 is just about right for us, although we are heating the place up from ambient temp every weekend. If I were you, I would insulate and get the Super/Spectrum as per BG's suggestion.
 
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