Wood Stove Buying Guide: Finding the Perfect Stove for Your Home
In recent years, global warming and climate change have become reality. They are major, global issues that many of us think we cannot affect. The truth is, small changes to the way we live – when compounded among many people – can make a difference. An example is heating with renewable cordwood in a modern wood burning stove. In addition to feeling good about heating with a renewable fuel, you will reduce your dependence on ozone-depleting fossil fuels.
If you are considering purchasing a wood burning stove, we’ve compiled some important buying tips. Already have a wood burning stove? Good for you! Depending on the age and make of the stove, you could further benefit the environment and possibly your lifestyle by upgrading to a stove outfitted with today’s advanced technologies and conveniences. And if it’s not EPA-certified, you definitely need to upgrade. Here’s why.
EPA-Certified, Cleaning Burning Stoves
EPA-certified wood burning stoves comply with strict emissions and efficiency standards enforced by the EPA that not only help reduce pollution, but control your energy costs.
All Quadra-Fire stoves are EPA certified and outfitted with Quadra-Fire Four-Point Burn Systems – an integral technology in all of our stoves. Four distinct combustion cycles maximize fuel-to-heat conversion by fully burning every log while re-burning gases and smoke up to four times. That means fewer trees to cut or cords to buy, less particulate emissions, and far less ash to clean up. If Paul Bunyan would’ve had one of these stoves, he could have cut his work in half!
An even bigger benefit of these wood and pellet fueled hearths is big-time savings. The U.S. Biomass Tax Credit has been reinstated for all eligible product purchases from Jan. 1, 2015 – Dec. 31, 2016. You can earn back $300 on biomass heating products that meet the 75 percent efficiency requirement.
Modern Conveniences
When it comes to controlling heat, today’s wood burning stoves are lightyears ahead of the stoves of old. For example, Quadra-Fire Adventure Series stoves are equipped with Smart Burn Technology, with programmable thermostats that allow you to not only control the heat, but program separate heating plans for weekdays and weekends that correlate with your schedule. Similar to a programmable thermostat for a furnace, this stove allows you to program lower temperatures when you’re away, and more heat when you’re home. It will even alert you when it’s time to add wood to the fire.
Other Quadra-Fire wood burning stoves feature Automatic Combustion Control (ACC) Technology, which is a burn-rate control system that feeds air to the fire when needed, based on the amount of heat desired. High, medium and low settings provide optimum home comfort.
Cast Iron versus Steel
Wood stoves are generally available in either cast iron or steel. Both are beautiful and work well to provide efficient heat. Cast iron stoves generate hotter fires, retain heat longer after the fire goes out, and tend to be more intricate in design. Steel stoves heat up more quickly and are typically less expensive than cast iron stoves. What you choose will depend upon your design preferences, heating needs and budget.
Size Considerations
Wood burning stoves are available in a variety of sizes to meet your home comfort needs. If you plan to use the stove for zone heating in the area where you spend the most time, a smaller stove will work well, depending on the actual size of the space. Larger stoves can heat spaces and whole homes as large as 4,000 square feet. Bigger houses may need more than one stove to heat the entire home.
[quadrafire.com. (2016, January 18). Wood Stove Buying Guide: Finding the Perfect Stove for Your Home [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.quadrafire.com/Shopping-Tools/Blog/Wood-Stove-Buying-Guide-Finding-the-Perfect-Stove-for-Your-Home.aspx]