In colonial times, Americans stayed warm indoors by burning wood.

Before homes had furnaces, people heated homes by burning wood. Fireplaces became popular during the 1600s. Fireplaces are cozy and beautiful, but a fireplace is not a cost-effective way to heat a home because much of the heat escapes through the chimney.

Cast iron stoves proved to be a better, more efficient method for home heating. During the 1740s, Americans began using the Franklin stove, invented by Benjamin Franklin. The more sophisticated Franklin stoves of the 1820s allowed families to cook food on top of them or even inside them.

Today, many families use wood stoves for home heating as a secondary or primary heat source.

There are several options for alternative heating. People in many parts of the country still burn wood indoors, in addition to using their furnace. The price of heating with wood involves the one time cost of purchasing the stove and installation and yearly expenses of fuel and chimney cleaning. It's a terrific way to heat your home less expensively, especially when you find free firewood in your own neighborhood. You may be surprised at how plentiful wood is; you just have to look!

If you can find free firewood, then a wood burning stove may be your best and least expensive option. You can purchase the stove itself for as little as $250. A larger stove will hold more wood and thus burn hotter and longer. Stoves that are larger, more decorative or have more features, such as blowers for circulating the heat, will cost more. Installation could be pricey, especially if you need to put up a chimney, as you never want to use the same chimney for a gas furnace and wood burner; that could put you at risk for a house fire.

You can have the warmest heat by choosing the correct firewood.

Firewood needs to be dried or seasoned; there should be no moisture inside a log. Sometimes it takes a few years for wood to season. Unseasoned wood does not burn easily, produces little heat, and makes the inside of your chimney sticky with dangerous creosote. Many people don't like burning wood from pine trees because of its never-drying sap.

Firewood from certain kinds of trees creates more heat than other kinds of tree. Woods that are considered to be hard woods, such as hickory, oak, or maple, burn the hottest. Soft woods, such as birch or willow, produce much less heat. Learn what kinds of trees grow in your area.

A pellet stove may be the right option for your home.

If you don't have access to free firewood, then your home may best suited for a pellet stove. With the popularity of Presto-logs in the 1930s, pellet stoves evolved; their popularity gained impetus during the oil crisis of the 1970s. You'll pay more for the stove itself, over $2,000, plus the installation cost, but the price of the pellets isn't unreasonable. Depending on how hot you'll keep your home, expect to use about a ton of pellets per season, which costs about $150 and stores neatly in a space approximately 64 cubic feet.

People often prefer pellet stoves to wood burners as they're easier to use. The pellets are simply compacted wood or sawdust. Some burners also allow the use of seeds, grains, and wood chips. Simply put the pellets into the hopper that's part of the stove. The pellets will automatically feed regularly into the stove creating constant steady heat. Unlike a wood burner, no adjusting is involved. Clean-up is also easier and less messy.

A corn stove sells for about $1,400. It's similar to a pellet stove but is designed to burn whole kernel shelled corn. It has a device to stir the corn.

Evaluate all aspects of wood heat before making your decision.

Wood burners or pellet stoves can be freestanding or inserted into a fireplace. Also, they can be installed in the basement, rather than the family room, through duct system. This circulates heat through the entire house. Before purchasing and installing a wood or pellet stove, check with your insurance agent to be certain that your homeowners insurance will cover your home, and obtain in writing any special requirements, such as distance from the wall.

Prices on all of these options will vary by year and by region. You'll want to check with the local country extension service and suppliers to see how much of any fuel you'll need in your area and to find out what it will cost. Then do the math for yourself to see what works out best for you.

Sitting by the fireplace or wood stove is a relaxing family activity. Whether you're playing board games, reading, or taking a snooze, the cozy warmth of an indoor fire feels wonderful and is a sensible dollar stretching source of energy. Stay warm this season!

Shop Wood Stoves Here

Some folks are obsessive about the choice of firewood. First chore is finding it, then cutting, splitting and stacking are all part of the fun. Doing all the aforementioned properly will result in a clean burning, safe system that will be very efficient,

In Norway, firewood is a national obsession. In fact, one of the most popular TV shows, “National Firewood Night,” was a 12-hour program about firewood. No joke, 12 hours. It’s not hard to understand when you consider that 1.2 million Norwegian homes have fireplaces, wood stoves or both. The TV show was based upon Mytting’s best-selling book.

Diet and fitness books may be among the top-selling books in North America. In Norway, the subject of firewood may usurp it. Mytting’s book was a runaway success, spending more than a year on Norway’s best-seller list. Sales have surpassed 150,000 copies.

Norwegians hold strong opinions about firewood. Mytting told a reporter that, “You can tell a lot about a person from his firewood stack.” And no aspect of the subject is considered trivial. The 12-hour TV program generated debate about stacking, and 50 per cent of the viewers were upset because the bark was facing up, while the rest balked because it was facing down.

When it comes to the subject of firewood, Mytting is considered the last word, and the ideal source to pass on tips for achieving perfect burning. Here are five tips from Mytting:

Air control

To get maximum heat, it’s best to keep the flu control wide open so the wood burns hot and the flames are intense. This will also reduce pollution, because gas particles are combusted and produce heat instead. Once your home is warm, control the temperature by the amount of wood used, not by regulating the flu control.

Minimal amount of smoke from chimney

Contrary to popular belief, smoke is not exhaust, but high energy gases that weren't’t burned. Check the smoke coming out of the chimney. Dense black smoke means that combustion isn't’t ideal because the fire isn't’t hot enough. If wood burns optimally, only odor-free smoke is released from the chimney.

Keep wood stove clean

Clean your stove and flue pipe once a year. It’s also important to clean your stove often if you accumulate a lot of soot.

Different types of wood yield different heat levels

Hardwood provides more heat than softwoods. Softwoods are ideal for starting a fire, and provide a cleaner burn. But once the fire is started, add hardwood to intensify heat, and provide continuous burning. The amount of wood needed is contingent upon the size of the stove’s firebox and the length and breadth of the wood you’re burning.

Healthy overnight heating

Most wood stoves burn two to three hours on one wood load. At night, it’s common practice to close the air supply so that coals smolder and provide continuous heat. But slow smoldering coals are a source of pollution. And over several hours, the heat diminishes.

A more efficient and healthier burning method is to load the wood stove with large logs before you go to bed, but keep the flu wide open. When the fire dies out, sufficient heat will be generated, and the insulation in your home will keep the heat in. In the morning, the stove will still be warm, and easily started.

When installing a gas fireplace or stove in your home you will want to place the unit in an area where it can be properly vented. Unlike traditional wood burning fireplaces, gas fireplaces can be vented out of the side of an exterior wall and do not require a chimney to be run out through the roof. You can use an existing chimney when replacing wood burning fireplaces and stove with gas units, but should install new Duravent gas vent pipe for proper ventilation.

Duravent Chimney Pipe for Wood Burning Stoves and Fireplaces

You can find all your venting needs available from Copperfield Chimney Supply , which carries quality hearth products for the entire home.

Posted on Oct 25 2012 by Alex Wilson

You have to plug it in, but it's also possible to run it off a 12-volt car battery. Our Quadrafire pellet stove can operate even during a power outage.

My wife and I have a sort-of love-hate relationship with our pellet stove. She leans more toward the latter, while I see the benefits outweighing the negatives.

In this column I’ll outline the primary advantages and disadvantages of pellet heating.

Advantages of wood pellet heating

Regional fuel. The fuel is — or can be — local or regional in origin. At a minimum it’s not fuel that’s coming from places where they don’t like us — like the Middle East. When I’m buying pellets, the source is a significant consideration. I’m willing to pay slightly more to have my pellets come from nearby plants in Jaffrey, New Hampshire or Rutland, Vermont.

Carbon-neutral. The life-cycle of wood pellet production and use can — and should — be close to carbon-neutral. With natural gas, propane, or heating oil we’re taking carbon that was sequestered underground millions of years ago and releasing that as a greenhouse gas into the atmosphere (where it contributes to global warming). When we burn wood pellets we’re still releasing about the same amount of stored carbon into the atmosphere, but that carbon was sequestered in the wood fiber over just a few decades, and if we’re managing our woodlands properly (replacing harvested trees with new ones) the entire life cycle results in almost no net carbon emissions.

Relatively clean-burning. Wood pellets are a lot cleaner-burning than cordwood. This is because pellet combustion is aided by a fan that supplies a steady stream of air to the burn pot. When I first start up my pellet stove — as the electric heating element heats up the pellets to start the combustion — there’s some smoke produced, but once the pellet stove is operating there is no visible smoke being generated. (This is a reason to set the temperature differential on the control relatively high — so that it won’t cycle on and off too frequently.)

Infrequent stoking. Pellet stoves have integral bins that can be filled every few days in cold weather, and most pellet boilers have stand-alone bins that hold several months’ worth of pellets. Regular stoking isn’t required — unlike with a wood stove. If a pellet stove is your only heating system in a space (as is the case with our apartment) how long you can go away depends on the energy efficiency of the building, expected outdoor temperatures, the volume of pellets your stove or bin holds, and the thermostat settings. With our pellet stove, we can go away for about three days in the coldest Vermont weather as long as I leave the thermostat set fairly low.

Convenient. With a pellet stove you don’t have to handle firewood. I’m sure I’ve cut, split, stacked, and burned a couple hundred cords of wood over the decades, and I know that it’s a lot of work. With pellet stoves you’re still handling the fuel — usually 40-pound bags of the rabbit-food-size pellets — but it’s more convenient than dealing with firewood.

Economical. Pellets are less expensive than heating oil, propane, or electric-resistance heat, so you can save money if you would otherwise use those fuels. You may save more money with a pellet stove by heating only a few rooms instead of the whole house — though there are often ways to do that with other heating systems as well.

Disadvantages of wood pellet heating

Noisy. There’s no getting around the fact that pellet stoves are noisy. There are typically two fans: one to supply combustion air to the burn pot and another to circulate heated air into the room. I find the noise annoying; my wife hates it. It’s certainly a far cry from a silent wood stove in our living room. There’s a Wiseway Pellet Stove that supposedly operates passively, but haven’t seen one in operation yet. Pellet boilers are noisy too, but they’re typically in the basement or a separate building, so it’s not a problem.

Electricity dependent. When you lose power a pellet stove or pellet boiler can’t operate (unless you have one of those new Wiseway stoves). This is an important consideration not only in rural areas prone to power failures, but also more generally in an age of global climate change with more intense storms forecast. With our own Quadrafire Mt. Vernon AE pellet stove, I bought a kit that allow me to operate the DC fans using a 12-volt automotive-type battery during a power outage. It won’t auto-start using the DC power, so you have to start it by hand with kindling or starter paste, but at least it can be used to keep a space warm when the grid is down.

Comfort. Pellet stoves don’t deliver radiant heat. I love pulling up a chair in front of our wood stove on a cold winter night and sitting down with a good book. That radiant heat seems to warm you inside and out. Pellet stoves — at least the one we have — don’t heat up in the same way and radiate heat. Nearly all the heat is delivered by fan-forced convection. It’s just not as pleasant.

Plastic bags. Unless you get pellets delivered in bulk you produce a lot of polyethylene plastic waste from the bags. The first two years we had our pellet stove I was able to buy bulk pellets that were delivered in reusable thousand-pound totes that sat on pallets. I had to carry the pellets upstairs in five-gallon pails, but at least I didn’t generate all that waste. Unfortunately, the company that had delivered those totes disappeared, and I had to switch to the more typical 40-pound plastic bags (which we reuse as trash bags). I believe that as pellet heating becomes more common, bulk delivery of pellets will become more available.

Complex. Unlike wood stoves, pellet stoves have moving parts that can wear out and that require maintenance. There are blowers, temperature sensors, an auger to deliver pellets, and other components. Most retailers recommend annual servicing, which can add significantly to the total operating cost of a pellet stove or pellet boiler.

Less control over the fuel. If you have a woodlot you can cut and split your own firewood. That’s not the case with pellets. Pellet factories use massive presses to extrude wood fibers through dies to create the pellets. Do-it-yourself pellets aren’t an option.

Not always cheaper. While pellets are less expensive than most other fuels, they may not be cheaper that natural gas or air-source minisplit heat pumps. Use our Heating Fuel Cost Calculator to compare costs per unit of delivered heat. In the Northeast, pellets typically track with heating oil — going up when heating oil prices spike, though generally remaining significantly lower. If you can order pellets in bulk rather than buying them in 40-pound bags, there may be some savings — but not all that much. And there have occasionally been shortages of pellets, driving prices up substantially.

The bottom line

Pellets are a mixed bag, but they offer enough advantages in many situations to warrant consideration. They provide a user-friendly option for relying on a relatively local, renewable fuel source. If Europe is any indication, the use of pellet heat in the U.S. is likely to increase significantly in the years and decades ahead.

When you're looking for a fireplace, you're looking for not only quality, but beauty as well and with a Napoleon fireplace, you can have both. Our strict standards of construction and steadfast dedication to long lasting display have put us in the top of the fireplace industry. From fireplaces that offer a two-hundred seventy degree view, to our in wall mounting, linear models and, of course, the good old fashion country fireplace look, we offer a wide selection that is sure to appeal to anyone's taste.

Check out our Napoleon Fireplaces

Low Flame - too much primary air.

Close down the air shutter in small increments, replacing the window and letting fireplace operate for at least 10 minutes after each adjustment.

Also: Check that the the restrictor plate has been installed on vertically vented DV's. Check that flue baffle the restrictor has been installed on vertically vented cast iron stoves and DVR33.

Tall Orange Flame : not enough combustion air. Tall lazy flames that become dark yellow or orange in color, or flames that impinge on the top of the firebox will cause sooting. Both conditions are symptoms of lack of combustion air. Open up the primary air shutter(s).

Also: Check the venting. Ensure that natural and direct vents are installed properly as per the installation manual.

Check the log set up.

Check that flue baffle restrictor has not been used on sidewall cast stoves or DVR33.

Ghosting Flame : lack of combustion air. Wispy, transparent blue flames that lift off the burner and float through the firebox looking for oxygen. Fireplace will only run for a short time before it shuts itself down. Typically due to poor draft or flue gas recirculation. With NV's introduce make-up air, check for flue blockage. With DV's check venting, termination location, ensure all insulation has been removed when converting a rear to a top vent, and ensure there are no firebox leaks.

Noisy Flame : Excess primary air. Gas/ air mixture ignites close to orifice and sounds like a blowtorch. Also called flashback. Will cause soot deposits at the orifice/ primary air shutter. Clean and adjust the primary air shutter as per 'low flame' above.

Also: Reduce the amount of ceramic ember materials on the front of the radiant burner.