01 Oct Wood Stove Comfort
By all accounts, this winter is going to be cold and snowy, which may have you looking for some extra warmth in your home. While there are plenty of wonderful home heating options available at Gas Plus, nothing beats the warmth, charm and energy efficiency of a wood burning stove. You may be picturing something “old timey”, but modern units today are more advanced than the type you remember from your grandparent’s house. Today, wood stoves are built to be incredibly energy efficient while also being gorgeous to look at, so you don’t have to sacrifice style over utility. We can’t recommend them enough, so let us walk you through some of the benefits that a modern wood stove can bring to your home!
1) Energy Efficiency
Wood burning stoves are the perfect option for reducing your home energy costs, because they can take a lot of pressure off your furnace. While your furnace is capable of heating your entire home, relying on it as your only source of heat could mean a higher monthly charge than necessary. With a wood stove, you’ll have a generous amount of direct heat where you need it, and you’ll be taking some of the work away from your furnace at the same time. In fact, installing a wood stove can reduce your energy costs by 20-40%, depending on how much you favour it over your furnace. While there is some effort required in chopping wood and tending to your stove, the overall savings make it more than worth the effort.
If you’re weighing the value of a fireplace against a wood stove, keep in mind that stoves are much more energy efficient overall. Fireplaces provide plenty of heat, but they are built more for ambience than energy conservation. Wood stoves hold onto the heat and spread a controlled amount outward into your home, as opposed to a fireplace that allows a large amount of the heat to escape up the chimney.
2) PLUS Unbeatable Warmth
Many people have a hard time chasing the chill away from their bones during the snowy winter months, which is part of what makes a wood stove such a perfect addition to your home heating system. Wood stoves operate on the principal of radiant heat, meaning they send warmth directly out from all sides of the unit, including the top, and fill the surrounding area. Once a wood stove is fired up, the extra warmth you receive more than makes up for time and effort it took to start it.
3) PLUS Added Beauty & Value to Your Home
Modern wood stoves are no longer simply a utility item! Modern units come in a variety of materials, colours and designs that make them a beautiful accent piece for any home. At Gas Plus, we carry floor stoves, as well as wall-mounted stoves, so you’ll have a great option, no matter what kind of space you’re working with. With a gorgeous new stove serving as an accent piece, home heater and energy saver, you can be certain that the value of your home will increase should you ever decide to sell.
4) PLUS Clean Burning & Environmentally Friendly
If the thought of burning wood in your home has you concerned about air quality, don’t worry! Modern wood stoves are designed to be as clean burning as possible by using a special re-burning system that pulls smoke and other pollutants into secondary air tubes to be burned away. This also means an overall lower impact on the outside environment, as the majority of smoke and pollutants have been eliminated before they even reach the chimney. It’s also worth noting that a wood stove generally uses one third less wood than an open fireplace, so you can expect less work in chopping and storing wood.
We can provide many more reasons why a wood burning stove is a great addition to your home, but if you want to truly understand if it’s right for you, stop into our showroom! We have a nice selection of stoves set up and ready for you to test out, and our experts are always on-hand to answer your questions. We’re your home comfort experts, so whether your considering a gas or wood-burning stove, it’s gotta be Gas Plus!