wood fireplace vs wood stove?

Modern, airtight, wood stove.

wood stove. It radiates heat long after the logs have burnt.

stove all the way...had one for 30 years

you can still have a nice fireplace with a mantle and all - but get a wood burning stove insert.

regardless of what time of stove you get, it's simply a massive radiator. you can even get blowers for them to push the hot air.

they are more efficient (for heat and fuel consumption) than fireplaces, because with a fireplace, msot of the heat goes right up the chimney.

definitely stove

yo

A wood burning stove is the best for heating and you can buy a decent looking one for the right price,....as for a fireplace its very romantic but it will give you little warmth,..actually if you have the heat on, it will get sucked up in the cheminee.

I forgot to day about the wood stove - you can cook on top of them if need be.

Wood stove, for sure.


self-contained, concentrated, radiant heat;cooking surface; run copper tubing to heat water, etc.


Many more practical uses than with a fireplace...

+1

Thanks for the info guy's/gal's I was kind of inclining towards a stove for the faster installation time. I guess I will get one.

Lots of good info on the net about wood stoves...

Here is a decent link for info/reviews...

[link to www.woodstovesguide.com]

woodstove you get more heat plus you can cook on it and heat your bath water too if you got a kettle like if the power goes out.

insert the only way to go but get an older one most new ones suck.Look around bigger is better mine holds 20 inch long logs I love it.nothing like cutting fire wood

Wood stove 100%!

A wood fireplace will actually pull the heat out of your home. The fireplace is also cumbersome to cook over if you have too.

THIS^^^^^. Get one with glass doors and you can watch the fire just like a FP, but with much more heat generated, and if you get the right kind, one that will burn slowly overnight so you don't have to start cold in the morning, and get up in a cold house. Further Wood Stoves have a much better heat to fuel consumption ratio, and they emit less smoke into the air around you. It is the way to go!

I have one which we also cook on, with an oven, handmade by the Amish... have to clean the flue a couple of times a year if we burn too much softwood, but we have a cap due to so many trees around our house. Nevertheless, I wouldn't trade it for ANYTHING!

I just installed a vermont castings "defiant" wood stove in front of my fireplace, and it kicks ass! I wasted soo much firewood in that fireplace. This new one heats the house quite nicely,(the fireplace didn't) and with the 8" flue connector, I can use it with the doors open, like a fireplace(but much less heat than closed). it burns 24" wood, and no matter what I do, the wood is all gone in the morning, just ash left.

The ovens are neat...

Example here...

[link to www.outfitterwarehouse.com]

Stove is best,open fireplace is poor in comparison.

woodstove. Trouble with a fireplace is most of the heat goes up the chemney. also the dampers on a fireplace won't close to airtight so with no fire going it still sucks warm air out of your house. and if you go to bed and the fire burns out , its like having an open window with the warm air in your house going up the chemney. you can't close the damper with any trace of a fire left in the fireplace or you will get smoke and carbon monoxide in you home. as one poster said you can stay warm AND cook on it when the powers out. Drawbacks to wood heat..dirty, you have to cut and spilt it or pay someone else to do it (not cheap) storage of cords of wood, bugs come in the house in the wood. A pellet stove is better but more expensive and usually needs electricy to run the feeder. I heated with wood for years, cutting and splitting 5-8 cords a year. I now have propane and its the best. and cheaper than wood if you have to buy your firewood. also works when the power is out. And its clean!

Last Edited by mandit on 10/26/2010 08:58 PM

Stove for sure,you can heat your whole house with it,just make sure you sweep you vent/chimney/stack regular

I actually used to sell them. If your looking for aesthetics than a fireplace. If you want heat than a wood stove. To have a fire you need oxygen. As the fire in the fireplace burns it consumes the oxygen in the house and most of the heat goes up the chimney. When you use the air from the house it has to be replaced so it literally pulls air back into the house through any crack or crevice in the house which means your pulling the cold outside air into the house.

A wood stove will hold heat and radiate much better.

i got a 250$ freestanding woodstove/fireplace off craigslist,spent 400 on the chimmney pipe and that thing kept my deer lease mobile home nice and toasty

We've been looking at cabins up in Minnesota for future retirement plans. Many of them have wood stoves rather than fireplaces and I know they are so much more efficient. Still, that wasteful part of me likes the ambiance of the fireplace. Then there's Miss Practical saying who gives a flying leap -- if there's an emergency, you have to stay warm. LOL

Wood Stove all the way!!

Get a vogelzang:

[link to www.vogelzang.com]

They're inexpensive yet high quality & I think you can get a tax credit for it


Best investment I ever made

Also here's some good advice, Make sure its a Cast Iron Stove

The metal generates better heat as the whole cast iron stove will become an irradiator

On a side note there is a high efficiency wood fireplace from a company called Fireplace extraordinaire that heats up to 4'000 sq ft of space and uses outside air for combustion. It's an amazing product and you get the benefit of aesthetics too but it's kinda pricey but worth it if it fits your budget

______jessica____

I just installed a woodstove and love it. The model I got has a bay window front, so it still works like a wood stove but has also has maximum viewing area. It's this one...

[link to www.champschimney.com]

Except I got mine with no metallic trim, just black.

SDM

Depends on the location of your chimney.

If you have a fully interior chimney (one where the house wraps around it. A wood burning insert that regulates the burn and prevents a majority of the heat escaping up and out will heat the thermal mass of the chimney, thus the whole chimney because your heat source.

If the chimney is on the exterior heat loss will take place as heat will radiate to the outside. Thus having a stove that is inside of the room to radiate the heat in the house works better.

Some "Earth-ships" (rammed earth homes) and many straw-bale constructions have a combination set up, with chimney designed in such a manner as to trap heat while venting gasses.

Of course this requires designing the house basically around the chimney to maximize thermal gain.

For a modern stick-frame or conventional house, the best way to go is a simple metal flue and wood-burning stove set up.

Mind no matter what you use, the furthest rooms will be cooler as air will be drawn from them to feed the fire.

Fireplaces tend to require a far greater draw of air, thus outlying rooms will be much colder than with wood-stoves that are designed to work with less air draw.

I would suggest a stove that is rated to burn coal. Coal burns at a higher temperature thus needs firebrick that can withstand the heat. This means that the brick itself will have greater mass. Greater mass means greater thermal retention, thus even after the fire is banked for the night the stove will radiate more heat longer.

For such a large place (2000 square feet) you will have to also consider moving the heat around. If you have central air then this is relatively easy, just turn on the fan, if how ever you do not have central heating, then you will need to either have more than one heat sources or lots of fans.

Get a wood stove with a window that way you can enjoy the flames. I have had mine for years and it isn't too much trouble to clean each year and I love the flickering flames.

Woodstove. I have heated a 3000 sq ft., two story house with one good wood stove, and some ducting and fans. By the way in central Idaho the winters are often 25 below.

A fireplace will really make a modern home cold, and eat up many cords of wood.

Air tight wood cookstove.
We've had a "pioneer maid" for 30 years... heats our whole house, easily holds a fire for 24+ hours without refueling if necessary, when power goes out you can cook on it, heat water etc. Only thing we ever replaced on it was the fire brick lining about every 10 yrs. Wouldn't be without one!!!

[link to www.mealtimestoves.on.ca]

Oh by the way. If you are going to invest in a wood stove. Invest in one that can use both wood and coal.

I understand that the word coal is not politically correct. But for keeping you and your family warm, you cannot beat it. Check it out.