If you are building an Urban farm like my family you probably own a home or apartment in the city. If you live in an apartment, townhome, condo, or even possibly a subdivision with a home owners association there may be rules that do not allow fireplaces or various types of wood stoves to check the rules if that applies to you. For the rest of us, wood can be a very economical way of heating our homes. My wife operates an in home daycare so city ordinance prohibits us from having a wood stove or fireplace in our house right now. I do however use a wood stove to heat my workshop where I work everyday so that is a big cost saving for us. If Stacey (my wife), ever stops doing in home daycare, we will install a wood stove in the house.
Types of Wood Heat
-Fireplace: The fireplace looks the nicest in your home but it is the least efficient. The fireplace lets a lot of heat escape the home and it uses more wood to heat the home. Also, when it is not in use if you do not have tight doors, air can escape your house and right up the flue. Of course in a power outage or on a cozy winter night, a fireplace can be a great thing, but for whole house heating a fireplace will not be your best option.
Indoor Wood Stove: This is the traditional stove you remember from your grandparents house, and for good reason. A wood stove is over 85% efficient which means that the majority of the warm air it creates is used to heat the home and very little escapes to the outdoors. This is one of the best options when using wood to heat your home. The air in the room circulates around the hot stove and warms the air. You can mount the stove in the living area or possibly dining area and use a simple box fan in the hallway to move the hot air around your living space. This is what I use.
Outdoor Wood Stove: These stoves are generally used as add-ons to your current gas furnace. They are really great in that they can be temperature controlled, and they have large hoppers so you can "feed" the stove once before bed and be good to go for up to 8 hours or better. They are expensive and you have to have duct work and a regular furnace blower in place already. Also, a duct line will run from the furnace to the house and the furnace must be a minimum of 10 feet from the house so that is a lot of space.
Why wood heat?
Gas and propane can be expensive and the cost can fluctuate from season to season which can make it hard to budget. In addition to that, your furnace also uses electricity so if you lose power during the winter you will have no heat even if the gas is still working. The one caveat to that is the older room furnaces that run on gas but do not need electricity. In addition to our whole house furnace we have one of these big old heaters as well which works great to heat our addition using only gas and no electricity. Last year during a blizzard, parts of our city lost power so we opened the door to the rest of the house and cranked the old gas only furnace and worked well for us for about 6 hours until the power came back on. Even if you plan to keep your gas furnace, a wood stove might be a great addition to save on energy and also to use during that occasional winter power outage. Redundancy is the key to great disaster preparation as well as an efficient urban farm.
There are two more articles coming on wood heat. The first article will talk about installing my wood stove and how I use it efficiently. I'll also include tips on how to clean it and keep it safe. Secondly, I will post an article about how to get wood without having to buy it. Buying a cord of wood can cost up to $100, and you may need several cords during a winter which will wipe out your utility bill savings. I will tell you how I get wood for free
Types of Wood Heat-Fireplace: The fireplace looks the nicest in your home but it is the least efficient. The fireplace lets a lot of heat escape the home and it uses more wood to heat the home. Also, when it is not in use if you do not have tight doors, air can escape your house and right up the flue. Of course in a power outage or on a cozy winter night, a fireplace can be a great thing, but for whole house heating a fireplace will not be your best option.
Indoor Wood Stove: This is the traditional stove you remember from your grandparents house, and for good reason. A wood stove is over 85% efficient which means that the majority of the warm air it creates is used to heat the home and very little escapes to the outdoors. This is one of the best options when using wood to heat your home. The air in the room circulates around the hot stove and warms the air. You can mount the stove in the living area or possibly dining area and use a simple box fan in the hallway to move the hot air around your living space. This is what I use.
Outdoor Wood Stove: These stoves are generally used as add-ons to your current gas furnace. They are really great in that they can be temperature controlled, and they have large hoppers so you can "feed" the stove once before bed and be good to go for up to 8 hours or better. They are expensive and you have to have duct work and a regular furnace blower in place already. Also, a duct line will run from the furnace to the house and the furnace must be a minimum of 10 feet from the house so that is a lot of space.Why wood heat?
Gas and propane can be expensive and the cost can fluctuate from season to season which can make it hard to budget. In addition to that, your furnace also uses electricity so if you lose power during the winter you will have no heat even if the gas is still working. The one caveat to that is the older room furnaces that run on gas but do not need electricity. In addition to our whole house furnace we have one of these big old heaters as well which works great to heat our addition using only gas and no electricity. Last year during a blizzard, parts of our city lost power so we opened the door to the rest of the house and cranked the old gas only furnace and worked well for us for about 6 hours until the power came back on. Even if you plan to keep your gas furnace, a wood stove might be a great addition to save on energy and also to use during that occasional winter power outage. Redundancy is the key to great disaster preparation as well as an efficient urban farm.
There are two more articles coming on wood heat. The first article will talk about installing my wood stove and how I use it efficiently. I'll also include tips on how to clean it and keep it safe. Secondly, I will post an article about how to get wood without having to buy it. Buying a cord of wood can cost up to $100, and you may need several cords during a winter which will wipe out your utility bill savings. I will tell you how I get wood for free
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