It doesn’t matter if you’re adding a new wood burning stove to your Indianapolis home or business for chilly winter nights or are simply looking for a replacement for your existing one. Finding the perfect wood stove can seem like an overly complex process at times.
However, you only need to take a few options into consideration when you decide to choose which one will be the best for your situation. In this article, we’ll walk you through the basics so that you can make an educated choice for the right wood burning stove for your Indianapolis home.
How to Choose the Best Wood Stove for Your Situation
Fuel Type
There are two typical options available, wood, which is often less expensive, or pellets, which are more consistent. Hardwood firewood can shed snow, debris, and bark into your home. However, it doesn’t require electricity to operate, even if you have a blower to improve efficiency in its operations. This allows you to prioritize your electricity use if the power is out and you’re working on a power bank or generator.
By comparison, pellet stoves are cleaner to operate. However, pellet stoves require electricity to move the auger, and sometimes a blower, which can be a problem if the power is out. Even if you can operate it without the blower, which is an option, you will still need power to be able to move the auger to feed more fuel into the fire.
Only Heating or Serving Multiple Purposes
If you’re only supplementing heat, you’ll find a wide range of wood stoves for appearance and form. Some are more efficient than others, and some are available with soapstone or other stone on the outside that will provide long-lasting radiant heat.
However, if you want to cook on the surface or bake, you’ll need to look for a model with a flat top surface or an oven to facilitate this activity. Though you can find some antique stoves that could do this, they often have safety issues, so it’s best to buy a modern wood stove that has these capabilities rather than investing in an older stove that may not work right.
Space Heating Needs
How much space do you need to heat with your wood stove? Wood stoves are typically classified by how much area they can heat, with open floorplans working better than closed floorplans. In this situation, stoves that are too large or too small won’t perform properly, making your home too hot or cool.
As an example, placing a wood stove that is engineered to heat 2,400 square feet into a 1,200 square foot home, the stove will generate too much heat. However, if you have a home that doesn’t have an open floor plan, you’ll want to size your stove towards the local rooms around the wood stove or consider using fans to move the heat around the home.
Heating Style
There are three options available when it comes to your heating style, which impact efficiency, operational ease, and heat produced:
Traditional Stoves
Larger and simpler to operate, getting a traditional wood burning stove for your Indianapolis property may prove to be less efficient, often releasing emissions above EPA standards. This can be a poor choice for many homeowners, as it can put you outside of legal limits.
Contemporary Stoves
Taking up less space in your Indianapolis home, contemporary stoves by design are able to operate at higher efficiency while producing lower emissions. This provides you with the best efficiency, less use of valuable space, and greener operations.
Hybrid Stoves
In between these two extremes of efficiency, emissions, and space are hybrid stoves. Indianapolis homeowners may want to consider this type of stove as they are designed to generate both moderate efficiency and moderate emissions, delivering the best of both worlds and comfortable heating capability.
Appearance
There are a wide range of different appearances to your new wood stove. There are sheet metal stoves that provide excellent efficiency and ones that have windows to allow you to see the flames within for a better aesthetic in your home.
Similarly, there are distinctive styles that hail back to historic times, which can be wonderful options if you have an older home. Modern variations of old-fashioned cook stoves, beautiful potbellied and cast-metal stoves all provide you with warmth, comfort, and a wonderful aesthetic in your home or business.
When you choose a wood burning stove for your Indianapolis home or business, these factors ensure you’ll get the right stove for your needs. Need help finding the right wood stove for your situation? The friendly team of chimney professionals at Clean Sweep 317 are happy to help. Take a few minutes to reach out today and get started, and you’ll have a wonderful wood stove in no time!