How Many Wood Stoves Will it Take to Heat Your Home?

Would you think I was lying me if I said One?It may seem hard to believe, but it's actually possible to heat an entire home using wood stoves-and if important conditions are satisfied, you can even heat your residence with just one stove.To understand how this is possible, you first need to consider that wood burning stoves are classified as space heaters. As opposed to the average central heating system, which use pipes, modern stoves generate radiant heat, warming a home directly. This is excellent news for modern home owners, because newer houses are designed to be energy efficient. They require less heating to maintain comfortable air temperatures, which makes it realistic to heat a moderately-sized modern home with a single wood burning stove. Here’s how this would happen.First, the stove needs to be installed in the home's main living area. Ideally, this will be in an open, communal area, where family members spend a lot of time. Usually, this is the floor shared by the kitchen, living and dining rooms-the places where people eat, read, watch TV and hang out. If it isn’t possible to do this, you may have to use more than one stove to heat your house.Second, heat flow needs to be possible. The one-stove approach works especially well in open-plan houses. If your residence has large rooms with few divisions, keeping everyone warm with just one large stove is feasible. But if your house is broken up into multiple niches and smaller rooms, multiple wood burning stoves will probably be necessary.Finally, choose from advanced wood stoves that are certified by the Environmental Protection Agency. This is really no more than a small caveat, since wood stoves designed after the '90s are fuel efficient and have minimal environmental impact. However, if you're not aware of this fact, you could inadvertently sacrifice the carefully engineered benefits of modern wood stoves by buying older, used models.Fortunately, now you know. So, back to our opening question. How many stoves will it take to heat your home? With a little advance planning, heating your residence with just one efficient, powerful wood stove can be a reality.