Why a Wood Burning Stove Should Be Properly Sized and Installed
Wood stoves are an excellent option to provide efficient, cost-effective heating for your home. However the stove has to be installed and sized correctly to maximize efficiency.
Avoid opening and closing the wood stove door often as this can create an atmosphere that draws smoke and unburnt volatile compounds back into the room.
Energy Efficiency
Radiant heat is used to heat the home instead of hot air that's forced into the house through its ventilation system. This is an efficient method of heating since it gives powerful warmth that radiates across the entire stove, heating your entire house instead of just an area in the middle.
Modern wood stoves have been designed to be as efficient as possible. Manufacturers must comply with stricter emission standards and the most efficient way to achieve this is by making their stoves more efficient in energy use. The majority of our stoves (both DEFRA approved and EPA certified) have efficiency ratings of 70%, which means that a significant portion of the heat that is produced is used to warm your home, instead of being lost to the chimney.
A wood burner can also be an energy source that is totally independent. Unlike gas and electricity, a wood burner will still provide you with warmth even during an outage in gas or electricity provided you have enough wood stored.
Wood burning stoves are also more reliable than other types of heating as they do not rely on oil or electricity to function. This is particularly crucial in remote areas where other energy sources could be interrupted for long periods of time.
A quality log burner should operate at a high efficiency of around 80 which means that a substantial portion of the heat generated is being used to heat your home. This is a big improvement over older stoves that typically operate at less than 20% efficiency and is one of the main reasons why a new stove would be a smart investment.
A catalytic wood stove will re-burn any unburned gas and smoke that escape the firebox via secondary combustion, further improving efficiency. However, non-catalytic stoves are becoming more common as they do not require expensive catalyst technology to achieve the same levels of efficiency and can be considerably cheaper to purchase. This is particularly advantageous for those looking to reduce their carbon footprint and save money on fuel costs.
Clean Burning
A wood stove burns wood and generates heat, but it also releases particles and gases into the air. In certain areas this can result in poor air quality, which impacts our health and well-being. It is crucial to use clean-burning technology on your wood stove.
With modern wood stoves which uses Clean Burn technology, you can cut down on dust and airborne particles. This will not only make your home more healthy and cleaner, but also save money as you'll get more heat from each log.
Today's ECO design stoves have one of the most strict requirements in the world when it comes to particle emissions - they are permitted to release less than 5 grams per kilogram of wood that is burned. We at Jotul have higher ambitions. We want to offer you the most pleasant conditions for your health and the climate. We have developed an approach that allows our wood stoves to emit less than half the statutory requirements - in some instances, it's even less than one grams!
A modern stove comes with a variety of ways to improve the combustion of the wood. It is essential to monitor the airflow and slow down the airflow after the fire is hot and stable - else you could kill the fire.
Cleaner stoves produce less creosote. This sticky substance could cause serious fire dangers. The reduced production of creosote can reduce time and cost in chimney sweeping.
Our new wood stoves' high-performance is also a result of the pre-heated secondary air. This is an additional layer of air which is introduced above the fuel load and assists in ensuring that all particles are completely combusted. This feature is responsible for a significant portion of the superior performance found in our newest stoves such as the Defra approved Hi-Flame Graphite 5.
Always ensure that you only use your wood stove in areas that are legal. Smoke from wood stoves is not only hazardous to those who live in the immediate area but it can travel over long distances, causing poor air quality for communities in close proximity.
Eco-Friendly
Wood burners are an alternative that is low in carbon to stoves that use fossil fuels. As part of the closed carbon cycle trees absorb CO2 from air and release it when they are burned. This is less harmful to the environment than releasing CO2 into air by using gas, oil, or electricity for heating your home.
Modern stoves have a greater efficiency than earlier models, which means you can heat your home with significantly less wood. Some models are so efficient that they emit virtually no smoke, generate less ash, and require 70 percent less wood than traditional stoves. The newer EPA-certified stoves have additional safety features, such as an automatic shutoff to avoid overheating.
In addition to being a great source of heat, eco-friendly stoves are a great way to cut costs on your energy bills. The cost of electricity and gas seem to be rising every year. With a wood-burning stove, you can take control of your heating requirements and eliminate the middlemen.
You can also make use of recycled wood or salvaged wood to make your stove even more green. Many people collect wood from construction projects that could otherwise be thrown away or disposed of. However, it is important to make sure it's completely dry before burning. This is particularly important when you live in a zone of smoke control where the use of damp or wet wooden is illegal.
The environmental benefits of a wood stove is due to the fact that it is a renewable source of energy. If you purchase your wood from a sustainable forest, then one tree will be planted for each one that is cut down for use, and this helps to stop the destruction of forests caused by fossil fuel production.
While wood burning stoves emit fewer emissions than other stoves, they do emit fine particulate pollutants. These small, toxic particles can penetrate deep into the lungs, and could be extremely detrimental to your health. The independent standards body for heating appliances HETAS has led an effort to improve the efficiency of wood stoves so that they minimize this kind of pollution as much as possible and a lot of manufacturers are developing eco-friendly wood stoves that comply with the most recent standards.
Cooking
Wood stoves are safe if used correctly. If you're not experienced with wood burning, it's best to hire an expert to examine your fireplace and ventilation systems to make sure they are operating properly. Modern wood burners utilize chimneys and fireboxes to draw in air and then release smoke. The ventilation pipe and chimney work together to limit the amount of creosote produced by burning wood. The accumulation of creosote inside the chimney can reduce efficiency and create a fire risk, so it is important to maintain your stove.
The crackle of the flame and the smell of burning wood create a cozy atmosphere that can transport you back to simpler times. Additionally, cooking with wood-burning stoves gives a unique flavor that cannot be replicated using electric or gas stoves. The smokey flavor of roasted meats, as well as soups that are hearty provide meals with a distinctive and unforgettable taste that cannot be achieved by other methods of cooking.
Cooking on a wood-burning stove is also thought to be healthier than other types of cooking. For instance, if you roast vegetables or meats in your wood-burning stove, the heat generated by the flames helps to preserve nutrients that can be lost when heating foods for extended periods of time.
Many people utilize a wood-burning stove to heat their homes, instead of relying on gas or electricity. It is a reliable method for heating that is particularly beneficial during power outages and in areas where fossil fuels are scarce. Additionally, most people find that using wood stoves are the most cost-effective method to heat their homes, as opposed to buying and installing a conventional gas or electric stove. It is also green, as wood is a renewable resource and when harvested and burned in a responsible manner, it releases less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than fossil fuels.