This wood stove has been in here a long time but the upkeep is just too much these days. I need an alternative, but I need to be able to afford it, and that's the worrisome part. We pay quite a bit for wood as-is, so I feel like the price of dropping wood might not be too bad since not having to buy the wood would be better, too.. But I don't know what the best options are- it needs to be something that radiates heat well to fill a small room, a kitchen, and a couple of hallways, if possible.
I'm trying to replace the wood stove in the central part of our house due to the difficulty of the upkeep, but I need to figure out something that will keep pipes from getting too cold while being affordable(as far as heating goes.) Anyone got suggestions?
byu/Malesto inFrugal
Posted by Malesto
7 Comments
A pellet stove or a gas fireplace.
Corn stove..
So…. Here’sy question: do you like the wood burning stove aspect as far as ambiance or do you just need zero maintenance warmth for the main living area of your house?
Because pellet stoves are popular where I live, but a pellet stove insert is going to run at least $2-$3k and that does also mean you’ll need to continue a fair amount of maintenance similar to a wood burning stove (chimney cleaning, buying and hauling boxes or bags of pellets) and they really aren’t the cleanest, cheapest or most efficient heating option. (Pellets are more expensive than wood, but burn longer, it’s not necessarily more expensive depending on use but it’s not really cheap compared to buying wood either if that makes sense)
A gas stove would obviously be a great option for aesthetics and heat if you already have natural gas (heating, stove, dryer), but if you don’t it’s probably prohibitively expensive.
An electric infrared heater would be my actual recommendation for frugally heating a moderate sized living room/dining or kitchen room, hallways. It will also have a bonis of being portable, so if you need to move it to a bedroom at night – or my personal favorite I point it at the tub to keep a bath warm in the winter.
I literally have ours set up right now because our whole house heating is waiting for a part to repair but it’s in the 50’s outside, and it’s keeping three rooms of about 900sq feet comfortable, we closed doors to the other half of our living space because it’s less insulated but it’s super simple and safe and requires no maintenance to use – you just plug in and set to your temp, the one we have is called “Dr. Heater Infrared portable space heater” and shows available at home Depot and Walmart for $100-$150. It’s pretty energy efficient. You could buy two and still spend way less than just the install for the other options not including the ongoing fuel and maintenance costs they would require.
What’s your set up for utilities, gas? Electric? What are we working with.
Pellet is my choice, especially if you can buy and store right. I’d pick up a pallet. Maintaince is minimal. Not much ash for the garden, though.
I grew up with an outdoor wood burning stove we used for heat and hot water in the winter. The fire chamber was surrounded by a water jacket and insulated pipes ran from the stove to our house and back. I think my dad had it plumbed into the forced air heat exchanger and the hot water heater (so those could still operate normally if the fire went out). At one point he plumbed it to radiant heaters than ran along the wall near the floor, but he took those back out later.
This doesn’t get rid of wood entirely, but it might use it more efficiently than your current setup.
Pellets are between $5 and $8 a bag, to and you’ll burn at minimum a bag a day. They weigh 40 pounds each, so consider the lifting, and cost should you go that way