Stoves & Fireplaces
Wood heating is the #1 choice of Vermonters for supplemental and sometimes primary heat.
Adding wood to your mix of heating fuels can help you save money by consuming less oil or gas. While few Vermont homes heat by wood alone, 43% use stoves for supplemental heat, and most of those are wood fueled. Traditional fireplaces, though attractive and popular, are an inefficient way to heat. Modern wood-burning and gas fireplace inserts, however, can approach the efficiency levels of today’s woodstoves.
Woodstoves
Wood is renewable, local, and affordable. Modern woodstoves enjoy high average efficiency ratings, lower emissions than older models, and more heating capacity. See a list of EPA-certified models. Woodstoves also offer a rustic ambience for DIYers who don’t mind stacking, splitting, and storing wood or brushing out their chimney. Both woodstoves and pellet stoves can pose a burn risk.
- Save by heating with the cheapest fuel available
- Add a radiant ambience to your home
- Use well-seasoned wood to generate less smoke, more heat
See incentives for replacing your existing woodstove with a more efficient system.
Pellet Stoves
Wood pellets are biomass fuel made of low-moisture, cleaner-burning, compacted wood. They offer many of the same benefits as cord wood—local, low cost, and renewable. A pellet-burning stove, while still a hands-on system, is semi-automated and produces less ash and lower emissions. Although cord wood is cheaper to buy, pellets burn more efficiently, which makes the cost per MMBTU about the same.
- Clean burn with lower emissions, similar look to woodstoves
- 75-85% efficient (higher than your average wood stove)
- Flexible placement: direct-vent, no chimney required
Fireplaces and Inserts
A roaring fire is lovely to behold, but an inefficient way to heat your home. Fireplaces draw in cold air, losing more heat than they produce while wasting much of your primary system’s heat. That’s why the best time to build a fire is when you don’t need to use your central heating system. One solution is to install a wood- or pellet-burning fireplace insert, which maintains ambience while boosting efficiency. Propane and natural gas inserts are another good option.
- Keep the “fireplace look” while boosting efficiency and saving
- Wood-burning fireplace inserts can fit into existing masonry
Commercial Biomass Systems
Biomass means any plant material used as fuel, like grass, corn, wood chips, or pellets. Systems that heat or generate electricity from local biomass are increasingly popular with colleges, hospitals, and municipal facilities. They offer total automation, relative fuel-price stability, and locally sourced, carbon-neutral fuel. Wood chip systems are most common for commercial applications, while central pellet boilers are an up-and-coming choice for businesses.
- Renewable and local: money stays in Vermont economy
- Low-emission systems, clean-burning biomass fuel
- Affordable and stable fuel costs