If you use your wood stove as a primary heat source, consider upgrading to a modern EPA-rated wood stove. Here’s why a new stove can be the best investment you can make in 2025.
Here are three ways you can save money by upgrading your wood stove before the next heating season.
#1: More Efficient Heating & Less Work!
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 57% of the country’s wood stoves are old and inefficient. If you have one and haven’t thought about replacing it, we get it. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is a great old saying… but only to a point. You can do yourself a solid by upgrading to a new wood stove. You won’t regret it when you find out why.
The whole point of using a wood stove to heat a home is to save on heating bills and be energy-independent. Firewood can be sourced inexpensively and often for free in the Denver Metro area, and you’re never in danger of the heat going out during a power outage.
You don’t need to live off-grid to realize the energy savings of using a wood stove!
But if you have an old stove, you’re working way harder than you need to (after all, burning wood requires time and physical labor) and if you buy wood, you’re spending more money than necessary.
In an older stove, a lot of heat goes straight up the chimney. That means more buying or cutting, more hauling, more stacking, more splitting, more carrying… (and cleaning out more ash). You already know how much time and effort having a wood stove takes. Wouldn’t it be nice to do less, and still heat your home?
Today’s stoves are designed with a better combustion process that supplies air in two stages: one to burn the wood and a second to burn the volatile waste gases and particulates that otherwise go up the chimney. This double burn dramatically reduces what goes up the chimney and reduces the ash in your stove!
You can use about ⅓ less wood in a new EPA-rated wood stove. Less wood, less ash, better heat… what’s not to love? Even if you get all of your wood for free, factor in your time and energy. What could you do with that extra time?
But there are more financial incentives to upgrade to a new wood stove.
#2: A Clean Burn= Better health
Inefficient burning also leads to creosote build-up. Creosote is the highly flammable baked-on gunk that accumulates in a chimney, especially when you’re using an older wood-burning stove or fireplace.
Creosote builds up in layers, just like cholesterol builds up in the arteries over time. Ew! Over time, creosote build-up can lead to a chimney fire. According to the National Fire Protection Association, dirty chimneys are the #1 leading factor in home fires.
Even if you get your chimney cleaned annually (as important as getting the oil changed in your vehicle), creosote will still build up during the heating season and knock your old stove’s efficiency down even more. It’s a nasty cycle of ever-increasing creosote and ever-diminishing efficiency.
EPA-certified stoves produce 4.5 grams of smoke per hour (with some models significantly less, down to about 1 gram of smoke per hour). Old stoves produce 15 to 30 grams of smoke per hour. Smoke contains harmful gases and particulates that nobody wants to breathe in. Not you, not your neighbors.
The EPA says that if all old wood stoves were replaced with clean-burning stoves, there would be fewer chimney fires, and everyone would be healthier too.
The EPA continues to say that changing out just one inefficient wood stove is the “equivalent of taking five old diesel trucks off the road.”
A professionally installed EPA-rated stove, when used as directed, is virtually smoke free. I recently visited a customer who had just had a new wood stove installed. When I pulled up, I could smell wood burning, but there was absolutely no smoke coming out of his chimney even though his fire was roaring!
Burning seasoned wood reduces smoke, but still… NO smoke is better, especially when a lot of the smoke that goes up your chimney can re-enter the home if the wind is just right.
#3: Tax CREDIT*
EPA-rated wood stoves are eligible for a $2000 IRS tax credit which takes a big chunk out of the price of the stove and installation costs.
We have to put an asterisk here, though, because recent government cutbacks could mean that this credit will soon “go up in smoke.” (Sorry). If you are thinking about replacing your wood stove, we recommend pulling the plug on it now while you can still enjoy this tax break.
Explore the Options!
We have many freestanding wood stoves and inserts on the showroom floor in different sizes, styles, and heating capacities. Visit our showroom at 7001 Hwy 73, just 5 minutes south of Evergreen Lake to see our stoves and inserts in person.
Our customers love our full-service “idea to fire” process where we help you choose the perfect stove or insert, install it, and maintain it throughout its lifetime. We’re your wood stove experts!
