Heat Your Home the Old Fashioned Way and Save Money This Winter

The first flakes haven’t started flying yet, but the United States energy department is already warning Americans to expect a 10 to 20 percent increase in their energy costs this winter.
If their projections are right, it will cost users of natural gas -- the heating source in 55 percent of U.S. homes -- 20 percent more or an average of $1,049 to heat their homes during the winter season which lasts from October through March. Heating oil customers’ costs are expected to rise 10 percent and propane users by 18 percent over last year. The government did not provide estimates for electricity, which is used to heat 29 percent of U.S. homes.

“These are staggering numbers and a good reason for people to rethink the way they are doing things,” says Glenda Lehman Ervin, the vice president of marketing for Lehman’s, an old-time general store her father founded in northeast Ohio in 1955. Ervin suspects rising fuel costs are the primary reason sales of wood stoves are going through the roof.

Wood stoves have been around since the early 1700s when American inventor Benjamin Franklin first put a patent on one. They haven’t been the primary means of heating a home in more than 100 years, but now with fuel prices rising, they are making a comeback. The only fuel they require -- wood -- is easy to come by.

“The nice thing about wood stoves is they are fueled by a renewable energy source which also happens to be the cheapest heating source around,” says Ervin. “We have an employee here with three children who has a fairly large home and it only costs him $100 to heat the house the entire winter.”

Depending on the style, size and accessories you choose, a wood stove can cost between $500 and $3,000. Accessories -- which include leather hand bellows and pinecone starters to get the fire going, a heat-powered fan to pump warm air through your home, and a fireplace tool set -- are easy to find and affordable; and the fuel to run one -- fallen trees and chopped up logs -- is inexpensive and readily available.

In addition to being cost-effective, today’s wood stoves are environmentally friendly. Their fuel is a renewable resource and catalytic converters and advanced non-catalytic technology prevent their smoke from harming the environment. “They are also more reliable than electricity, particularly during an ice storm,” says Ervin. “Even if your power is out for days, a wood stove will keep you warm while you’re waiting for it to come back on.”

There’s also the emotional appeal to take into consideration. “My children won’t have fond memories of sitting around the furnace, but they will remember the stove we had set up in the family room and all the time we spent together as a family enjoying its warmth,” says Ervin.