Supplemental Heating Sources for Your Home

Whether you use coal, oil, or natural gas to heat your home, the price of fuel is a major household expense for everyone.  You may use a supplemental heating source to cut costs and add extra warmth.  Some of the most common ones are:

•            Fireplaces (wood-burning or gas)
•           Pellet stoves
•       Coal stoves
•       Wood stoves
•        Kerosene heaters

Let’s look at some of the features, pros, and cons of each unit.

Fireplaces run on either wood or gas. Wood-burning fireplaces are messy and more high-maintenance than gas-powered units. They must be cleaned after each use, and a chimney sweep must inspect your chimney annually to keep too much creosote (a natural by-product of burning wood) from building up and potentially starting a fire. Gas-powered fireplaces are low maintenance; you don’t even need a chimney. Whichever model you choose, the heat these units generate will keep you cozy warm in the coldest winter weather.

Pellet stoves are available as freestanding or insert-style units and are either top- or bottom-fed. The freestanding model runs on a small amount of electricity. They can be placed anywhere in a room because, as their name implies, they don’t need to be mounted on or supported by a wall. An insert-style pellet stove would replace a standard fireplace, and since it does burn wood (in the form of small pellets), some ash will accumulate as it does in a fireplace. It should be cleaned and inspected by a chimney sweep every year.  One big difference between a fireplace and a pellet stove is that a fireplace will send air up the chimney; a pellet stove is more contained and better at keeping heat inside the room.

If you’re considering a wood or coal stove, as already mentioned, wood creates ash, a lightweight substance that blows around easily and can create a huge mess in your home. Coal, particularly anthracite, burns cleaner, slower, and longer, so you would actually use less coal to heat a space than you’d use wood for a wood stove.

Kerosene heaters are safer than they were even a decade ago, but they are still a common cause of many household fires every winter. They do a great job of heating a room, but it’s critical that you know how to use the unit before you get it up and running. Some common mistakes homeowners make with kerosene heaters are not allowing enough ventilation, spilling the fuel, or using the wrong fuel (you don’t want to substitute gasoline for kerosene!)

Supplemental heating sources can be an effective way to cut fuel costs, but they can also impact your homeowners’ insurance policy by way of higher premiums.  Be sure to review your coverage with your agent so you understand the implications of having one of these units in your home.

Do you use a supplemental heating source in the winter? What do you use? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!