Outdoor Vs. Indoor Efficiency of Wood Burners

Safety

• An indoor wood burner or wood stove allows you to use seasoned, split wood to generate enough warmth to make your living space comfortable. Most newer models of wood burners are made with safety in mind. For an indoor wood burner, you'll need to make sure that the chimney is inspected routinely to prevent blockage to decrease the risk of soot backup and chimney fire. An indoor wood burner, with the heat source indoors, has less length to travel as opposed to an outdoor wood burner, but there is an increased risk of burns and interior fire risks from the hot stove. With safety in mind, an outdoor wood burner creates a safe and efficient heating source.

Heat

• Burning less wood, at a cleaner rate, is the goal for most wood-burning homeowners. Wood fuel is efficient when it delivers the heat the closest from the main heat source. An indoor wood burner uses both radiant heat from the top and sides of the burner, as well as a fan that blows warm air throughout the room. A wood stove also can be designed with ductwork that carries the warm air and disperses it throughout your home. An outdoor wood burner can generate a very high heat, and because of its large capacity it also can heat your hot water tank, where a standalone indoor wood furnace cannot.

Convenience

• A wood stove, both indoor and outdoor, might not be as convenient as having a natural gas or propane furnace in your home. Chopping down trees, allowing them to season or purchasing wood and transporting it to your home can be both time-consuming and in some cases costly, especially if you have to have the wood hauled and delivered. An indoor wood stove generally has to be fed, every two to four hours in order to maintain a consistent temperature. An outdoor wood stove can be fed once a day with large blocks of wood that will burn consistently for several hours at a time. Overall, an outdoor wood burner is more efficient heat-wise, because it burns wood more effectively, allowing you to regulate the temperature easier through your furnace controls.

Cost

• Cost wise, an outdoor unit that is also a boiler furnace is much more expensive than a traditional indoor stove. Outdoor units might cost more for installation, because of the underground piping, insulation wrap and hookup to your home’s furnace and hot water tank. The outdoor unit is more efficient over time, cost wise, because of not having to use so much electricity and natural gas. Very high-efficiency units can also be set up to heat a garage and a separate smaller building. Indoor wood burners are economical for smaller, one-story homes or to be used as an alternative, backup heating source.