Your winter can be a beautiful time for you if you have proper heating devices for your home. You can sit and enjoy yourself at a moderate temperature with your family. There are many ways to keep your room warm, like gas and electric fireplaces, but still, they have not been considered the best alternative to wood devices, wood furnaces, or wood stoves.
They are affordable and make us able to enjoy the warm natural environment. Wood furnaces and wood stoves are the best heat devices to keep your temperature warm.
You may wonder about wood furnaces and wood stoves because most of us do not know their difference. People think both of them are the same thing, but it is not. Stay with us to know about the differences between wood furnaces vs wood stoves.
Difference Between the Wood Stove and Wood Furnace
When you think about the wood stove and wood furnace, what images come to your mind? If I am not wrong by thinking about the wood stove, an image of a cast-iron stove in a log cabin or hunting lodge comes into your mind, while the wood furnace may seem modern and rustic.
It is not now that wood stoves and wood furnaces evolved and come with excellent features that keep your indoors warm. Which one is better for you, you can compare them to decide a better one for you.
1. Wood Furnace:
The wood furnace is a large ventilated structure designed to contain the fire safely. Wood furnaces are made of heat-resistant materials like stone or brick to withstand fires. The firebox is added from the interior woods where you can start the fire.
Its firebox is connected through a hollow flue to the chimney. Because of such construction, while fire is burning in the wood furnace, fresh air comes inside from the hollow flue and chimney, while the smoke escapes through the same way outside.
2. Wood Stove:
Wood stoves are appliances used to heat the home or indoor spaces. These are also designed in the same way as the wood furnaces to keep the fire safe to keep your room temperature warm in the winter.
The major difference is their construction; as discussed, wood furnaces are constructed with heat-resistant materials like stones and bricks, but the wood stove is constructed with multiple pre-fabricated components.
The wood stove contains the firebox, ventilation pipe, and chimney. Fire is burned in the firebox while smoke escapes through the ventilation pipe and chimney, while fresh air also comes through the same way.
Performance Comparison: Wood Furnace vs Wood Stove
In comparing heat efficiency, the wood stove comes with some advantages over the wood furnace that makes the wood stove a better heating device than the wood furnace.
When a wood stove burns, it radiates heat from all sides, while a wood furnace can radiate heat from one side. Many people can sit around the woodstove if they have a wood stove, but only a few people can sit on one side of the wood furnace.
The second advantage that a wood stove has over a wood furnace is that the combustion system of the wood stove is more efficient than the wood furnace combustion system. It burns most of the wood and produces enough heat for your home compared to a wood furnace.
An estimated average regarding heat efficiency is 80 to 90 percent for the wood stove, while the wood furnace heat efficiency is 60 to 70 percent.
Wood Furnace vs Wood Stove: Which is Better?
Both appliances come with some pros and cons; they protect us from cold and bad weather. You can use a wood furnace and wood stove because there are few differences in their performance. The wood furnace and the wood stove have almost the same lifespan of 15 to 20 years.
But some aspects make the wood stove a better option because it is more efficient than a wood furnace. After all, it produces more heat. You can heat more area with a wood stove because it radiates heat from all sides; the wood stove is smaller and consumes less wood than the furnace.
The best thing is that wood stoves are less expensive than furnaces, not just for the initial purchase but overall, their running cost is less than the furnace. The wood furnace needs wood filling 4 to 5 times in 24 hours, but a wood stove could easily keep your indoor warm for 8 to 10 hours.
The wood furnace is also working well; you can set it aside and enjoy watching TV and reading the news with your loved one on the couch. It may be a perfect choice for a small family, but if you have a low budget or have a large family of 4 or more persons, then a wood stove is better.
Conclusion
Wood furnaces and wood stoves are better choices than electric and gas heating sources because they are safe and less expensive. Both appliances are excellent choices to keep your indoors warm during winter. But wood stoves due to some advantages over wood furnaces like efficiency, and less expense could be a better option.
Leave a Reply