Heating with Wood

Heating your home with native New Hampshire wood can make sense economically and environmentally

• You save money because you invest some of your own time and labor, and because thefuel comes relatively unprocessed from local sources. (Compare fuel prices.)
• You help the local economy, because the money you spend on your fuel stays here New Hampshire, supporting Granite State foresters, loggers, landowners, and municipalities (who reap the benefits of the timber tax from forest harvesting operations). By contrast, according to data from the N.H. Office of Energy and Planning, more than 85 percent of every dollar we spend on home heating oil leaves the state.
• Most energy experts agree that sustainably harvested local wood burned to heat homes releases no more greenhouse gases than forest regeneration can re-absorb them. In the lingo of the day, this makes them "carbon neutral."
• Modern wood stoves burn much more cleanly and efficiently than those sold before 1990.
  

Many households also use (or could use) their woodstoves to:
Dry laundry, humidify the indoor air, heat hot water, cook food, and neutralize the acidity of lawn and garden soils with the ashes.

Consider the individual health benefits
Cutting, splitting and stacking wood, loading the stove, and other routine tasks involved in heating with wood qualify as good exercise. Physiologists say a person burns between 325 and 500 calories an hour lifting, splitting, hauling and stacking firewood.

We have concerns for your safety, your pocketbook, your time and your energy
That's why we've organized this collection of online resources that deal with all aspects of wood heating.

If you've never burned wood in your home, if your home's chimney hasn't been used for many years, if you're in the market for an efficient new stove, if you plan to cut, saw and split your own firewood, or if you just want to keep up with the latest news about wood heat, these pages have information for you.

Heating with Wood
Page design: Faye Cragin
Writers/Editors: Peg Boyles, Kristina Ferrare, Tim Fleury, Sarah Smith
Address comments and suggestions for additions/improvements: peg.boyles@unh.edu