Many homes, both new and old, havetraditional open fireplaces that were once the main way to both heat and cookfor a home.
The heating potential for open fireplaceshas always been poor and so to help increase the heat output and efficiency ofburning firewood in a home, as well as to reduce emissions, many homeownershave looked to have wood burning stoves installed.
When a wood stove is installed in anexisting open fireplace it removes the ability to be able to use and enjoy theexperience of an open fire.
This may be a downside to some homebuyers butto others it can be added bonus when buying a house, so does a wood burningstove increase home value?
Awood stove can add value to a house, but it can depend on what a buyer islooking for. Studies have shown that fireplaces in general are a selling pointfor a home, while wood stoves may help to increase house prices by up to 5%.
We have a number of stoves and openfireplaces in the family and through use of both we’ve changed our minds forwhich one we would look for in a new home.
We’ve explained why this is the case inmore detail below and discussed whether a wood burning stove can add value to ahome.
Does A Wood Burning Stove Add Value To A House?
We’ve discussed in another article whether an open fireplace can be a selling point for a home, and in studies it’s shown that it can.
However when it comes to heating a room ora home, open wood burning fireplaces can be highly inefficient.
The Environmental Protection Agency explains that much of the heat produced from an open fireplace can be lost up the chimney instead of being used to warm a home.
Most traditional open fireplaces lose over 90 percent of the fire’sheatout the chimney.
EPA
Many homeowners (including us) are nowlooking for new ways to be able to heat a home without the need to turn on thecentral heating or use an inefficient open fireplace.
As local air pollution and air quality havealso become more of an important and discussed topic in recent years, the issueof emissions from burning firewood in homes has also become more stringent.
For example, in many towns and cities you can’t burn wood in your home unless you have an approved appliance, such as an EPA certified stove in the US or a DEFRA approved stove in the UK.
One of the solutions for these issues canbe to install a wood burning or multifuel stove in your home.
Stoves are commonly installed within existing open fireplaces to help increase the efficiency and heat output of burning wood.
While an open fireplace can be as little as10% efficient, the efficiency of stoves can be much higher, with efficiencyratings commonly seen between 60% and 80%.
We have two stoves in a family.
Both were installed within existing openfireplaces.
The efficiency ratings of these two stoves are between 70% and 80%, but you can see the actual ratings and more information about our stoves here.
We also have an open fireplace in ourliving room that we use to enjoy the look and feel of an open fire.
Like many other open fireplaces, ours is veryinefficient at heating and so we don’t typically use it as source of heat butmore for pleasure purposes.
The amountof heat our stoves put out into a room compared to our open fireplace is huge, and so we’ve been consideringinstalling a wood stove in this fireplace.
We were more than happy when we bought thishouse as it had an open fireplace but because of how inefficient it is forheating we’d prefer to have a wood stovein any new house we look for.
So will installing a wood burning stove addvalue to our home?
It can dependon a number of factors.
- If a buyer wants to be able touse an open fireplace but there is a wood stove installed then this may not addany value to the house for that particular buyer.
- If a homebuyer sees our woodstove and understands how they can be a great addition to help heat a home thenthey may be willing to pay more for the house.
- If a buyer isn’t bothered abouteither an open fireplace or a wood stove then it may or may not increase homevalue.
As we have both an open fireplace and woodburning stoves we understand the differences in ability to heat a home.
Stoves are typically able to generate muchmore heat from every piece of firewood compared to traditional open fireplacesand so when we look to buy our next home we’ll definitely be looking out forone that has a stove.
If a house has a wood stove rather than anopen fireplace then it may sway us to pay a little bit more.
How Much Value Does A Wood Burning Stove Add?
There is no clear answer as to howmuch value a wood burning stove can add to a home, but some studies andresearch show that there is a positive trend towards fireplaces in generaladding value to a home.
Angie’s List explain that a survey undertaken in 2013 by the National Association of Realtors found that if a home had a fireplace it would have a strong and positive effect on its selling price.
However, this survey doesn’t mentionwhether stoves were included within the subject of wood burning fireplaces.
Direct Stoves state that they have conducted their own research and found that in the majority of cases a wood stove can increase the value of a home by up to 5%.
Forus and our stoves, the value they bring to ourhomes will be the ability to burn wood efficiently in our homes while producinga great amount of heat over a number of years, as well as:
- Providing a focal point for therooms.
- Being able to heat the roomsthey were sized for.
- Helping to reduce emissionswhen burning wood.
- Lasting for many years.
Further Reading
Are Wood Stoves Efficient?
How Long Does A Wood Stove Last?
What To Look For In A Wood Stove
Things To Consider When Buying A Wood Burning Stove
