There are two main types or styles of wood heater. One is the radiant wood heater and the other is the convective wood heater.

As you might determine from the term used, a radiant wood heater is one that, well, it radiates.  In other words most of the heat from this type of heater comes from the fire and the flames.  A common fireplace fire matches this description as does an outdoor camping fire.

Something like a pot belly stove is a combination of both. The fire heats, but the stove itself also heats up and extends warmth into the surrounding air.

A combustion stove, which has an airtight firebox, is a convective wood heater. All heat derived from a combustion stove is convective.  A combustion heater can also be fitted with a fan to move the heat more evenly around the room.

The problem with the radiant wood heaters, especially if you’re living in a cold climate, is that you generally need to be fairly close to them in order to get warm. And they also burn a lot of wood just to give off a small amount of heat.  While they do gradually heat up a room, especially if all the windows and doors are closed, they are considered fairly inefficient.

If you have ample wood available, and you’re seriously considering going with the wood heater, I would suggest you look at either the pot belly heater or combustion heater. The pot belly wood heater is better for heating up smaller rooms, such as a smallish living room, or kitchen.  A combustion wood heater does well when it has to heat up  a larger expanse of air.

Heat efficiency is measured in percentages. To give you an idea of how efficient each of these type of wood heaters would be in heating up your room, the open fire runs at about 5 to 10% efficiency levels, pot belly wood heaters go up to around 40% efficiency, with the newer models being more efficient.  Combustion wood heaters have the best efficiency, of up to around 65 to 70%, depending on the brand of wood stove heater.

You would probably want to consult with a wood heater expert in order to know exactly what type would best suit your need. It may also depend on whether you want your wood heater to perform any other tasks such as setting up a wood hot water heater. In my first home we had an old slow combustion wood heater installed that doubled as a stove and oven, and that heated up our water!

When buying wood burning furnaces, be sure to do proper research.  Paying a little bit extra in investing in a slightly better wood burning heater will most likely pay off in the long run as not only will it be more efficient at heating your room but it may also use burn less wood.

You would also need to make sure you have a good dry wood source readily available. You’ll have to store up wood during the dryer summer months and stack and store it in a dry location, so that you’ll have plenty of wood to heat your home through the long winter months.  There’s nothing worse than running out of wood towards the end of winter and not being able to locate a good dry source of cut wood, or finding wood but having to pay an arm and leg to get it!

If I lived in a different location, I would definitely consider wood heating. I love the rustic feel that a wood heater gives to a room, and the cheeriness it imparts. It also works well when it comes to heating water, if you have the right setup for a wood water heater.