If you’re searching for an alternative means for providing your home with heat, one option that you might want to consider is that of an indoor wood boiler. If the name sounds somewhat familiar to you, it probably is. Wood burning stoves have been around for hundreds of years, and have long been a source for reliable home heating for many of those living in the coldest climes on earth. For many people in regions where timber is plentiful and other forms of energy less accessible, these boilers are essential items in the home. An indoor wood boiler can provide you with relatively low-cost home heating capacity, though there is always some element of risk involved in these furnaces.
How Indoor Wood Boilers work
An indoor wood boiler is basically a furnace that uses wood for its fuel. This furnace can do everything from provide basic heat throughout the house to heating water. Traditionally associated with a high risk of fire hazard, the technology for these boilers has improved tremendously over the years. They are now considered nearly as safe as most of the electrical wiring in your home, or almost any other aspect of your home’s energy base. And while accidents do happen on occasion, the safety record for these boilers is impressive, to say the least.
Indoor Wood Boiler Advantages
An indoor wood boiler has many advantages over standard furnaces and outdoor boilers. In the first place, it is an almost universally legal way of providing heat to your home – whereas there are still many states that have not recognized the legality of using outdoor boilers. Ecologists have little problem with the technology, since most of the smoke and ash produced by the units never makes it into the outside environment. That’s an important concern for most people, as environmental awareness continues to be a major factor in many of the decisions most people make on a daily basis.
In addition, the indoor wood boiler has the advantage of being centrally located in your home – thus enabling you to care for it without braving the elements outside. In the coldest regions of the country, this is especially important. Since it is located inside the house, there is almost no risk of the unit itself being damaged by the elements – unlike outdoor units which are prone to corrosion. Finally, these units produce far less by way of pollution than their outdoor competitors, which is why so many environmentally conscious people advocate for their use.
Indoor Wood Boiler Disadvantages
As with most forms of technology, however, there is a downside to using an indoor wood boiler. They do require you to consistently place wood into the furnace, which can entail feeding the boiler four or five times during each day. And since it is located within the home, there is often a certain amount of smoke and ash, as well as wood dust that accumulates in the house. For people with allergies, this can be a real problem. For some people, the presence of an indoor boiler can create anxiety as they worry about the potential – no matter how low that potential may be – of a fire or other accident.
Still, if you are looking for a way to cut down on your home heating bills and wean yourself off of the fossil fuels that dominate our lives, an indoor wood boiler is one of the best options to consider. They obviously require an added element of cleaning, and there is always work involved in toting the wood into the home, but even with the extra work they are generally considered well worth the effort by most people who own them.