Not at this time. There was a federal wood-heater tax credit in past years (originally around 30%, later reduced), but it has since expired, and there is no equivalent credit currently available. We recommend confirming the latest status before making any assumptions about incentives.

As centrally located as possible, and always within the home's insulated envelope. A masonry heater warms by radiant heat, so the more of it you can see from where you spend time, the more heat reaches you — everything in the room's line of sight gets warmed directly. A central location radiates in every direction; placing it against an exterior wall works too, but more of that heat goes into the wall behind it and less into the room. We design the placement around how your home is actually laid out.

Yes, as long as those rooms are within the same insulated envelope. Warm air naturally rises through an open staircase, and the rooms directly above the heater are often among the warmest in the house because heat radiates up through the floor. Adjacent rooms can be reached with simple convection loops (a vent near the ceiling and one near the floor), and an uninsulated interior wall behind the heater will warm and radiate into the next room. Many homes pair the heater with zoned backup heat, so a far bedroom or office can get a small boost without heating the whole house.
No, but insulation makes a big difference in how much wood you'll burn. A masonry heater works in an older, less-insulated home — Rod's first heater went into an uninsulated 1850s house — but a poorly sealed house simply needs far more wood to stay comfortable. The better insulated and sealed your home, the smaller the heater you need and the less wood it uses.

The wetter the wood the more effort and energy there will have to go into the fire. Dry wood is essential to getting maximum heat from your fire. All combustion has water as a by product. All water in the wood or from combustion is converted to steam in the fire. The fire has to dry the wood before it will gasify and burn.

Knowing how to properly store and stack your wood will serve you well in the long run whether you have a masonry heater or any other type of fireplace.

Wood will not dry well with the bark intact so it needs to be split. For the best results, split down to approximately 3”-4” cross section. The best time to cut fire wood is in the fall or winter when the sap is down in the wood, then there is less moisture to have to dry out.

The wood needs to be stacked off the ground and with a cover to keep the rain off of it. It also needs air movement through the sides of the pile to help it dry out. Two full years of air drying will allow the wood to reach optimum dryness of 15-20% moisture content. The dryer the better. Less moisture, more heat, less wood you will have to burn.

The trouble with wood is moving and handling it. You want to work smart and move it the least amount of times possible. Our next blog post will go more in depth in how to store your wood.