Buzz
My first apartment with my soon-to-be wife was an old railroad-style unit heated by a vintage 'gas on gas' stove in the kitchen. During winter, turning it up to the max made the kitchen feel like a furnace, while the living room, just two rooms away, was freezing cold. When we received our first utility bill, we were absolutely stunned.
Even back then, energy costs were lower compared to today. Now, with the price of (checks notes) everything skyrocketing, heating our homes has become what experts describe as 'astronomically expensive.' The sharp rise in electricity and gas prices over the past year has left many struggling with unaffordable bills and chilly living spaces.
If you're dealing with soaring heating costs but have a wood-burning fireplace that seemed like a charming feature when you moved in, you might be tempted to turn back the clock and save money by burning wood instead of relying on modern heating systems. Wood is relatively inexpensive, and millions of people in the U.S. still use it as their main or secondary heat source—so heating with wood is certainly feasible. The real question is whether it’s financially worthwhile.
Cost of Firewood
If your fireplace is in good working condition and ready to use, the first consideration is the expense of wood for heating your home. For those in rural areas with access to free wood, the cost shifts to time and effort rather than money. However, keep in mind that firewood must be properly seasoned and dried. Burning wet or 'green' wood is more challenging and far less efficient. Properly seasoning firewood requires at least a year, and it must be stored off the ground in a covered area to prevent moisture from rain.
If purchasing wood, costs will depend on local prices and the size of the space you need to heat. On average, three cords of firewood are needed to heat 1,000 square feet throughout a cold winter. A cord of wood, which measures 128 cubic feet (typically a 4x4x8-foot stack), usually costs around $300, though prices vary by location.
For a 2,000-square-foot home, you’d need six cords of wood (and adequate storage space), costing approximately $2,000. This could represent substantial savings compared to gas or electric heating bills.
Heating Efficiency
While purchasing wood for heating might seem more economical than gas or electricity, there’s more to consider, as open wood-burning fireplaces are extremely inefficient.
Two key metrics come into play here. The first is combustion efficiency, which reflects how effectively your fireplace converts wood into heat. However, much of this heat doesn’t stay in your home. The overall efficiency measures how much heat actually warms your interior space instead of being lost up the chimney. While combustion efficiency is higher, the overall efficiency of a traditional wood-burning fireplace is usually around 10 percent. Adding glass doors can increase this to a modest 20 percent.
This means most of the heat escapes through the chimney. As the fire heats the air in the hearth, the warm air rises, creating drafts that pull room air with it. This can actually cool the room, which is why people are often shown huddling close to a fire, wrapped in blankets. If you’re using the fireplace in one area and other heating sources elsewhere, this can raise your overall heating costs unless you have a zoned system to isolate the fireplace area.
A fireplace insert can improve efficiency
Heating a small room with a wood-burning fireplace might work, but for larger spaces, the inefficiency will quickly deplete your firewood budget.
If your budget allows, consider investing in a fireplace insert. This sealed, self-contained unit fits inside your existing fireplace, often paired with a stainless steel chimney liner. These inserts burn wood far more efficiently, achieving overall efficiency rates of over 70%, sometimes even exceeding 80%. While they can be costly (ranging from $2,000 to $5,000 or more, excluding installation), you’ll need to calculate whether the savings justify the investment. A wood- or pellet-burning insert can make wood a practical heating option for your home.
Fireplaces offer warmth, charm, and functionality—but if you’re planning to overhaul your budget by relying on free firewood and heating your home like a 19th-century settler, carefully evaluate the numbers. Using a wood-burning fireplace to heat your house isn’t a guaranteed money-saver.
