Is there a difference between pellet stove vs wood stove insurance? The National Fire Protection Association reports that supplemental heating equipment is the primary cause of home fires during the winter months and the second greatest cause during the other months of the year, so installing a wood or pellet stove is likely to affect your homeowner’s insurance. When it comes to safety inspections, premiums, and coverage, insurance companies do not differentiate between wood and pellet stoves. Both types of stoves can be included in the policy in the same way because they are considered supplementary heating sources.
What Is A Pellet Stove?
Wood or other biomass pellets are compressed into pellets and burned in a pellet burner to generate heat. Compressed sawdust, chips, bark, and other wood waste are common ingredients in wood pellets. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States has determined that pellet stoves are between 70% and 83% efficient. 2 Even today’s somewhat efficient heating systems are more efficient than these stoves.
What Is The Function Of A Pellet Stove?
Pellet stoves are versatile, as they can be freestanding or installed into an existing fireplace. Pellet-fueled furnaces are also available; these can be used alone or to supplement an existing heating system.
The combustion blower in a pellet stove first pulls in air from the outside through the fresh-air vent and then expels the smoke through the exhaust vent. Air from the room is drawn into the stove by a convection blower, and then the air is heated and recirculated back into the room via heat exchanger tubes.
Modern stoves with computerized pellet feeds are easier to use. Thermostats control pellet feed. Some models include self-cleaning functions, eliminating the need to regularly empty the stove for cleaning.
What Is A Wood Stove?
Stoves that burn wood are specialized heaters used to heat a whole room by combusting wood. Although there is a wide range of shapes and sizes available, the fundamentals remain the same.
Stoves often have a steel or cast-iron body that encloses a wood fire. The heat from the fire warms the stove, which in turn warms the room. The flue is the pipe that carries smoke from a fire outside of a structure and up a chimney.
What Is The Function Of A Wood Stove?
For heat and combustion to occur, all wood stoves require a steady supply of air. The stove’s door has a damper that can be adjusted to let in the fresh air. The wood inside the stove can burn with the help of this air, as combustion cannot occur without it. The smoke and fumes from the fire are then carried away from the structure using the chimney.
Modern wood stoves employ fire bricks to protect their metal from extreme temperatures. Steel baffles line many fireboxes. Chimney baffles regulate exhaust gas flow, retaining heat and increasing efficiency.
Many stoves have turn dampers in the inside section of the flue pipe that leads to the chimney in addition to the movable air vents in the front. A turn damper is a metal disc with a handle that extends from the pipe. They may be rotated and have a diameter that is only a hair smaller than the stovepipe itself. The user can adjust the rate at which the building’s exhaust gases escape by turning this knob, so increasing or decreasing the building’s ability to retain heat.
Pellet Stove Vs Wood Stove Insurance
Wood stoves and pellet stoves are typically covered by homeowner’s insurance as long as certain conditions are met. Provider-specific terms and conditions may include, for example, an inspection by a qualified third party before use.
Insurers are pickier about homes that use just stoves for heat. That being said, you may have a more difficult time obtaining coverage than other customers if you plan to use exclusively your wood stove or pellet stove to heat your home.
- What kind of insurance should you get?
- Does installing a wood stove impact homeowners’ insurance rates?
- Wood stoves and homeowners insurance
- Pellet stoves and homeowners insurance
What Kind Of Insurance Should You Get?
Your insurance carrier may cover a wood or pellet stove if it was professionally installed or meets local fire codes. If your insurance company requires a professional stove installer, the cost may rise.
Insurers may need you to show proof that a stove you installed yourself or one that was there when you bought the house is safe before they’ll cover you for it. In some cases, you may also be asked to show proof that the model of wood or pellet stove you plan to install has passed a quality assurance inspection. Your insurance company may require regular inspections of your wood stove or pellet-burning stove if you possess one, as they hold you accountable for keeping it in working order.
If your stove causes damage, your home insurance policy may not pay for it. If your home or belongings are damaged by fire, most policies can compensate you for your losses. However, some policies don’t cover damage caused by poor workmanship, installation, or maintenance.
Let’s say you decide to put in your wood stove. In the event of a house fire where no inspection was required, you may not be compensated by your insurer if the fire was caused by shoddy work on your part.
Does Installing A Wood Stove Impact Homeowners’ Insurance Rates?
If you heat with a wood or pellet stove, your insurance premiums will rise, although by only a small amount.
Because wood stoves cause so many more house fires than pellet stoves, they may end up costing more to operate. Companies may assess an additional fee instead of raising your premiums if you choose to heat with a wood or pellet burner.
Your homeowner’s insurance company may classify your wood stove as a space heater. In that situation, your wood stove might not affect your insurance costs.
Wood Stoves And Homeowners Insurance
If you have a wood-burning stove and notify your homeowner’s insurance company, an inspector will likely be dispatched to your home to assess the situation. An insurer-required examination may affect your insurance coverage. Wood stoves, like fireplaces, need a chimney to manage room temperature and securely vent combustion byproducts.
An insurance inspector will verify the stove-chimney connection for cleanliness, seal, and local fire codes. Before giving you the all-clear on your stove, inspectors may look up the chimney to make sure it’s clean and has a cap.
Your homeowner’s insurance company may require annual or semiannual inspections if you have a wood-burning stove. Most recommendations for fire safety state that you should either clear a 3-foot radius around the hearth or install a screen to catch flying embers. Creosote, a soot-like and extremely combustible byproduct of wood, could be another thing an inspector looks for.
Pellet Stoves And Homeowners Insurance
Because pellet stoves are significantly less prone to cause house fires than wood-burning ones, they typically have a minimal impact on home insurance premiums.
To generate heat, pellet stoves use compressed wood bits or sawdust rather than traditional logs. This approach is less wasteful, less polluting, and safer because it prevents sparks from flying off in all directions. Pellet stoves don’t cause a lot of creosote buildup because they burn cleaner fuel. Similarly, a chimney is not required to vent your pellet stove. Your service provider may demand less frequent inspections of your pellet stove than of a wood-burning stove.
As opposed to wood stoves, pellet stoves require electricity to function. To get pellets into the stove’s combustion chamber, an auger must be operated. Keep a battery backup for the pellet stove in case of a power outage; this is required by many insurance companies.
If the electricity goes out and it wasn’t caused by weather, fire, or another insured risk, your insurer might not pay for your losses. Let’s pretend that a utility plant has a power outage for no explicable reason (such as bad weather or an insured danger). What if your power goes out because of this? You won’t be able to get your electronically heated pellet stove replaced if the power outage damages the circuitry.
Conclusion
As with any other appliance in your home, you need to take adequate precautions when using a wood or pellet stove. If your stove fires due to your negligence, your insurer may not pay.