Wood stoves are appliances that can be installed in a home as a way to burn firewood in order to generate heat.
Wood burning stoves can often be installed within existing open fireplaces to help increase the heat output and efficiency when burning firewood
Open fireplaces don’t need a source of electricity in order to be able to have a fire, but do wood stoves need electricity?
Wood stoves do not require a source of electricity in order to operate. Wood burning stoves that are equipped with electrical blowers, which are used to help spread the heat around a home, will typically require a source of electricity in order for the blower to work.
We have a number of stoves in the family and none of them need electricity for them to work.
We’ve explained in more detail below why our own stoves don’t need an electrical supply and what types of stoves would need electricity in order for some of the parts to operate.
Do Wood Stoves Need Electricity?
Wood burning stoves generate heat by burning firewood in a controlled environment.
There are only three things that are needed for a wood stove to operate, which are fuel, oxygen and the initial flame.
We’ve explained exactly how a wood burning works using diagrams in another article here, but once the door to the stove is closed air can only get into the stove through the air vents, which are controllable.
All stove requires some initial kindling and/or logs, and some sort of fire starter to get the fire going, and the air vents can be adjusted along with amount of fuel on the fire in order to keep a fire going.
No electrical supply is required in order for a wood stove to generate heat.
The image below shows two of our stoves.
Both stoves have been installed inside our existing open fireplaces, and we didn’t need to provide an electrical supply in order to facilitate their installation.
However, reasons electricity would be required for a stove is if:
- The stove is a pellet stove.
- The stove has a blower.
Pellet stoves are different to wood burning and multi fuel stoves because they use pellets for fuel rather than traditional firewood logs.
Pellets can be made from wood byproducts but are much more dense and compact, and so they must be fed into a stove at a slower rate to control the temperature output.
The hopper on a pellet stove, which feeds the pellets into the firebox, typically requires a source of electricity in order for the mechanical and electrical components to work.
There are some pellets stoves however available that don’t require a source of electricity but can be gravity-fed or use a battery as the source of power.
For more information you can read our top things you need to know about pellet stoves.
While wood burning stoves themselves won’t require a source of electricity in order to work, some stoves can come with an integrated blower that will typically require an electrical supply in order to work.
The body of a wood stove is designed to get hot so that it radiates heat out into the room.
Although a wood stove doesn’t necessarily need a blower in order for you to feel the heat, they can be useful to spreading the heat further around a home.
A blower is a simple electrical component that incorporates a fan to force hot air from the stove further out into the room.
As blowers are electrical components they’ll need electricity in order to operate.
Our own stoves don’t have blowers and so no electrical supply is required.
Integrated stove blowers shouldn’t be confused with stove fans, which sit on top of a stove and blow air without the need for electricity.
For more information about stove fans you can view the range of stove fans available here.
Do Wood Stove Inserts Need Electricity?
As with freestanding wood stoves, wood fireplace inserts won’t typically require a source of electricity.
If a wood insert has a blower then it will typically require an electrical supply in order to operate.
Conclusion
Wood burning stoves won’t typically require an electrical supply in order to be used.
Wood stoves by design radiate heat out into the room without the need for electricity.
Some models of wood stove may have a blower integrated, which can be used to help spread the heat further around a home. These blowers will typically require a source of electricity to be used.
Stove fans, which can be bought as an aftermarket form of blower for a stove, don’t require a source of electricity and so can be used as an alternative way to get hot air generated by stove to move more freely around a home.
Further Reading
Are Wood Stoves Energy Efficient?
Can You Burn Pellets In A Wood Stove?