The Return of Tradition
When our lights stayed on New Years Day, the lights went out on the woodstove craze. This year, gas and electric stoves regained their prominence in the marketplace, but innovations continue to make woodstoves the perfect choice for a country home heater.
 |
Fire as art? It might not be your cup of tea, but Heat & Glo's CFX Diamond certainly attracts attention. At $2,499, it better.
|
Technology languishes, but aesthetics are
hot.
RELATED CONTENT
Almost half the world’s original forests have disappeared, one-fifth since the late 1950s....
After 1,500 miles of alternative fuels vehicle driving, we found that you can run a truck with a wo...
Venus, a lunar eclipse, azaleas and rhodendrons and Easter....
Cooking and preparing turkey, including recipes for smoked gravy, cranberry sauce, bread stuffing, ...
by Matt Scanlon
"It was tough for some manufacturers to keep them in
stock," says Mike Van Buren, technical director of the
Hearth Products Association. "Though the efforts involved
in chopping, carrying and storing wood have lately made
wood heat a tough chore for some owners, millennium fears
definitely changed the landscape."
When our lights stayed on in the first days, then weeks, of
January, the lights went out on the woodstove craze. This
year, as with most years, gas and electric stoves regained
their 70% market footprint, with gas and pellet returning
to 25%. More interesting than simple figures is the fact
that three-quarters of gas and electric stoves are used for
"aesthetic" purposes only. In other words, they provide a
home with beautiful flames, but any heat generated is
basically an afterthought. As we walked through the
hundreds of stove models at this year's Hearth. Products
Expo in Baltimore, the concept of "flame as art" - evident
in models such as Heat & Glo's CFX Diamond (above) -
struck us as an increasingly important selling point for
stovemakers. One particularly striking addition to some gas
stoves this year has been the inclusion of a "heat dump" -
a system in which heat from a gas stove is actually vented
outside. "This system's designed for homeowners in warmer
climates," says Van Buren, "who want the beauty of a fire
but can't comfortably retain the heat." In truth, most
owners of gas stoves are grateful for the heat, but the
aesthetic burners are gaining ground every year.
It's hard not to feel despondent watching gas being
consumed for the sake of visual pleasure, and we had to
keep out tongues in check as we watched heat dumps busily
wasting fuel.
Blaming the manufacturer for a questionable market trend,
however, is like blaming Italy for a preponderance of
pizza: They build what we want.
On the traditional wood heat side of the $2.5 billion
hearth products industry which has doubled in the last ten
years), manufacturers breathed a sigh of relief when the
EPA chose not to modify its emissions standards in 2000. As
a result, design seemed to make a more determined stride
toward the more traditional. If wood heat is your
preference, Morso's Squirrel typifies this return to
old-time stoves. Waterford's entire line, from the smaller
Trinity up to the full-blown Stanley Cookstove are also
wood heat standouts. Thelin's Gnome and Martin's Vent-Free
Cast Iron, though gas burners, look too, as if they came
from Grandad's living room.
