About HearthWise: Who We Are and How We Work
What HearthWise covers, where its numbers come from, what it will never tell you to do yourself, and how the site makes money without selling recommendations.
HearthWise exists because most answers about wood and pellet heat stop at “it depends.” It depends on your square footage, your winter, your chimney and the wood you can get. This site puts numbers on those dependencies, shows the math, and tells you where the numbers come from.
What does HearthWise cover?
HearthWise is an independent editorial site for homeowners choosing a wood stove, pellet stove or fireplace insert, and for the people who keep them fed. It covers four areas:
- Wood stoves: how to choose one, the models worth a look, small stoves for small spaces, installed cost, and accessories such as stove fans.
- Pellet stoves: how they work, the trade-offs against wood, and which models are worth comparing.
- Fireplace inserts: gas, wood-burning and electric inserts for an existing fireplace, and what each one really heats.
- Firewood and pellets: what a cord is, how to tell seasoned wood, and what separates good pellets from poor ones.
The Size & Fuel Calculator ties these together: it estimates the stove output your home needs and how much wood or pellets a winter takes, with every formula printed on the page.
Outdoor wood boilers, sauna and tent stoves, fire pits and outdoor ovens are outside our scope for now.
Where do the numbers come from?
Appliance specs come from the EPA Certified Wood Heater Database (efficiency, particulate emissions, catalytic or non-catalytic, heat output range) and from manufacturer spec sheets and manuals. Firewood heat values come from University of Maryland Extension’s “Heating with Wood” fact sheet (FS-926). Fuel heat contents for propane, natural gas, heating oil and electricity come from the US Energy Information Administration. Prices are dated: every installed cost, cord price or ton price on the site carries the month and year we checked it, because these move every season and vary widely by region.
We do not run burn tests and we do not invent hands-on experience. When a figure is an estimate, we say so.
What will HearthWise never tell you to do yourself?
Installation. A wood stove, pellet stove or insert is a fire inside a house, and the rules that keep it safe are specific to the appliance and the building. Clearances to combustibles, hearth protection, chimney liners, venting and gas connections come from the appliance’s listing label and installation manual, NFPA 211 and your local building code. The installation should be done or checked by a certified professional (NFI or CSIA) and signed off by your building inspector. Working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms belong with every fuel-burning appliance. Our guides explain what the job involves and what it costs, so you can hire well, not so you can skip the professional.
Our editorial rules
Specific beats safe. Every buying question gets a number, a range or a table, with its source.
Trade-offs are named. No stove suits everyone, so every guide says who it is not for, such as pellet stoves in places with long power outages, or wood heat for people who cannot store and season wood for a year or more.
Right-sized, not biggest. An oversized wood stove smolders and builds creosote. We size from heat loss, not from “heats up to” claims.
US scope, stated plainly. EPA certification, NFPA 211, federal tax rules and US dollar prices apply to the United States. Our German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic pages say so and point to the local frame where it matters.
How does the site make money?
Reader support: some links are affiliate links that pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. Recommendations are chosen before affiliate status is checked, and a product with no affiliate program can still be the pick. The full policy is in the affiliate disclosure.
Corrections and requests
We would rather be corrected than confidently wrong. If a spec, price or rule on this site does not match what you see on the EPA listing, the manual or your local code, tell us and we will check it and update the page with a new date.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to what readers ask us most
Is HearthWise affiliated with any stove maker, dealer or installer?
No. HearthWise is independent. Where products differ, we describe the differences from published specifications and name the trade-offs rather than picking sponsors.
Does HearthWise test stoves in a lab or at home?
No. We do not run burn tests, and we never imply that we did. Efficiency and emissions figures come from EPA certification data and manufacturer documents, and we say which source each number comes from.
Will HearthWise tell me how to install a stove?
No. Clearances, hearth protection, chimney and venting requirements come from the appliance's listing label and installation manual, NFPA 211 and your local code. We explain what to ask for and what it costs, and point you to a certified installer and your building inspector for the work itself.
Does the information apply outside the United States?
The heating physics and the fuel math do. The certifications (EPA, NFPA 211), tax rules and prices in US dollars are US-specific, and our translated pages say so and name the local equivalents where they matter.
How does HearthWise make money?
Some product links earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you, disclosed wherever it applies. Commissions never decide a recommendation.