Sunrooms are wonderful places to put a variety of amenities in your home and can be turned into whatever you like. So what about a wood-burning stove? Would that be safe to put inside of a sunroom?
It is safe to put a wood-burning stove inside of a sunroom. While there are some important things to take into consideration before you install one, such as the type of stove and the structure of your sunroom, you should be able to safely enjoy your stove in the comfort of your sunroom.
Some of the things you will need to think about before installing a wood-burning stove include ventilation and the specific stove that will work best in your home. Below you will find some useful information to help you know if it’s a good idea to put a wood-burning stove in your sunroom.
Wood-Burning Stove Ventilation
Ventilation is an extremely important thing to consider before installing a wood-burning stove because with all the extra heat the stove can provide, and since sunrooms can get warm as it is, it’s necessary to have some sort of way to cool down the room.
While sunrooms often have many windows, you will also want to install a fan of some sort (portable or otherwise), or even some skylights to create an effective cooling system.
Things To Know Before Installation
It’s important to check with your city or an official in your local area to see if you are even allowed to have a wood-burning stove in your sunroom, and in your house no less, because laws about regulations and inspections can vary where you live. See if you can get a home inspector of some kind to come and inform you of what you’re allowed to do.
It is also vital to make sure that your sunroom has the proper support for holding a heavy wood stove. Sometimes the rooms are only supported by beams on the corners of the floor underneath (if they are on the second floor for instance) and there’s an entire story of space for it to come crashing down if it’s not properly supported, or supportive enough.
Keep in mind that wood-burning stoves can be a hazard in a home because there is always the possibility that something may accidentally catch fire or smoke can travel through various parts of the house where it shouldn’t be.
As long as your sunroom is insulated well, you should be completely fine installing and enjoying having a wood-burning stove in your home.
Types Of Wood Stoves
You should have an idea of which type of wood-burning stove you’re getting, or might already have, to give you an idea of how it will work in your specific sunroom. There are mainly two types of wood stoves: catalytic and non-catalytic. There are other smaller groupings of stoves within these types that you can choose from, such as circulating stoves, radiant heaters (“potbelly” stoves), and combustion stoves.
Catalytic: Catalytic wood-burning stoves have a catalytic combustor, which helps trap smoke and other emissions. This allows it to burn more of the smoke and ash before venting it outside. It also has a metal coating that ignites the flame at a lower temperature and boosts the burn time. Catalytic stoves are more susceptible to damage, especially from treated wood and poor fire starters, and will eventually need to be replaced. Source
Non-catalytic: These types of wood-burning stoves are generally easier to operate because they have no catalytic combustor. At higher temperatures, they burn more efficiently and at lower temperatures, they produce more ash and other emissions. They don’t burn as long as catalytic can. Source
To decide which type of wood-burning stove you should use in your sunroom, think about the levels of emission that each gives off and how often you will be using the stove. While there really isn’t much difference between a catalytic and non-catalytic stove, it’s still a good decision to think about which would be a better fit for you.
Tips For Installing A Wood-Burning Stove
Before you install your wood-burning stove, notify local officials to make sure it’s allowed in your area and just in case something goes wrong with the installation process.
Laying down a floor pad of some kind so that the stove has something to sit on is an extremely helpful tip. Usually, a floor pad is made up of brick, concrete, or ceramic tile of some kind. A floor pad will help make sure that a fire won’t start as easily on your floor and gives a place for embers and such to fall if they accidentally fall out.
And if you decide not to put down a floor pad, another thing you can do is change the flooring in the part of the sunroom where you will be putting the woodstove. Carpet and wood floors are obviously not a good idea to have underneath a stove like that so you can simply change the flooring underneath it to give your stove a nice little space of its own.
Another helpful tip to consider when installing a wood-burning stove is to install a heat shield of some kind on the walls by your stove. These are typically made of aluminum or some other kind of light metal and help to protect your walls from the heat of the stove.
Perks Of Wood-Burning Stoves
One of the plus sides of owning a wood-burning stove is that it will help provide extra heat and that will help you to save energy – especially during the winter months. They are also rather efficient and good for the environment.
If your sunroom is on the second story and doesn’t have anything under the floor, a stove will help to heat it because during colder months the floor can become rather cold, especially if there’s wind as well. In one of the houses I used to live in, it was hard to walk on the floor of our sunroom during cold and windy days because the weather outside made the floor feel freezing.
A wood-burning stove would be an amazing thing to have in your sunroom to enjoy, during every season of the year!
