Is it a fireplace or a wood burning stove you are considering? There is a difference. Regardless of the difference the first step is to contact your insurance agent and ask he/her if they will cover you for loss due to fire. You will be surprised at the numbers of companies not taking the risks today as wood burning fires are amongst the one of the highest risks of loss due to residential fires, and thus the ridiculous premiums that they demand today in some areas of North America. About 8 years ago I received a registered letter from my insurance provider telling me that if I didn't remove a 15 year old wood burning stove stack and bring it to code as well as the stove they never even looked at my fire insurance would be suspended within 30 days. The readers digest version of this tale is that they didn't care a hoot about what they insured previously if I didn't remove it and had an electrical fire I had to prove it wasn't due to a wood stove fire. Lawyers around here start at $150.00 per hour.

Wood stoves do burn clean. Yes, they emit CO2, but it's the same amount of CO2 the tree would emit as it decays in the woods. Once the fire is going and the stove is functioning, you can go outside and see nothing coming from the chimney as the new stoves have "clean burn" technology which has smoke reenter the burn chamber, as smoke is unburned gas that would normally go up the chimney. The old stoves were just fire boxes with ways to limit the air to the fire. So when the owner closed off the air, all the fire did was smolder, which caused smoke. Hence the name given them today, "Smoke Dragons". When you look into a stove or insert, bigger is not better! These are appliances and must be sized to the area you plan to heat. Let's say you have a 2,000 SF home. You don't necessarily want a unit that will heat the entire home to 70 degrees, as the bedrooms should be cooler, etc. So do some research before going forward.

Do you want to do something like this? Personally, I hated the woodstove that my husband insisted on. The living room was blazing hot and the rest of the house wasn't. The natural direction of the air flow in my house went the opposite way of the main part of the house and the heat never reached the other rooms. Not to mention the mess from the ashes and having to haul wood. We kept a little fan on top that was activated by the heat and it never did a thing. Keeping it at the right temperature by constantly playing with the air intake was a hassle as well. You can get fireplace inserts that blow the heat back out into the room. Can you tell I don't like wood stoves??

"For atmosphere you can’t beat an open fireplace..." That's true. I have a relative who just moved from a home with a wonderful real fireplace to another one with good fireplace as well. It threw out tons of heat; I had to move back. But yeah, Most heat is lost up the flue. Aside from stand alone wood stoves, there are also built in fireplaces that are just oversized glass door wood stoves that are almost as efficient. either of these 'glass door stoves' would require insulated flue pipe that IS expensive; the 'stoves' ain't cheap either. The flames in these stoves aren't natural and the viewing area is smaller than a classic fireplace, but the unusual flame shapes are still attractive and while less efficient, the doors may usually be left partially open to hear fire crackling etc while observation is in progress.