Can I heat my home with my wood stove or wood insert when the power is out?
Yes — a Mars Hill wood stove or wood insert heats your home through a power outage, running on firewood with nothing plugged in. Out in the Spring Creek and Gabriels Creek valleys, plenty of homes already heat with propane or wood; of the two, only wood keeps going when both the grid and the propane delivery are cut off.
Wood Is Already the Rural Standard
The rural valleys around Mars Hill — Spring Creek, Gabriels Creek, Forks of Ivy — have long leaned on propane and wood, because natural-gas mains don't reach out that far. Propane does the job until a storm blocks the roads or the tank runs low, and it still needs electricity for many ignitions.
Wood carries no such strings. A stove throws radiant heat the moment it's lit, no tank and no grid required, which is why so many homes up these hollows keep one going all winter. It's one of the colder spots we serve, so that reliability isn't a luxury.
Rentals and Full-Time Homes Ask Different Things
Near the university, a lot of the housing is rental stock where easy, hands-off heat is the priority — but even a rental benefits from a wood insert as backup for the outages that come with mountain winters.
For a year-round home, a freestanding stove sized to the space is the surer bet. The guide is roughly 20 BTU per square foot in a moderate climate, and Mars Hill's cold pushes that up, so we size for the coldest night, not the average one.
Sound Chimney, Proper Permit
A wood stove is only safe over a clean, intact flue, so an idle stove needs a sweep and inspection before you rely on it. We pull the permit with your county, set the Class A chimney or liner to clearance, and meet the inspector.
We're 30 minutes north of the Asheville showroom and install and service Regency, Lopi, Jotul, and HearthStone across Madison County. Call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Mars Hill
We install and service fireplaces throughout Mars Hill and the rest of Madison County — just 30 minutes north from our Asheville-area showroom.