Is it cheaper to heat your house with wood or with gas?
In Candler, propane still heats a lot of homes out in Hominy Valley, so for those houses the cheapest gas costs more per unit than the natural gas on the Asheville mains, and cut-your-own wood is the cheapest fuel of all. The newer Enka-Candler subdivisions are the exception, with gas reaching more streets each year.
Propane out here, gas creeping in
Much of Candler is propane country, delivered by truck and priced higher per unit than pipeline natural gas, burning hotter and needing the right orifices and pressures, which is licensed work in North Carolina. The fast-growing subdivisions around Enka-Candler are increasingly reaching natural gas, so newer streets get the cheaper gas option while the rural stretches up Sand Hill and the Pisgah Highway stay on tanks. Either way, wood is the cheapest fuel for anyone with a wooded lot and a chainsaw, so the honest answer really does depend on which Candler you live in.
A valley that holds its air
Hominy Valley's natural bowl tends to trap air, which makes a clean-burning sealed appliance more attractive than an open, smoky firebox, both for efficiency and for the neighborhood's air quality on a still winter morning. Many of the new subdivisions came with basic decorative builder-grade fireboxes that owners outgrow within a few years; a sealed unit at 70% efficiency or better gives them the real, heat-producing upgrade they are after, and burns far cleaner while it does it. Because Candler is growing so fast, we field a lot of these calls from owners of five-year-old homes who assumed their builder-grade box was a heater and found out otherwise; a sealed unit fixes that, burns cleaner in the Hominy Valley bowl, and cuts what they spend to heat the room, whichever fuel reaches the house.
Buncombe permit, 15 minutes west
We pull the Buncombe County permit and meet the inspector, and we set propane appliances up with the correct orifices so they do not soot. Candler is 15 minutes west of the showroom, and the assessment is free. Call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Candler
We install and service fireplaces throughout Candler and the rest of Buncombe County — just 15 minutes west from our Asheville-area showroom.
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