Fall is cozy. Winter is not. And there’s a reason for that: the furnace.

In the fall, the furnace only occasionally runs. It pumps a little 68-degree air into the house from time to time, but the outdoors are not so harsh, and the house largely maintains its temperature. The heat is in the home, not merely in the air.

In the winter, the furnace can’t keep up, despite clicking on every 20 minutes. It loses some of its heat, blowing through the labyrinth of metal ducts. The warmth of furnace air doesn’t really warm us either. It whisks away some of the heat our bodies are giving off. We’re ultimately being “warmed” by a fan.

The key, then, to making our Michigan winters cozier is to ditch the furnace and switch to a wood-fired stove.

Southern Michigan’s February 2023 ice storm made me pull the trigger and purchase a wood-burning insert. We were without power for three days and it was well below freezing each night. Everyone was cold. I’m not going to be caught in that situation again, not with a young family.

For the uninitiated, a wood-burning stove or fireplace insert heats a room or home by burning hardwood: oak and maple, cherry and hickory. It’s a simple process: Pile in wood and light a fire, which warms the cast-iron surround, radiating heat into your home. You can complicate things a bit with a catalyst that burns the small bits of ash to boost your efficiency. Less wood, but more heat—and a substantial tax credit to boot. 

If you’re using it to heat the entire house, and the stove is not centrally located or your home setup doesn’t naturally circulate air well, you might need a blower or to tie the stove into the ductwork. More furnacelike, but an inescapable imperfection given how many homes are constructed nowadays. 

Why is this classic contraption the difference in making winter more like fall?

For one, you have a psychological foil to the snow. Furnace air is not the enemy of snow, fire is.

But the more important reasons involve light and heat. With a woodburning stove, you’ve brought the sun into your home. The light of the summer or fall sun and the heat of the sun are in the stove and in your home. Think about it: The sun’s light and energy were used by the tree to grow. The sun’s energy is preserved in the firewood. When we burn it, that energy is released. It’s not summer exactly, for the snow still falls and the winds do blow, but it’s not winter anymore. It’s the cozy pleasure of autumn all winter long.

This is to say nothing of the many other advantages of heating your home with a wood-fired stove or fireplace insert. Families gather around the hearth. A pleasant, slightly smoky smell of the air greets you as you come in from the cold. And the warmth is in the home rather than merely in the air, like a stone still warm long after sunset from the daytime sun.

For those inclined to harvest, chop, stack, and season the wood themselves, there’s the added virtue of attending to nature and the seasons, the independence and self-sufficiency, the full-body workout and bodily warmth generated from chopping the wood yourself. And there’s nothing like stoking coals in the predawn January dark, blowing them to life, kindling the fire anew, and sitting down with coffee as the house warms to life.

If you’re sold, keep these things in mind.

Buy a stove or fireplace insert with a glass door on it for viewing. Half the pleasure of a stove in winter is watching the flame flicker and roar. 

If you want to save money on heating by harvesting the wood yourself, it’s a year-round endeavor. You want wood to season while stacked at least a year, two years ideally, so there’s never a time you aren’t gathering wood. If you don’t live on a property with hardwoods, find an old beater truck and tap into your inner pirate: You’ll start seeing wood everywhere, all the time, and especially after storms. Go get it. A chainsaw is a must. Split it yourself, and count it as your exercise. Of course, you can also simply purchase firewood. 

Your home will also have different interior temperatures depending on the room. Be sure to properly dress yourself: wool pants, wool sweaters, wool blankets, and flannel bedding is part of indoor winter living when heating your home with fire. And the cherry on top: Make soap out of the charcoal lye. 

The wood-fired stove: It’s the difference between enduring a Michigan winter and enjoying it.

Jordan Adams is an independent education consultant in southern Michigan.