Keep Your Family Warm and Safe—No Matter What

Yes, though it's uncommon enough that you'll want to plan ahead. Highland's building department requires a permit for any new wood-burning appliance, and on the town's smaller lots, meeting clearance-to-combustible requirements for a chimney or Class A pipe run can take more creative planning than it would on a rural half-acre. It's very doable—local hearth installers from the surrounding Munster, Griffith, and Schererville area handle these installs regularly—but expect the process to involve a site visit before anyone quotes a firm price.

Because wood stove installs are less common here than gas fireplace work, expect something in the $3,500 to $8,000 range for a freestanding stove with new Class A chimney venting, with inserts into an existing masonry fireplace typically landing on the lower end. Costs run a bit higher than in wood-heavy rural markets simply because there are fewer specialized wood-stove installers based in Highland itself—most jobs are handled by hearth dealers serving the broader Lake County area, which can add a trip charge.

Mostly infrastructure and geography. NIPSCO's natural gas network covers nearly the entire town, so gas furnaces and fireplaces became the default decades ago. Highland also isn't near any national forest or large public timber tract—the nearest public-land firewood permits are hours south near the Hoosier National Forest—so there's no local cutting culture the way there is in forested parts of the Midwest. Add in Highland's smaller residential lots, and wood heat simply never became the primary heating choice it is in more rural or forested regions.

A wood stove is a freestanding unit on its own hearth pad, vented through new chimney pipe—it works anywhere clearances allow. A wood insert drops into an existing masonry fireplace and uses that chimney, with a stainless liner run inside it. Highland has a good number of 1950s and 60s ranch homes built with a traditional masonry fireplace, and for those houses an insert is usually the simpler, less invasive route since it doesn't require new chimney construction through the roof.

Yes—a building permit through Highland's building department is required for any new wood-burning installation, and the stove itself needs to meet current EPA 2020 NSPS emissions standards. Given the tighter lot sizes in town, plan on a clearance review as part of that permit process; your installer will typically handle the paperwork, but it's worth confirming before you commit to a specific stove placement.

With average lows around 15°F and a winter heating load similar to Madison, Wisconsin—a mid-size non-catalytic stove from a brand like Pacific Energy or Lopi is a solid fit for most Highland installs, since most local use is supplemental or backup rather than sole primary heat. If you're planning to actually rely on wood during multi-day outages, a catalytic stove from Blaze King will hold a longer, steadier burn overnight—worth discussing with a local dealer if that's your use case.

The CSIA recommends an annual inspection for any wood-burning appliance, and that holds true here regardless of how lightly the stove gets used. Because dedicated chimney sweep companies are less concentrated in Highland itself, most homeowners book service through sweeps covering the broader Munster-Schererville-Merrillville corridor. If your stove is mostly a backup-heat unit that only runs during outages, it still needs that annual check—infrequent use doesn't prevent creosote buildup.

Since Lake County isn't near national forest land, essentially all firewood in Highland is purchased rather than self-cut. Regional suppliers throughout northwest Indiana sell oak, hickory, maple, and beech by the cord, and prices generally track the broader Chicago-area market. If you're installing a stove for backup heat, it's worth arranging a standing delivery or storing a season's worth in advance—you don't want to be sourcing firewood for the first time during an ice storm.

For nearly all Highland homes, gas is the practical everyday choice—NIPSCO's gas infrastructure is already in place, installation is simpler on tight suburban lots, and there's no firewood to source or store. Wood makes sense in a narrower set of cases: a backup heat source that works without electricity during a winter outage, a detached garage or workshop off the gas line, or a homeowner who specifically wants the radiant heat and ritual of a real wood fire. If you're weighing both, a local dealer can walk through which one fits your specific house and lot.

An insert does two things: it seals the chimney completely, so you stop losing air you already paid to heat, and it radiates warmth into the room through the firebox and glass. Most add a heat-exchange fan that pulls cool room air underneath, wraps it around the hot firebox, and pushes it back out warm. Your home is more efficient before you've even lit the first fire.

New wood stoves are 70%+ efficient, so far less heat goes up the flue—which also means less draft to get a fire established. The rule: build a genuinely hot fire for about 45 minutes before you choke it down. Skip that and you get smoke in the room, creosote in the chimney, and a fire that never takes off. Most performance complaints trace straight back to this.

On average, a fireplace adds back to the home about the same amount you spent installing it. Add the monthly savings from heating the rooms you actually use instead of the whole house—often hundreds of dollars a year—and the value case is strong before you even count what a fire does for how your family uses the room.

Yes—by creating a comfort zone. A furnace heats every square foot of the house just to warm the one room you're in; a gas fireplace on low burns roughly a sixth of the gas a typical furnace does. Set the furnace around 55–60 degrees as a baseline, then heat the rooms your family actually uses. Families who heat this way commonly save $20–$60 a month.