Keep Your Family Warm and Safe—No Matter What

No, not compared to natural gas, which serves the large majority of homes in Greenwood, Franklin, and the other incorporated towns. Wood stoves are a minority choice here, generally installed by homeowners on rural acreage, in older farmhouses without existing gas service, or by people specifically wanting a non-electric backup heat source. If you're set on wood heat, it's absolutely available—you'll just be one of a smaller group of buyers, which is exactly why working with a dealer who installs wood systems regularly (rather than one who mostly does gas conversions) matters more here than in a heavily wood-burning county.

Because most Johnson County homes were built without a masonry fireplace or chimney, a typical install usually means a full Class A chimney system run through the roof or an exterior wall, not just dropping a stove into an existing opening. For the region, that generally runs $3,500 to $9,000 depending on the stove, roof line, and how much framing or exterior work is involved. Homes with an existing wood-burning fireplace—mostly older construction in Franklin or unincorporated parts of the county—can convert to an insert on the lower end of that range since the venting path is already in place.

Since there's no national forest or large public timberland in the county, firewood mostly comes from local tree services, land-clearing operations, and private woodlot owners rather than Forest Service cutting permits. Oak and hickory are the preferred species locally for heat output and long burn times, with maple and beech also common. Expect to pay by the cord from local sellers, with prices varying by season and species—oak and hickory typically command more than maple or beech. If you own rural acreage with your own hardwood stand, self-supply is common and often the main reason people choose wood heat here in the first place.

Yes—a building permit is required for a new wood-burning appliance, typically through the county building department for unincorporated areas or the relevant municipal office if you're inside Greenwood, Franklin, Bargersville, or another incorporated town. Any new stove sold also has to meet current EPA 2020 NSPS emissions standards. The good news: Johnson County has no air quality nonattainment designation and no winter inversion or wildfire smoke issues, so unlike some Western counties, there are no seasonal burn curtailment days to plan around here. Most local dealers handle the permit paperwork as part of the installation.

At 5,704 heating degree days and average winter lows near 19°F, Johnson County's climate is real but not extreme—closer to Madison, WI than Duluth, MN or Fargo, ND in terms of severity. For a typical suburban home in the 1,800 to 2,800 square foot range, a mid-size stove is usually sufficient for supplemental or zone heat, since most homes here already run a central gas furnace as primary heat. Larger stoves sized for whole-home primary heat make more sense on rural properties with older, less insulated farmhouses. A local dealer can size this properly during an in-home visit—oversizing leads to smoldering, creosote buildup, and a stove you can never run wide open comfortably.

For most Johnson County homes, gas is the more practical choice—natural gas service reaches most of the county's incorporated towns, installation is simpler in homes without an existing chimney, and it matches the way most local homes are already built and heated. Wood makes more sense in specific situations: rural properties without gas service, older farmhouses, homeowners with their own hardwood supply, or anyone who wants a heat source that keeps working through a Duke Energy Indiana outage during an ice storm. If you're not sure which fits your situation, that's a good question to bring to a local dealer rather than deciding based on the fuel that's more common overall.

Pellet stoves are even less common in Johnson County than wood stoves, for similar reasons—most homes are already set up for gas, and there's no strong local tradition of pellet heating the way you'd find in the Northeast. Regional pellet suppliers like Indeck Energy Services, Lignetics, and Somerset Pellet Fuel do serve the broader Midwest market, so pellets themselves aren't hard to source, but pellet stoves require electricity to run the auger and blower—which rules them out as backup heat during an outage, one of the main reasons rural Johnson County buyers choose wood in the first place.

The CSIA recommends an annual inspection for any wood-burning appliance, and that holds regardless of how common wood heat is in a given county. It matters even more in Johnson County because most installations use a newer Class A metal chimney system rather than old masonry, and the connections, roof flashing, and cap all need to be checked yearly for wear. If you're burning wood as primary heat on a rural property, plan on inspecting before the season starts each fall; if it's occasional or backup use, an inspection every year or two is still worth scheduling before you skip a season and forget.

Yes, and it's one of the main reasons wood heat still has a foothold in Johnson County despite natural gas being the local default. Most gas furnaces need electricity to run the blower and ignition, and standard gas fireplaces without a battery backup can go dark too. A wood stove needs none of that—it'll keep a room warm through a multi-day outage on the Duke Energy Indiana grid during an ice storm or severe winter weather event. If backup heat is your main reason for considering wood, tell your local dealer that up front—it affects which stove and venting setup makes the most sense for your home.

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.

Four numbers tell you what fits: the front width, the front height, the back width, and the overall depth of your existing fireplace opening. Grab a tape measure, jot those down, and snap a photo of the wall—those two things do more to move your project forward than anything else you can do today.

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.

If you're putting a fire in your house on purpose, it's best to work with an expert. Unless you're genuinely experienced in framing, gas line, vent pipe, and the national code on clearances to combustibles, have a professional do it—and ideally the same company that sells you the fireplace, so warranty, service, and liability all live under one roof.