Keep Your Family Warm and Safe—No Matter What

Mostly gas, honestly. Natural gas from PSE&G runs the vast majority of home heating in Englewood Cliffs, and it's the default for anyone building new or renovating. Wood stove and insert installs still happen, but they're a minority project—usually a homeowner with an existing masonry fireplace who wants supplemental heat, or a Palisades-area home where the owner wants a genuine backup heat source for storm-related power outages. If you're going this route, expect to work with a dealer who covers greater Bergen County rather than one based in the borough itself, since Englewood Cliffs is too small to support a dedicated hearth shop.

For northern New Jersey generally, a wood stove or insert installation runs roughly $5,000 to $9,500, depending on the unit and the venting work required. Homes on the Palisades with an existing masonry chimney can often convert to a wood insert on the lower end of that range, using the chimney that's already there with a new stainless liner. Homes without an existing chimney—common in Englewood Cliffs's newer construction—sit at the higher end, since Class A pipe has to be run through multiple floors and a roof penetration. A local dealer will give you a firm number after seeing the home.

Yes. New wood-burning appliance installations require a construction permit through the Borough of Englewood Cliffs, which enforces the New Jersey Uniform Construction Code. The stove itself needs to meet current EPA emissions standards, and the permit process typically covers both the appliance install and any chimney or venting work. Most hearth dealers who serve this part of Bergen County handle the permit filing as part of the installation, so you're not coordinating it yourself.

Possibly, and this is actually one of the more common wood projects in Englewood Cliffs. A number of the borough's older homes, especially those along the bluff, have masonry fireplaces original to the house that have sat unused for years. Before installing a wood insert into one, a chimney sweep needs to inspect the flue for structural soundness and proper sizing—older masonry chimneys in this area sometimes need a new stainless liner regardless of the insert you choose. Once that's confirmed, converting to an insert is usually more cost-effective than building venting from scratch.

There's no national forest or state cutting-permit land within reach of Englewood Cliffs, so self-cut firewood isn't really an option here the way it is in more rural parts of the state. Instead, homeowners buy seasoned cordwood from regional suppliers and tree services serving Bergen County, typically oak, hickory, or maple—all common regional hardwoods that split and season well. Expect to pay a premium compared to more rural New Jersey counties, since delivery distances and demand near the NYC metro push prices higher.

There are no air quality non-attainment issues or seasonal burn curtailments on record for this area, unlike parts of the country that deal with winter inversions. That said, the Borough of Englewood Cliffs still requires a construction permit and EPA-certified appliance for any new install, and some newer developments or specific streets may carry deed restrictions on outdoor burning or appliance types—worth checking with the borough or your HOA before you commit to a stove.

Given that most installs here are for ambiance or backup heat rather than full-time primary heating, a smaller-footprint, high-efficiency EPA-certified stove tends to be the right fit—something like a Jøtul or Vermont Castings model sized for a single large room rather than a whole-house catalytic unit. If backup heat during a PSE&G outage is the priority, ask your dealer about models that don't rely on any electric blower, since those will keep working fire-only when the power's out.

For nearly everyone in this borough, gas wins for day-to-day heat: it's instant, clean, and matches the PSE&G infrastructure already running to the house. Wood makes sense as a second appliance—something that keeps a room warm and livable if a Nor'easter knocks out power for a day, or that turns an existing but unused masonry fireplace into something you'll actually use. Very few Englewood Cliffs homeowners choose wood as their sole heat source; it's almost always a complement to gas rather than a replacement for it.

An annual inspection is the standard recommendation from the CSIA, and it matters even more here because so many of the borough's fireplaces are older masonry units that sat dormant for years before someone decided to use them again. Get a Level 1 inspection and sweep before the first burn of the season, and don't skip it just because usage is occasional—infrequent use doesn't prevent creosote buildup or masonry deterioration, and a cold chimney that's never been checked is a real risk the first time you light it.

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.

Open fireplaces suck—literally. As the fire burns, it consumes air your furnace already paid to heat and pulls it out through the chimney, so the house is actually colder after the fire goes out than before you lit it. An insert fixes this: it seals the chimney, puts fixed glass across the front, and turns that hole in your house into a real heat source.

For an average home—covering the fireplace, the vent pipe, and basic installation—a budget between $3,900 and $5,500 gives you a lot of options across wood, gas, and pellet. By the time you add finish work, gas line, and electrical, the average complete installation lands between $5,000 and $12,000 all-in. In a remodel or new build, a good rule is to put about 2.5% of the total project cost toward the fireplace.

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.