Keep Your Family Warm and Safe—No Matter What

No, and we'd rather tell you that plainly than sell you on something that isn't true. Wells County is prairie farm country with no native hardwood forest and a population under 3,000, so there's no significant local hearth retail market for wood-burning appliances. Propane and electric heat are the standard choices for both new construction and existing homes here. Wood stoves show up mostly as a deliberate backup-heat or off-grid choice on rural properties, not as a default option most homeowners shop for.

Whatever grows in the shelterbelts planted along the James River bottomlands and around farmsteads—mainly oak, cottonwood, and ash. These were planted decades ago primarily as windbreaks, not woodlots, so volume is limited compared to a forested region. Cottonwood in particular burns fast and needs a full season or more of seasoning to be worth burning; oak and ash hold heat longer and are the better pick if you can get enough of it. Most people burning wood in the county are working from their own land or a neighbor's, not buying cordwood commercially.

Realistically, you're looking outside the county—toward Devils Lake, Jamestown, or Minot, where there's enough population to support a hearth dealer with certified installers on staff. Wells County itself, with towns like Fessenden and Harvey both well under a few thousand people, doesn't support a dedicated hearth retailer. We match Wells County homeowners with the nearest legitimate dealer willing to travel for the install, rather than a big-box outfit guessing at venting and clearances for a -2°F average winter low.

Propane and electric heat are the standard systems here, and both are considered a normal, reliable fit for this climate. With 9,518 heating degree days a year, whatever system you run needs to perform on the coldest nights, not just the mild ones—propane furnaces handle that load well and are the default in most rural Wells County homes without natural gas mains. Electric heat, including heat pumps and baseboard systems, is also standard and often paired with a wood or propane backup for outage protection.

It can, and this is the most common reason wood shows up in the county at all. Prairie blizzards regularly knock out power for a day or more, and a wood stove is one of the only heat sources that keeps working with no electricity and no propane delivery truck involved. If you've got access to shelterbelt oak or ash and a household that can manage a wood-burning appliance, it's a legitimate insurance policy against a -2°F night with no grid power. It's just not something we'd recommend as your only or primary heat source given how limited local wood supply and installer support actually are.

Given the severity of the climate—Zone 7, average winter lows near -2°F, and heating degree days above 9,500—err toward the larger end of any manufacturer's square footage rating, especially if the stove is meant to carry real heating load rather than just supplement a propane furnace. A stove rated for 1,500 square feet in a milder climate should probably be sized for closer to 1,000-1,200 square feet of actual heated space here. Because there's no local dealer to walk your home, get square footage, ceiling height, and insulation details ready before talking to an installer so they can size it correctly from a distance.

Yes, solid-fuel heating appliance installations typically require a permit through the county building or zoning office, and the unit itself needs to meet current EPA emissions standards regardless of how rural the property is. Given how few wood installs happen in the county, it's worth confirming requirements directly with the Wells County building office before work starts, since this isn't a routine request they field often. A qualified installer coming in from outside the county should be able to walk you through what's needed.

You can, but we'd steer you away from it. Wood stove installations involve clearance-to-combustibles, chimney or Class A pipe sizing, and hearth pad requirements that are easy to get wrong—and wrong installs are the leading cause of chimney fires. With no local dealer network to fall back on for warranty or troubleshooting, getting it right the first time through a certified installer matters even more in Wells County than in a market with three hearth shops in town.

Pellet stoves are in the same boat as wood here—brands like Lignetics and Indeck Energy Services supply the regional pellet market, but there's no meaningful local retail presence for pellet appliances in Wells County either, and pellet stoves need electricity to run the auger, so they don't help during the power outages that make wood appealing in the first place. Propane is the practical, standard choice for primary heat in this climate and is what most Wells County homes already run. Wood only makes sense as a deliberate backup or off-grid choice for households with actual access to shelterbelt timber and a willingness to work with an installer from outside the county.

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.

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.

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.