Keep Your Family Warm and Safe—No Matter What

Because wood is a specialty install here rather than a routine one, costs skew toward the higher end of the national range—typically $5,000 to $9,000 once you factor in Scranton's older housing stock. Many rowhomes and pre-war houses have original coal-era masonry chimneys that need a full stainless liner before they're safe for wood use, and clearance-to-combustible requirements can mean extra framing work in tight rooms. Homes without an existing chimney—a new Class A chase built from scratch—run higher still. A local dealer will need to see the space in person before quoting a firm number.

It depends heavily on the house. In a dense rowhome block with shared walls and a small lot, the venting and clearance requirements can be genuinely difficult to meet, and with natural gas infrastructure already running to most Scranton blocks, a gas insert is usually the simpler, cheaper answer for everyday heat. Where wood makes more sense is detached homes with some yard space, rural or semi-rural properties in Lackawanna County, and anyone who specifically wants a heat source that doesn't depend on the electric grid or gas line. If that's not your situation, it's worth looking at our gas fireplace guide for Scranton instead.

Oak, hickory, maple, and cherry are all common in the hardwood forests surrounding Lackawanna County, and all four make solid firewood once properly seasoned. Oak and hickory burn hottest and longest—good for overnight loads in a stove sized for real heat output—while cherry and maple burn a bit faster but season quicker and give a pleasant scent. Whatever species you source, plan on 6 to 12 months of covered, split seasoning before burning; unseasoned coal-region hardwood is dense enough that green wood will smolder and build creosote fast.

Yes. Inside city limits, new wood stove or insert installations go through the City of Scranton's Department of Licensing, Inspections & Permits; if you're in one of the surrounding Lackawanna County townships, it's handled through that municipality's building department instead. In either case, the stove needs to meet current EPA emissions standards, and most local installers will pull the permit as part of the job rather than leaving it to the homeowner.

Pellet is even more of a niche choice in Scranton than wood—regional bagged pellet brands like Energex, Hamer Pellet Fuel, and Greene Team Pellet Fuel are sold locally, but pellet appliances see limited demand here for the same reason wood does: natural gas is the default, and most homes aren't set up for either. The real distinction between the two is that pellet stoves need electricity to run the auger and blower, so they don't work during a power outage, while a wood stove will. If off-grid backup heat is the goal, wood is the more dependable of the two.

This is one of the strongest cases for wood in a market where it's otherwise uncommon. A properly sized wood stove heats without any electricity at all, which matters in a region where winter storms can knock out power for days. PPL Electric Utilities serves most of the Scranton area at a residential rate around 12.3 cents per kWh, and electric-dependent heat systems—including furnaces with electric ignition and blowers, and pellet stoves—go down with the grid. A wood stove doesn't. For homes that have experienced extended outages, that's often the deciding factor over cost.

The CSIA recommends an annual inspection for any wood-burning appliance, and it matters more than usual in Scranton given how many local chimneys date back to the coal-heating era. Beyond the standard creosote check, an inspector needs to confirm the masonry itself is structurally sound and that a proper stainless liner is in place—old anthracite-era flues were sized and built for coal, not wood, and using one without relining it is a common and serious mistake.

With winter lows averaging around 20°F and roughly 5,740 heating degree days a year, Scranton sits solidly in a cold-climate heating zone (5A) even though wood isn't the typical fuel choice locally. A small stove (under 1,000 sq ft) suits a single room, cabin, or supplemental setup; a medium stove (1,000–2,000 sq ft) covers most detached single-family homes; larger stoves are usually overkill unless you're heating an entire drafty farmhouse as primary heat. Given how uncommon whole-home wood heat is here, most local installs skew toward the smaller end—supplemental or backup use rather than a full primary-heat setup.

For most Scranton homes, gas wins on convenience: natural gas infrastructure already reaches most neighborhoods, installation is generally simpler in rowhomes and attached housing, and there's no wood handling, ash cleanup, or annual chimney sweep. Wood wins in narrower circumstances—detached or rural properties, homes that want heat independent of the electric grid and gas line, and anyone drawing on the oak and hickory forests just outside town. If you're not sure which fits your situation, it's worth comparing this page against our Scranton gas fireplace guide before deciding.

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.

The right one can. If waking up to a warm house and live coals matters to you, say exactly that when you're shopping—firebox size and burn-rate control determine overnight performance far more than any number on a spec sheet. It's a much more useful question than asking about BTUs.

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.

It's a visit where a hearth professional measures your space, confirms the model you picked actually works in your home, and walks the specs—framing, gas line, venting, finish work—before anything is ordered. Some details you just can't know until you see the house. Never make a down payment without one; it's the single most-skipped step that burns buyers.