Instant Heat for Howard's Coldest Nights.

A typical gas fireplace or insert installation in Howard runs roughly $4,000 to $9,500, depending on the unit, whether a new gas line needs to be run, and the venting path. Since most Howard homes already have natural gas service from Wisconsin Public Service, tying a new fireplace into an existing gas line—say, near a furnace or water heater—keeps costs toward the lower end. Homes needing a new gas line extension across a finished basement or through an exterior wall, or a full masonry surround build-out, land toward the higher end. The Village of Howard Building Inspection Department requires a permit for the install, and local dealers typically handle that paperwork as part of the job.

If your home has an older masonry fireplace—more common in the parts of Howard built before the village's newer subdivisions went in—yes, a gas insert is a straightforward conversion using the existing chimney with a stainless liner. Given how few Howard homes were built with wood fireplaces in the first place, this is a smaller slice of local projects compared to towns with older wood-heating traditions, but it's still routine work for area hearth dealers. Expect $4,500 to $8,500 depending on the insert and whether new gas piping is needed to reach the firebox.

Wisconsin Public Service serves natural gas to essentially all of the village of Howard, including both the 54303 and 54313 zip codes, so the vast majority of homes can tie a new fireplace into existing gas service. Propane comes into play mainly for homes on the unincorporated fringe of Brown County that haven't been reached by gas mains—if that's you, your local dealer can spec a propane-configured unit and coordinate tank placement with a regional propane supplier.

Most modern gas fireplaces will, which matters in Howard given how ice storms off Lake Michigan and heavy Wisconsin snow loads can knock out power along the Fox River valley for hours at a time. Units with intermittent pilot ignition (IPI) run on a small battery backup that kicks in automatically when the power drops, so the fireplace lights and burns normally. Valor's gas fireplaces go a step further—the pilot's thermocouple generates its own electricity, so there's no battery to remember at all. Worth asking your dealer about ignition type if outage backup is a priority for your household.

A gas fireplace is a fully built-in unit framed into a wall—the standard choice for Howard's newer construction and remodels. A gas insert drops into an existing masonry firebox and uses the chimney as its vent path, which fits the smaller number of older Howard homes with a wood fireplace already in place. A gas stove is a freestanding cabinet-style unit that sits on the floor, useful for finished basements or additions where there's no existing fireplace opening to work with. Local dealers can walk through which fits your floor plan.

Yes. The Village of Howard Building Inspection Department requires a building permit for new gas fireplace installations, and a licensed gas-fitter is required for any new gas line work. Most hearth dealers serving Howard handle the permit application and schedule the required inspections as part of the installation, so you're not coordinating separate trades yourself.

Vented (direct-vent) gas fireplaces draw combustion air from outside and exhaust it back outside through sealed venting—they're the standard choice across Wisconsin and hold up well in Howard's long, cold heating season without any indoor air quality tradeoffs. Vent-free units are permitted under Wisconsin's Uniform Dwelling Code but come with strict room-sizing rules and require an oxygen depletion sensor. Given how many hours a Howard household spends with windows shut over a 7,800-degree-day winter, most local dealers steer customers toward direct-vent units for daily, all-season use.

Plan on an annual inspection, ideally in early fall before the fireplace sees heavy winter use. A certified technician checks the burner, pilot assembly, venting, and gas connections, and cleans the glass—this typically runs $150 to $225 locally. It's a much lighter lift than chimney sweeping for a wood stove, but skipping it is still the most common cause of pilot and ignition failures right when a cold snap hits.

It comes down to how the village was built. Howard's subdivisions were largely developed with natural gas service already run to every lot, so builders piped in gas heat rather than framing chimneys for wood fireplaces, and many neighborhood covenants restrict outdoor wood storage anyway. Oak, maple, birch, and aspen are all cut in the surrounding Brown County countryside, and pellet fuel from regional producers is available, but both remain a niche choice inside the village compared to towns built around a wood-heating tradition. If you're on a larger lot at Howard's edge and want a wood or pellet option, a local dealer can still tell you what's realistic for your property—but for most village homes, gas is the practical and available choice.

Yes—with an asterisk. Fireplaces are hot and TVs don't like heat. Either put a mantel between them to deflect rising warmth, or choose a fireplace with heat-management technology that creates a cool zone on the wall above—the wall stays around 125 degrees, barely warm, while the room still gets full heat. If you like clean lines and don't want a mantel, heat management is the answer.

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.

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.

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.