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Celebrating over 30 Years of Qualy, Style & Innovation FORTUNEHOMES.CA 204.275.2682 FALL 2023 PARADE of HOMES 53 However, it cannot be tied into your furnace in Manitoba because that would go against code regulations, Bennett warns. A free-standing wood stove would be ideal to heat your cottage, he adds. One wood-burning appliance, the Blaze King, is like royalty — and it's also eco-friendly. "It has a catalytic combustor like a honeycomb baffle that is treated with a chemical, so when the exhaust goes through that baffle, it re-burns and you can get really long burn times with it — up to 20 to 30 hours on one load of wood," Bennett explains. "It's a good product for someone who is looking for a main heat source. When you're utilizing that catalytic combustor to its maximum efficiency, you don't see much of a fire burning inside the stove. It's basically a low, smoldering fire, but it burns at a consistent heat for a long period of time." He notes that other wood stoves and fireplaces are non-catalytic so they will have secondary air tubes or they'll have an encapsulated steel baffle that does the same type of thing. "They give you that higher efficiency, but they don't give you quite the long burn time that catalytic combustor does, so it depends on what the purpose is," he says. "And you pay for that technology too — the Blaze Kings are a little more expensive." In fact, they are at the high end of the pricing scale. "The cheapest model would be in the electric line, probably around $600 to $700," Bennett says. "The most expensive would be custom fireplaces. Some of them are running $60,000 to $70,000. There's a massive range of product to choose from — but people want what they want." Electric fireplaces are much less expensive but don't provide nearly the same amount of heat as gas or wood. Whenever a wood-burning appliance is installed in a home, the insurance company will want to see a Wood Energy Technology Transfer (WETT) report. "If we do the installation, our installers are all WETT-certified, so they would provide the report with the installation," Bennett says. "If the homeowner was installing something themselves, they would have to get a WETT-certified inspector to go over it and make sure that it is completely code-compliant." Flame and Comfort products have been compliant with the latest Environment Protection Agency restrictions on emissions since 2020, Bennett adds. "The gas fireplaces are quite efficient already," he says. "With the wood- burning stoves and fireplaces, you don't really see any smoke coming out of the chimney. They burn very cleanly." "A free-standing wood stove would be ideal to heat your cottage. One wood-burning appliance, the Blaze King, is like royalty — and it's also eco-friendly." – DWAYNE BENNETT

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