Save heating costs: water-bearing stoves distribute the heat throughout the house

Created: 12/07/2022, 7:30 p.m

By: Andrea Stettner

If you look around for a stove in times of the energy crisis, you will always come across water-bearing models.

What advantages do they offer?

Do you want to buy a stove so that you can also heat with wood in an emergency?

Then you will also come across water-bearing wood stoves in the trade.

In the following, we will show what this is all about and whether a purchase makes sense.

A water-bearing stove helps to save energy.

© Winfried Rothermel/Imago

What is a water-bearing stove?

A water-bearing stove (also called a stove with a water pocket) makes the heat generated usable not only in one room, but throughout the house.

For this purpose, the water-bearing stove is connected to the heating system of the house.

The stove has an integrated heat exchanger - a water pocket - that is placed around the combustion chamber.

The water contained in it is heated by the heat of the fire and temporarily stored in a buffer tank (a hot water tank).

From here, the heat can be distributed throughout the house if required.

Does a water-bearing stove make sense?

A water-bearing stove is particularly useful if you not only want to generate cozy warmth with your wood stove, but also want to save energy at the same time.

Water-bearing stoves relieve the boiler of your central heating.

In the transitional period in autumn and spring you can often leave out the central heating altogether.

This saves a lot of heating costs, which is a decisive advantage.

Incidentally, to save even more heating costs, experts recommend a combination of boiler, water-bearing stove and solar thermal energy.

Another advantage: the heated room does not overheat as quickly, which is often the case in low-energy houses.

The disadvantage: planning and installation are more complex and complicated than with a normal stove, since it has to be connected to the heating system.

You should definitely hire a specialist company to do this.

In addition, water-bearing stoves are more expensive and heavier, which should be considered when choosing the installation location.

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Water-bearing stove: potential savings and possible costs

, it is difficult to quantify

how much gas and oil you can ultimately save .

In general, heating with wood should save around 50 percent on heating costs.

And how expensive is the installation?

According to the

portal, you have to calculate the following costs for a water-bearing stove, depending on the model and performance:

• Acquisition costs: between 1,500 and 5,000 euros

• Installation of the stove: from 200 euros

• possibly base plate and stovepipes: from 100 euros

• Buffer storage: from 500 euros

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Unfortunately, there is currently no funding for water-bearing stoves - but there is for water-bearing pellet stoves, which are rewarded by BAFA and KfW with a subsidy of at least 35 percent.

On the other hand, the purchase price of at least 4,000 euros for a water-bearing pellet stove is usually higher.