ᐅ Wood-burning stove with water heating in new construction – yes or no?

Hello everyone,

I was a bit surprised that I couldn’t find a fairly recent discussion on this topic (if I missed something and unnecessarily started a new thread, I apologize).

To the main topic:
We are building a new house (solid construction, no special insulation properties) that will be heated with a heat pump.
A wood-burning stove is planned for the living room, and now we face the question: should it be hydronic (water-heated) or not?

I initially approached this with the firm belief, “of course hydronic, why not, this way the stove can also be used to supply domestic hot water and central heating.” However, feedback from the first stove installers has made me somewhat doubtful (“the extra costs are hardly compensated by the energy saved,” and so on). Therefore, I thought I’d ask here for experiences from other homeowners on this subject.

So, as the title says, hydronic wood stove in a new build – yes or no? I would really appreciate some opinions and experiences.

Best regards,
DerToni

We asked ourselves and our stove builder this question as well. I found the idea very appealing and expected it to save additional resources. I understood that I wouldn’t be generating hot water year-round with it, but rather using it (in our case) as a secondary system alongside a small air-to-water heat pump.

My stove builder explained the system to me. Due to its design, efficiency decreases as soot builds up, so regular cleaning is necessary. The idea of performing this maintenance in the living room or on the wooden terrace discouraged me. Therefore, we installed a masonry heater without water circulation.

Once the heat pump is installed, omit the integration of the fireplace. To connect high- and low-temperature systems, you need a hydraulic separator. Besides the regulatory challenges this entails, it significantly reduces the efficiency of the heat pump. A modulating heat pump also makes no sense with a hydraulic separator. You will never recover the investment costs.

It is better to install a stove with a very high thermal mass, such as a masonry heater.

If you want a truly efficient heat pump, make sure it is properly planned. Set specific room temperatures for each room, perform a room-by-room heating load calculation, ...

Usually, it helps to educate yourself rather than just relying on the HVAC technician alone.

We have also moved away from the idea of a hydronic masonry heater. The stove builder advised against it mainly because of the investment costs. He also mentioned that you would need a correspondingly large domestic hot water tank to prevent the system from overheating when the stove is fired up intensely.
Heating that huge storage tank with the heat pump during the summer doesn’t make much sense, of course.

Now it will be a "simple" masonry heater. I’m curious to see if we can manage the additional heating for the underfloor heating system the way I’m imagining.

The question comes up at least once every year... and as many have said before me, it is a regulatory nightmare.

The supposed savings and use of waste heat exist only on paper, in glossy brochures and from the stories told by salespeople and agents.