The Poll for the thread "Woodfurnaces Banned?"

[mitch95100]

This i s the poll i started for my last most recent thread asking if wood furnaces have been banned or this rumor is a crock of ####. I have read through the posts and found people who are happy and people who seem mad

 

[Fyrebug]

This i s the poll i started for my last most recent thread asking if wood furnaces have been banned or this rumor is a crock of ####. I have read through the posts and found people who are happy tree huggers and people who seem pissed.

With all due respect your poll question is inaccurate... The EPA is not trying to ban wood furnace, they are trying to come up with a standard so they can burn cleaner.

As various posters have pointed out, the government has never banned wood burning. They may introduce regulations to ensure new wood burning appliances available on the market meet their regulations, but there is still plenty of wood stoves, furnaces, boilers that are 30, 40, 50 years old and older. It's like saying, "the goverment is banning any cars without catalytic converters". It only applies to MFG to make the changes, but you still see plenty of pre- 70's cars driving around.

OWB are primarily the ones that have been targeted by city and county officials. No State or Federal regulation have been promulgated and none are in the works I'm aware of.

Therefore the question: "Do you like the EPA/ government trying to ban furnaces?" is moot since there is no such thing going on.

 

[cedarman]

I would think the results of your poll would be biast being you asked in a wood burning forum

that would be like asking "do you think epa should band chevy 454's" on a hotrod chevy forum.

 

[Chris-PA]

Since the EPA is not doing this there's no real point voting in the poll. The OWB is just an appliance that can be used properly or not. The problem with them is simply that because they're outside it removes the element of danger to the operator, so that some people who don't care about anyone else and/or their environment have even less incentive to pay attention to what they're burning. For others is simply out of sight, out of mind and they don't pay attention. Some areas are rural enough that even this doesn't matter, other places it's a big problem. I think it's best left up to local governments to decide.

 

[mitch95100]

With all due respect your poll question is inaccurate... The EPA is not trying to ban wood furnace, they are trying to come up with a standard so they can burn cleaner.

As various posters have pointed out, the government has never banned wood burning. They may introduce regulations to ensure new wood burning appliances available on the market meet their regulations, but there is still plenty of wood stoves, furnaces, boilers that are 30, 40, 50 years old and older. It's like saying, "the goverment is banning any cars without catalytic converters". It only applies to MFG to make the changes, but you still see plenty of pre- 70's cars driving around.

OWB are primarily the ones that have been targeted by city and county officials. No State or Federal regulation have been promulgated and none are in the works I'm aware of.

Therefore the question: "Do you like the EPA/ government trying to ban furnaces?" is moot since there is no such thing going on.

Ok ok you have a very good point i understand that the EPA is trying to change the ways and effiency that wood burners produce not completly get rid of them but dont you think that the EPA has bigger fish to fry before going after things that produce a natural thing. If they need to go after something go after people who burn tires in the middle of town not after a eco friendly thing

 

[mitch95100]

Since the EPA is not doing this there's no real point voting in the poll. The OWB is just an appliance that can be used properly or not. The problem with them is simply that because they're outside it removes the element of danger to the operator, so that some people who don't care about anyone else and/or their environment have even less incentive to pay attention to what they're burning. For others is simply out of sight, out of mind and they don't pay attention. Some areas are rural enough that even this doesn't matter, other places it's a big problem. I think it's best left up to local governments to decide.

Ok it says EPA/ GOVERNMENT

 

[Constrictor]

I am wondering why you even care what others think about this. we cant change it.
All we can do is burn responsibly ourselves and help others do so also.

 

[slowp]

The only time woodburnng is banned, is when we have a high pressure weather system and no winds. Then, if you have an alternate source of heat, you are supposed to use it. If wood is your only source of heat, you can continue to burn.

We live in valleys with mountains around, and inversions happen. Here is a photo I took from a high spot.
There is fog along the river but also a lot of smoke. There was no ban on that day, and since we are in a remote area, we usually don't know what the burning level is.

Weeall, I guess there will be no pictures as that button is not working right now.

 

[slowp]

In the morning. Our area is rural. Fog along the river, smoke higher up. The poof you see is the lumber mill.

This was taken a bit later. The wind is coming up and will clear things out.

View attachment 207462View attachment 207463

 

[Fyrebug]

Ok ok you have a very good point i understand that the EPA is trying to change the ways and effiency that wood burners produce not completly get rid of them but dont you think that the EPA has bigger fish to fry before going after things that produce a natural thing. If they need to go after something go after people who burn tires in the middle of town not after a eco friendly thing

So just to clarify we are primarily disucssing OWB...

Unfortunately, that's not the only problem. If some irresponsible individual decides to burn garbage in his OWB (whether its an EPA certified one or some piece of junk) once the unit is installed there is nothing the Govt can do to rip the unit out of there. Correct me if I'm wrong but it takes an awful lot to get the city to move in and clean someone's mess. We have a bylaw in our town where if some homeowner doesnt take care of his front lawn (junk cars, garbage, overgrown weeds) the city will come and clean it up and charge him. How often do they actually do this? Next to never. It turns into a huge legal battle. It takes years.

At least, if the EPA steps in new regulation it will improve the situation. Why?

1) An EPA fire box is a lot smaller than a standard firebox. Therefore you are limited in the size and amount of stuff you can put in there.

2) Due to their design an EPA certified burner severely restricts air intake. Which means that you will get a lot of smoke with garbage fuel and little else. No Heat! Therefore the irresponsible idiot will soon find he's bought an expensive piece of gear and he better respect it if he wants any useable heat.

3) The consumer and local govt will now have a standard. They will state that as of such-and-such a date only EPA units will be approved to be installed. Granted, that wont get rid of the older units and the crappy home made jobs but at least its a start. In a couple decades, these bad wood burners will rust their units out by burning chemicals and garbage and they'll have to upgrade. See #2 above.

4) No self respect EPA appliance MFG will warranty a unit where garbage has been burned. This should at least make some people thing before burning junk.

 

[mitch95100]

As long as we can all agree on that its a few who ruin it for us all

 

[Iska3]

I had my OWB going on it's third season and the PPL 1/4 mile from me never knew I heated with wood until I told them and the gal 1/2 mile from me place looks like a smoke stack from her little inside stove. I only burn well seasond wood and she burns anything she can find. It's all how and what a person burns that gives the bad name.