Wood burning stoves no better today than before

[Derf]

Stumbled across this article on the detrimental effects of wood burning stoves regarding air quality.

https://apple.news/AZiUiDw3PTj60K5Q2Q0kpjg
They cite Fairbanks Alaska as one such area that collects the smoke due to the geography/ surrounding topography.
They allude to the certification agencies “cooking the books” on the review process for newer model stoves passing EPA standards. They touch on the wasteful spending from government subsidies that were used to clean up the wood burning stoves on the market and to help residents upgrade to the newer, ‘better/cleaner burning’ stoves. And they conclude that for the environment, it would be better if people weren’t burning wood to heat their homes.

They do note that oil burning is more expensive, and propane doesn’t work well in the cold, and there aren’t a lot of great options.

It’s a good read.

 

[U&A]

Thanks for sharing the article. Interesting indeed


All iv got to say is I have nothing against the non epa stoves but my epa stove is WAY more efficient than any non epa iv ever had.

I dont trust most things i read anymore. Hard to trust anyone anymore really.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[HumBurner]

I hate my propane heat. Been working the landlord for three years to install a stove. It sucks being able to take home cords of wood per week for free and not be able to burn any of it.


Story saved. Thanks!

 

[Yukon Stihl]

funny thing is...
wood releases the same amount of carbon if it's burnt,or left to rot on the forest floor

 

[Del_]

funny thing is...
wood releases the same amount of carbon if it's burnt,or left to rot on the forest floor

My experience is that our Jotul F600CB is way better than the old smoke dragon pre EPA stoves that I've used and seen used.

Plus the glass in the doors makes it a quick visual check to see the state of the fire. This make a big difference in the ease of
stove operation, IMO.

 

[Del_]

funny thing is...
wood releases the same amount of carbon if it's burnt,or left to rot on the forest floor

But wood releases thousands of time more particles into the atmosphere when it's burnt Vs. rotting away.

So while wood is carbon neutral, it is not particle emissions neutral.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Over 95% of carbon emissions from burning wood are due to forest fires and wild fires. Stoves and fireplaces might account for 2%. Yukon Stihl is correct also. My Federal Airtight 288, circa 1987, uses a hot secondary combustion chamber to clean the exhaust. See any smoke?

The stove was using the first flue on the right when this pic was taken.

 

[holeycow]

Beautiful chimney!

 

[jetsam]

I'll leave the debate about air quality to others, but modern stoves are WAY better for the wood burner than old ones.

I grew up with pre-EPA wood stoves. I've had a modern stove for about 5 years now, and it's still sometimes amazing to me that a medium sized stove can put out that much heat for so little wood. Or that it can burn one load for 24 hours. Or that I can turn the flames off and on with a dial.

 

[old CB]

Yep, 49 winters burning wood, and the last 10 with new generation stoves. I would never go back. Like Del said, the glass doors are the cat's pajamas. Besides the fact that you don't have to open the stove to know the condition of the fire, watching the fire is mesmerizing, better than TV.

I would question the study that found no difference in air quality with new stoves. Maybe they measured overall air quality between then and now but forgot to factor in many more stoves burning now. Who knows, who cares. Those of us who burn wood know the difference.

There were times in the past when I actually felt bad for my neighbors (lived in town for a while), especially overcast days when the smoke hung low. With the newer stoves I rarely see smoke from my chimney after the first 10 minutes of starting fire.

 

[Wood Doctor]

One of my customers really likes this one. He has no idea when it was made, but it heats like gangbusters:

 

[old CB]

Wood Doctor, we had a stove like that (borrowed) one winter in the '70s, probably not quite as fancy as that one, but close. Can't remember a thing about its performance, but it was pretty.

On the other hand, we had a neighbor who was new to burning wood. He had a stove like that and he'd been warned that too hot a fire could damage it. (Any stove suffers if you over-fire it.) As a result, when you went to Elvin's house it was about 50 degrees inside and you practically had to hug the stove to keep from being chilled.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Pot belly stoves have never been known to burn cold. Trains used them on the caboose. So, they became known as caboose stoves. Only problem was that the logs had to be cut under 16" in length to fit inside them. Some would only accept a 14" log or less. I have run into this constraint myself while supplying customers witth split logs. However, I have never heard of anyone hugging a potbelly stove that was burning a good fire. I think Elvin's house in Colorado had other heating problems.

 

[old CB]

You're right, it wasn't the stove, it was Elvin and how he fed it. (In NY) He was afraid to over-fire it so he kept several little chunks of wood smoldering in the stove. Maybe he got real heat out of it at times, but never when I was there.

 

[bwalker]

I get a kick out this. The Karen in Alaska should visit the cities of the intermountain west during wildfire season. The smoke is so thick at times that you cant see accross the valley I live in which isnt all that wide.

 

[Yukon Stihl]

I run a wood gasification boiler and have 1000 gallons of heat storage. My boiler runs wide open at peak efficiency till my storage gets to the desired temperature. Then the house pulls heat from the storage till the next evening when I start another fire. It burns very clean 11 years and I haven’t had to clean the chimney

 

[Yukon Stihl]

 

[Bret4207]

My experience is that our Jotul F600CB is way better than the old smoke dragon pre EPA stoves that I've used and seen used.

Plus the glass in the doors makes it a quick visual check to see the state of the fire. This make a big difference in the ease of
stove operation, IMO.

View attachment 895232

If I put a nice stove like that in our house my wife would probably stop bugging me to move south! That's a gorgeous rig right there!

 

[jetsam]

If I put a nice stove like that in our house my wife would probably stop bugging me to move south! That's a gorgeous rig right there!

"Looks pretty" and "works well" are usually opposites.

Try heating your house with that thing and then a cheap 30NC from a big box store, and you'll never think about heating with antique stoves again.

 

[Del_]

"Looks pretty" and "works well" are usually opposites.

Try heating your house with that thing and then a cheap 30NC from a big box store, and you'll never think about heating with antique stoves again.

It's not an antique stove. It's a modern high efficiency secondary combustion designed wood stove.