GreenSage E-zine 01/2008

A GreenSage Guide to Woodburning Stoves & Fireplaces
Acquire Some Green Habits and Don't Leave Home Without Them
By Elaine Ireland

This new year started out with a severe Northern California storm, knocking out power for over half a million people — and leaving us at home and at work without it. Even though I've been practicing green for 20 years, I'm still dependent upon our electric supply and missed it terribly for those 3 days. Lights, heat, appliances, computers, faxes, printers. Modern life! All that seemed to work was one old jack phone and one new iphone. We closed the office.

Like most people in America, we have natural gas heat in our home. Unfortunately, its controlled electrically.

Natural gas is the top heat source for American homes:
o Utility Natural Gas = 46%
o Electricity = 28%
o Fuel oil, kerosene = 9%
o Bottled, LP gas = 6%
o Wood = 2%

Whenever we dared open the door, allowing the 40 degree weather into the unheated house, we could smell the burning wood wafting in from many of our neighors' stoves and fireplaces. Though I like the smell of a fireplace, I know too much. It was an unsettling situation and the incentive for this issue's GreenSage Guide to Living Green: Woodburning Stoves & Fireplaces.

If you have a wood burning stove or fireplace, or live near someone who does, here's some important information and tips to spare the air that you breathe.

What it is:
Woodsmoke is a pollutant. The fire combustion produces heat, light and carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, dioxin and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs, such as benzene and formaldehyde). It also produces particulates, some microscopic, unburned wood tars and gases, soot (unburned carbon) and ash (unburnable matter). Much of this is inhalable and can stay in your lungs for months and years and can contribute to various ailments from asthma to lung cancer.

Smoke that escapes from your fireplace or wood stove unburned is wasted fuel that will stick in your chimney as creosote or be released as air pollution. It can also cause a fire in the chimney.

Considerations when thinking about firing it up.
Tip: Have you had your chimney cleaned lately? The EPA recommends that you have your chimney professionally inspected and cleaned every year to remove the creosote and keep it in good working order.

Tip: Don't burn wood when the air quality is poor. Your family and your neighbors will thank you. On some days, weather and temperature conditions can cause the air to 'be heavy,' acting like a lid that traps smoke and pollutants. This makes for greater probability of breathing them in. Those kind of days are least suited to burning wood, or being outside, especially actively, to breathe in the pollutants.

Tip: Close off the rest the rooms when using your fireplace. Most fireplaces are heat vampires sucking out the heat from the rest of your home as it burns. The fire will draw air from the rest of your home and send it up with the smoke out the chimney. Let it take air out of the room it resides in and keep the rest of your home toasty from your regular heat souce.

Tip: If you have a woodburning stove, and its more than a few years old, consider replacing it with a new certified woodstove. If your old one is typical, it wastes 30% to 60% of your wood and produces 70% more pollutants than a newer one. Those made after 1988 have been regulated by the EPA. There are three main certified types: catalytic stoves, noncatalytic and pellet stoves. Make sure to look for an EPA label before you buy. www.epa.gov for a list of EPA certified wood burning stoves. They're working with partners in some locations to provide attractive incentives for wood stove owners to switch to an EPA certified wood stove. Find out more about their changeout campaign: www.epa.gov.

Tip: Open the damper a full minute befor lighting your fire. Begin with a small, hot fire to preheat firebox and chimney. Build

Tip: Only burn manufactured fireplace logs or clean, dry, well-seasoned hardwoods (like oak or maple, poplar or birch), which will produce less smoke, provide more heat energy than softer woods because hardwoods are denser and burn more slowly and evenly. Wood is considered seasoned when it has been outdoors through the warm, dry weather for at least 6 months after splitting. Properly seasoned wood is darker, has cracks in the end grain, and sounds hollow. Stack above ground in a manner that will promote good circulation, away from buildings, covered on top to keep the rain off.

Never burn household trash, cardboard, plastic or paper or boxes with colored ink, coated, painted, or pressure-treated wood — it will produce harmful chemicals, ocean driftwood, plywood, particle board, or any wood containing any glue. All of these things release toxic chemicals when burned.

Never burn wet, rotted, diseased, or moldy wood — and never even bring them into your house. Bring in only the amount of wood needed for a day to reduce the chance of allergy-causing mold spores circulating indoors.

Prevent fires where they're not wanted.
Tip 1: Regularly remove ashes from the wood stove into a metal container with a cover and store outdoors
Tip 2: Ensure that all flammable household items—drapes, furniture, newspapers, rugs and books—are far away from your wood stove.
Tip 3: Install and Maintain a Smoke Alarm and a Carbon Monoxide Detector. Every year 3,000 people lose their lives in residential fires — mostly from inhalation of smoke and toxic gases — and more than 200 people die from CO poisoning

Do you smell smoke?
Wood burning smoke pollutants can escapes into your own home from your fireplace. If you can smell it, its likely leaking in. Caution should be taken, especially with small children, those with respiratory issues or heart disease. If this is the case, we urge you to stop burning wood and utilize inserts to convert your fireplace to a self-contained gas unit, a certifed clean-woodburning fireplace unit or burn manufactured fireplace logs (not recommenced for use in woodstoves).

If you smell smoke while using a wood stove, immediately shut it down, open a window, be sure the flue is open, carefully check the venting (chimney) system, and call a professional wood stove installer or chimney sweep.