Wood Called-for Stoves - which are all-time & which burn cleanest?

Reading the specifications of a wood stove tin exist rather complicated, so how practise you cull? Let'south milkshake loose the of import points from all the technical jargon and brand the process a bit more enjoyable and so it's easier to tell which wood burning stoves give the most estrus, burn best and burn the cleanest - especially important if choosing a stove for a sustainable lifestyle and for the minimum environmental impact.

When choosing a stove or fireplace, beneath is an example of some of the numbers that you volition need to look at, their value lies more often than not in being able to compare 1 forest burning stove against another:

  • Maximum output capacity with dry wood - eg. 100,000 BTU/h
  • Tin heat up to (insert size here) eg. 223 sq. k. (2,400 sq. ft.)
  • Firebox volume of (insert size here) eg. 0.1 cu. one thousand (3.7 cu. ft.)
  • Efficiency: eg. 78%
  • Average particulate emission rate: eg. three.nine g/h

Choosing the right size of wood stove:

Whether you're looking for a born forest stove or chimney insert or a freestanding wood stove, ownership the correct size of unit of measurement is very important, but don't risk an aneurism trying to calculate BTUs per hour compared to foursquare footage or total book of air. Instead go with the following metric: is your house large, medium or small? Is it pretty airtight or pretty drafty? Will your wood stove exist the main heat source or just supplementary? Is your house poorly, moderately or super-insulated?

Since there is no way for a wood stove manufacturer to know how well-insulated or closed your house is, square footage and BTU output numbers are valuable for finding out where a wood stove falls on the 'small, medium or large' scale, but that's really about it.

An 1,800 sq. ft. house that is poorly-insulated may demand an extra-big stove, an 1,800 sq. ft. house that is super-insulated may need an extra-small stove. In that location are even houses like passive solar homes that could probably exist kept warm with a fondue pot and a few mood candles. Then don't buy based on your square footage alone.

If you get a wood stove that is too big for your space, you lot will either overheat or need to operate information technology at a lower temperature. Running it at too low a temperature means a less efficient burn down and higher particulate emissions. You pollute less and get the most value from your forest when burning a fire at pretty high temperatures, not to mention that it keeps your chimney cleaner. So getting the right size of stove is very important.

A neat mode to decide the size of stove you volition need for an existing house is knowing how much electricity, oil, gas or wood you used to keep warm last year. If you speak to a reasonably well-versed woods stove dealer and requite them an idea of your dwelling house operation and full general needs (primary or supplementary heat source) they should be able to assist size a stove for you.

Unless that is you want a wood burner as a primary rut source and don't own your own woodland and then are buying fuel in, in which case you could likewise consider a high efficiency and electricity free woods pellet stove by reading here.

1 more thing to consider while we're talking about sizing here, and I'm speaking from experience, is whether you're going to be cutting the firewood yourself or ownership it in - because if you're buying woods in then bank check in your local expanse what size of wood is most common in terms of length - normally 16". Some of the smaller high efficiency wood burning stoves from European manufacturers only take a 12" log, and in certain areas because of the extra cut to produce this small-scale log size, and because yous rarely find them in stock, y'all will be asked for a premium price... Proficient to know if you're looking to a woodburner to save money for heating in a rural expanse with plentiful trees!

Congenital-in forest stove or freestanding forest stove:

Built-in woods stoves look more like a fireplace from the days of old, simply with the inclusion of a glass door (every bit seen in the main epitome above); free-continuing wood stoves are the ones with legs and a visible flue pipe. Withal rules apply in terms of stove size, particulate emissions and techniques for burning wood efficiently; the departure, across the visual, is well-nigh heat distribution.

Freestanding wood stoves are basically a space heater rather than a total firm heating system. Some take an optional fan or 'blower' which helps circulate heat in the room, only they're difficult to use as the main heating system unless you accept a very open-concept design. Congenital-in wood stoves can act a bit more like a furnace as they are able to vent heat throughout a firm, even from the main flooring downwards to the basement.

Your carbon footprint as a forest burner:

Heating with forest does not instantly brand y'all an enviro-villain unless you live on an island with one remaining tree. Forest is a renewable resource and fairly abundant in nigh areas, certainly for rural wood burners.

Trees absorb carbon as they abound and they release it when they decompose. Burning wood releases carbon, only only about 20% more than if y'all leave a tree to rot on the forest floor.

That isn't to suggest that burning forest as a heating fuel has the same affect as leaving it to rot in the wood considering information technology volition too enrich the soil, but y'all'll demand to heat your home somehow. Compared to other fossil fuels, wood that is thoughtfully selected and properly burned is a very respectable culling.

The environmental and health implications of your woodstove volition vary a lot depending on several factors - the quality of your stove, the moisture content of the wood y'all burn, the temperature you lot burn down it at and where you are located. The first thing to do if you want to go the well-nigh heat from your forest and pollute the least is to weed out anything that is non EPA certified.

wood-burning stove emissions

Note: Nosotros've included the chart above for comparison between different types of wood stoves simply. The figures are imperial  whereas woods stoves in Canada are rated using the metric organization, so emission standards in Canada won't reflect the emissions standards in this diagram.

Air pollution from wood stoves:

Because in rural areas with less dense housing, smoke from fires is more able to dissipate without having the aforementioned impact on local human health as it tin in dense urban areas.

Smoke from wood stoves © Arboristsite.com

A high concentration of woodstoves in an urban setting volition take a more than noticeable impact on the surrounding air quality and consequently find its way into other homes. When there are lots of neighbouring wood stoves, a bigger concern for indoor air quality than [the smoke from your own fire tin be the smoke from an upwind neighbour. Information technology is for this reason that many cities across Canada and the U.Southward. are phasing out wood stoves and imposing very strict rules on emissions in urban areas.

An important signal to notation is that even with quality closed stoves at that place is always an increased level of particulate in the air of your abode that'southward pretty much unavoidable. You will always need to open it to add wood and a chip of smoke will usually come out when you do. So endeavor to open the doors slowly, don't keep them open broad or for longer periods of time than is necessary.

And be conscious of the air force per unit area in your business firm - leaving on a bathroom fan, stove hood or cardinal vac will depressurize a house; if your house is fairly airtight you may find more smoke coming into the house if you have the stove doors open up at those times.

Burning forest at the right temperature:

The temperature that you regularly run your stove at is a big variable in determining efficiency and your overall environmental touch. Ideally you desire a fire to stay around the 550-600°F mark.

Volatile gasses start to class at about 450°F in the combustion process of forest and they outset to burn off at about 540°F. That'due south where the term 'secondary combustion' comes in with stoves that accept that capacity, which by now is offered by nearly all manufacturers. Without the secondary combustion feature, much of the fuel value of your wood (up to threescore%) is lost up the chimney when those gases aren't burned.

Regularly called-for below the optimum burn temperature will lead to a quicker buildup of creosote in stove pipes, increasing your take a chance of a chimney burn if you practice get it upward to a higher place recommended burn temperatures.

All newly installed chimneys in Canada need to be certified and are safe upwardly to 1200°F, though burning well to a higher place the optimum temperature isn't recommended. If you take a lot of creosote build up in your chimney it is possible for a rogue spark to ignite the creosote even at a relatively low fire temperature. Once creosote catches burn down, the flue temperature volition speedily rocket up to 2000°F, at that point it will probably start to rumble.

Chimney thermometer

A chimney fire is a time for concern, but not panic. The reason nosotros have chimney certification regulations is to prevent fires in this exact state of affairs. If you get a chimney burn you should call the burn department equally a precaution, and afterwards yous should have a certified installer inspect information technology for harm.

By now y'all know that it's of import to know the authentic temperature of your stove, so you'll need a thermometer. There are magnetic thermometers bachelor but as they read the exterior pipe temperature and not the interior, they aren't as reliable. A probe thermometer is a improve option, y'all drill a pocket-size hole in the flue pipe (at the manufacturers suggested peak) and insert it.

Quality of firewood affects performance:

Hardwood is unquestionably meliorate than softwood as a heating fuel, but the main reason is that softwood burns much faster so you need to load information technology a lot more ofttimes. Stoking your fire with maple or oak at night might go out y'all with a bed of dress-down in the forenoon, loading the same volume of pine will not. Softwood besides means more splitting, more than stacking and carrying.

The thought that softwood causes much more than creosote buildup in chimneys and the magnitude of that as a problem is somewhat debatable. More on that here, where nosotros likewise explain how to cull the right firewood for burning!

As a wood stove user, I very much like using pine in the fall and spring for a quick hot fire to accept the edge off a chilly forenoon. It starts upwards fast, information technology burns actually hot and information technology'due south over before y'all know it. Different tools for different jobs.

You may have heard that called-for moisture forest volition clog upwardly your stovepipe faster, which it does, though the trouble is non with the moisture itself simply that the moisture makes it so much harder to go a burn down burning at the right temperature. Much of the energy that could exist providing heat is instead consumed past boiling and evaporating the water in wood.

Ecological impacts of heating with wood:

Disregarding the argument for insect habitat for the moment, if you are in a rural surface area there are always dead trees that need to come down and they might every bit well warm yous instead of rotting. Selectively choosing copse for firewood rather than articulate-cutting a portion of a wood will have a lower environmental affect. While we found no truly reliable claims on the net, consensus seems to exist that y'all can sustainably harvest betwixt 1/2 and 1 face up cord* a year from an acre of state, more if y'all include deadfall.

*A 'face cord' (or just a 'cord') is sixteen inches deep, 4 feet high and 8 anxiety long, a 'bush-league cord' is the aforementioned thing but three rows deep.

And only for fun...after an extensive Google search nosotros cannot confirm this as either scientific fact or sociology, but fable has it that burning potato peels tin help make clean chimneys. Burn them if yous like, merely at that place is full consensus on the fact that running a stiff wire brush through a chimney for sure cleans it, so play information technology condom and hire pros to clean your chimney.

At present you know how to choose the right wood called-for stove or fireplace, read all about which firewood is the best for called-for hither, from the EcoHome Green Building Guides.