EPA approves new woodstove emissions standards

I agree with Mike,good stuff.I disagree with any rebates,cash incentives from the government.As a general rule,in our country,they are failures,as are most gov. run programs.How about cash for clunkers??Was not that long ago.People that are poor burners(wet wood,etc) are the ones that will use it,and we will still have the same problems. Local gov. is much more responsible,has worked out here with the "bad" owb crowd,they are still legal,but you better burn it properly.Power needs to go back to the states and local level.

 

Another related article, with VT Castings pics and a quote from Woodstock...
http://www.vnews.com/news/10427785-95/emission-standards-for-wood-stoves-kindles-debate

I usually think of the air quality being an issue in places subject to inversions, usually in the west. Here in VT I heard on the radio last night that Rutland was under an air quality alert, and woodstoves were listed as one of the causes (can't find a link to this).

Sitting at my kitchen table this morning I look down the valley, across our small town, and there is a layer in the air that is hanging low over the houses that blocks out the hills further away. Lots of oil heating here, quite a bit of woodstoves, and the Town runs an OWB. I am glad to live on the upwind side, and glad to be using dry wood and a great stove.

 

Sounds like a bunch of bureaucratic BS to me. I don't want to buy anything that cost more, I'm in this to save money and cut my own wood. I don't want to buy biobricks, pellets or coal. The air is just fine by my house out in the country.

 

Well in some areas the clouds of smoke are not BS!

 

I just took a peek at your town with Google Earth. Yikes - they sure did stuff those subdivisions full! {edit: looks very similar to development in my hometown in southern Maine}

I'm not advocating for more regulations, but it isn't very difficult to look around on a cold, still day and see where the impetus is coming from.

 

Yeah, a widow down the street bought a used smoke dragon and she's burning wood that was cut and split 11/2014. Short chimney and it looks like those old pictures of Pittsburgh steel smelters (no offense to Pittsburgh). I gave her some tips on burning, but a smoke dragon + wet wood=mega smoke and creosote. I didn't have the heart to tell her that she could have gotten an NC30 for what she said she paid for the smoke dragon.

 

Golf, you should "adopt" the lady as far as wood burning goes. We, and you, would all feel a lot safer if you could stop in and with tips and perhaps an offer to keep her chimney cleaned? I know it's easy to suggest, but what about supplying her with wood? At least get some for her that will be dry and safer for her?

 

If she burns it correctly she should not have any problem with the older stove, no creosote and not much smoke with my older stove.
Is she good looking?

 

Down, boy!

 

I never see big clouds of smoke except at the Steam Plant. A little smoke in the air from a woodstove or fireplace smells good. The EPA makes it sound like everyone is keeling over from allergies and asthma. Why don't they address the issue where it exists instead of punishing everyone evenly?

 

Actually I am not in Mooresville, that place is a zoo. They built those subdivisions for people that like city living. I have no interest living in a subdivision of any kind, I need a lot of room to spread out and setup my old appliances and furniture outside around the house.....lol

 

Some areas are bad, that is where the big complaints are coming from, we all pay for stupidity and have been for a long time.

 

From the Portland Press Herald...

Missouri and Michigan already have barred their environmental agencies from enforcing the EPA standards. Similar measures recently passed Virginia’s legislature and are pending in at least three other states, even though residents in some places say the rules don’t do enough to clear the air. ...{and in Maine,}... On Sunday night, DEP spokesman Karl E. Wilkins said in an email that enforcement of the new regulations is not the state’s responsibility. He said the federal government will be responsible for making sure that manufacturers and retailers of wood heaters are in compliance.

http://www.pressherald.com/2015/03/09/maine-to-leave-new-wood-rules-to-federal-epa/

And a snippet from the other side of the story...
The EPA estimates the restrictions will reduce fine particle emissions from wood heaters by nearly 70 percent. It says that will result in an average of one fewer premature death per day and yield about $100 of public health benefits for every $1 of additional cost to manufacturers.

 

Thanks I didn't know that about Michigan
I think this is a way over inflated estestimate.
EPA estimates the restrictions will reduce fine particle emissions from wood heaters by nearly 70 percent

 

EPA=Pain in my Arse....

 

love to know where that came up with that fantasy. the regulations might create that large a reduction 80 years down the road when there are no more "pre-Phase 2" units still in operation, but when that happens even without the new regs the reduction would have been relatively close to that.

 

Thanks Mike for confirming what an amateur like me, figured that it was a fantasy

 

look at it this way, though the numbers im going to use arent accurate as i do not have the actual numbers at my fingertips butu here's my take;


say we have 20 million wood burning households in the states of that 20 mil, maybe half are running phase 2 units. now , even going on the assumption (pipe dream) that everyone is burning wood responsibly, the total emmissions from the half that are burning older units or other non- epa (exempt units like furnaces) would be releasing the lions share of the overall particulates.

so the only way that the amount of reduction that EPA is predicting is if everfyone who is burning a dragon (no offense to my friends who are running the older stoves) were to replace it with a new unit AND burn responsibly with it. were this going to happen, it would have happened when phase 2 came about. now phase 2 did have an overall better impact on the environment but it didnt eliminate the problem , far from it because the amount of dragons still in service didnt drop as much as predicted though it did drop. simple thing to think about is that "how many of the old tech folks are going to run right out and buy a new stove?" if this doesnt happen the difference is not going to happen either, its my opinion that their numbers are based on this happening and it might , but it wont be tomorrow, just a few decades down the road

 

I'm guessing they were referring to a 70% reduction from the NEW stoves sold that meet the new standards, which would almost make sense. But it's obviously going to have NO affect on the older stoves which probably make up the bulk of the in use stoves as of today. So maybe they just left out a description of what the 70% really meant..., reported improperly by the writer who just herd the # "70" and repeated it.... Just my guess....

 

I'm just guessing their 70% # is also including furnaces and OWBs.