EPA Bans Most Wood-Burning Stoves

yall see this?
http://www.offthegridnews.com/2013/10/02/epa-bans-most-wood-burning-stoves/

 

Yeah. Seems like a chitty article. Seems like the EPA is reiterating the Pre-EPA stoves are being phased out. Nothing to see here.

 

the comment section was pretty funny. mostly nakmecaling and bs junk science given by folks who couldnt pronounce the words they copied and pasted from blogs.

silliest thing is they are blasting away at a regulation thats been in place since 1991 like it happened yesterday

 

As I was reading the article it hit me, I am all for EPA stoves and love the clean burn, but when it comes to EPA sticking their nose in cars and trucks I get mad. Some of the logic I understand and some of it seems counter-intuitive.

 

i look at it pragmatically, EPA phase 2 ended a lot of companies, it did cost jobs in that way, but it was necessary. as for the "changeout" programs, i think its a good idea as well especially the part about the old stoves being junked.

a lot of the pushback is simply the fact that the old stoves do what they are expected to do and thats that. im not one for overregulation, but "smart, well planned" regulation isn't necessarily a bad thing all the time.

 

They need a place in between. Too much regulation is not good. Neither is not enough.

 

Residents in Alaska were "inflamed" Lol....Pun or what....?

 

agreed, regulation can be a positive thing if placed prudently and gradually, over regulation OTOH usually wouldn't be so bad if it weren't so immediate all the time. imagine if the phase 2 had been enacted in such a way that no time were given at all to the industry and included an immediate ban on all non conforming units. wood burning would have essentially ended at that point as the entire industry would have been wrecked.

what im hoping and lobby groups such as HPBA and John Ackerley's group should work towards responsible regulation to allow the industry and really the country itself to phase into the next round of standards.

 

Fairbanks has a program to phase out the old smoke dragons & homemade stoves.
Basically they send you a check for what you paid for the new stove.
Some proof needed ,few hoops to go thru.

Problem, many found out the new stoves don't burn as well as the old stoves.
They need dry wood, 1 or more years seasoned
Try to teach someone about dry wood ( season it for a year ??)
who's burned fresh cut green wood since they been burning.

Many put the old stoves back in while bad mouthing the new stoves. Word
gets around , new EPA stoves don't work.

 

this is where education is key, just making it possible to buy the stoves this way is not enough. teaching the differences between old tech and new is the tough part.

i remember back in the day when folks were trying to figure out cat stoves they may have burned a smoke dragon for 40 years before getting the new type stove and were expecting the thing to work the same way. many a caller would have told me the first ting they did was knock out that "filter" in the top of the stove as "its just going to get plugged up anyway"

 

Wow, ain't that the truth. Problem is, these uneducated folks end up poisoning the air that we all need to breathe...

 

as a comparison, when i was in the army one of my postings i was tapped to be the principle firearms instructor for our battalion, i found that while most could fire a rifle fairly accurately transitioning to a sidearm (aviators carry pistols when on flight status) was tough for most not having been instructed at all or not heavily in basic training. i found the females were generally better to teach as they didn't have as many bad habits to "unlearn" most of the time they picked the skill up quickly after getting past the initial fear of the 9 mil Beretta's size and the alien feel of a handgun which they had never fired. guys OTOH tended to be less attentive and usually scored lower initially as they were less mechanical in their grip and stance and such. usually they got better with more instruction but not all did, had one guy who didnt pay attention to my block of instruction on the proper way to grip the weapon and nearly lost his thumb from having it high on the grip in the way of the slide. well, you can lead a horse to water...

 

what i'd like to do is shoot an instructional video on the differences between the old tech and the new describing the ways that new tech stoves work in relation to the older types.

might have to hit da boss up for some funding on that. we'll see

 

If that, and the need for dry fuel, could be integrated into the sale, that might help. Of course, all that stuff is in the manual....but who reads the manual? Probably a lot more people could learn better from a video, and it's a lot easier than poring through a manual....

 

OWB haven't improved.

Indoor wood boiler are EPA exempt, but I would argue that the indoor gassification boilers are the most advanced and cleanest wood burning appliance available. They have high combustion efficiency numbers like wood the newer woodstoves AND the transfer of heat is very efficient when coupled with a 500-1000 gallon water storage system.

No worries of overheating the stove room and freezing bedrooms when you can just adjust the t-stats.

 

one of the best devices as far as combustion efficiencies out there mike. thermal efficiency is down a bit but when you can store up the heat in water effectively its pretty impressive the numbers you can achieve.

OWB's arent "gassers' they are strictly blunt force devices. there is no regulation on the emissions of these tings so there is no effort by the manufacturers to make them burn clean. sad thing is that the indoor ones (even though exempt) are among the cleanest combustion devices out there why? because they are connected to a proper flue for one , and they have to be able to work in a fashion which makes them viable for indoors. OWB's arent limited by these things, but they should be. i'd like to see the indoor ones, garn's and woodguns to be tested to see what their outputs are then use that input to work on a standard for the outdoor ones as well, heck the indoor ones do fine with a proper flue system so they wouldnt be "victimized" by the regulation of the outdoor ones

 

In name only, their performance is pretty poor.

The only way to burn efficiently is to do batch burns. OWB don't have enough storage capacity and cycle often. Each time they are cycled on/off it takes a while to achieve gassification.

With my indoor gasser I let the storage get down to 120-130 and load the boiler. It will burn full out to charge storage for 4-6 hours. Then I have enough hot water to heat my house for 12-60 hours depending on outside temps.

You can imagine how many times an OWB would cycle to digest the same amount of wood as the house calls for heat.