Tag Archives: Wood Burning Stoves
Canadian Government Undertakes Major Challenge To Make Wood Burning Stoves Greener
Canadian homeowners have many heating options available to them. However, many homeowners stick with wood-burning stoves to give their homes heat. Why do homeowners opt for wood burning stoves over other heating methods? It’s thought there are two reasons:
- Historical reasons
- Friendly to the environment
It does seem like wood is the more environment friendly option… at least when compared to non-renewable fuel sources like fossil fuels. However, although wood is an environmentally-friendly option, it releases a significant number of pollutants, which indicates it’s really not that friendly.
The Canadian Government, for that reason, began an investigation to look into the performance of fuel burning stoves, which resulted in a standard being set for the production of wood burning stoves and their performance features.
It’s because of this investigation that, in 1992, a 77-page long CSA standard was printed that outlined the Performance Testing of Solid Fuel Burning Stoves. Thanks to the CSA standard, wood burning stove companies had a list of government-approved standards that assisted them with both the design and production of any solid fuel burning appliance like the wood burning stoves.
The Problem With Wood Burning Stoves
The biggest problem folks had with the wood burning stoves was their incomplete combustion of gases as they were swept into and out the chimney. The end result of the incomplete combustion was the release of pollutants into the environment.
A 2000 Toronto Medical Officer of Health Air Pollution Burden of Illness study deduced that the amount of pollutants going into the air from the incomplete combustion would results in thousands of people being admitted into the hospital with hundreds of untimely deaths.
The emissions of wood smoke play a key part in the release of respirable particulate matter (respirable dust). And, because of this, it became a priority in the country to test the efficacy and performance of wood burning stoves. The incomplete combustion releases the fine dust that get down deep into a human’s lungs, which results in both cardiovascular and respiratory problems and multiple trips to the hospitals. The age groups most at risk for suffering complications are children and the elderly.
According to the Canadian Wood Stove Pollution Control Requirements, traditional wood stoves fail to meet the CSA/EPA emission standards due to the lack of their having the advanced-combustion technology. In saying that, CSA/EPA-certified wood stoves do meet the US EPA or CSA B415 standard for emissions that the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment have put in place. Based on tests, performance of both the non-catalytic and catalytic advanced-wood stoves is comparable.
British Columbia is the only Canadian province that demands new residential wood burning stoves met the CSA/EPA standards. The US EPA standard was generated in 1994, which the province adopted. The Hearth Products Association of Canada (or HPAC) has approved the province’s adoption of the US EPA standard. Both the government of Ontario and the federal government are mulling the possibility of adopting similar standards.
With a Burn It Clean initiative in place, the Natural Resources Canada looks to further teach people on matters that deal with residential wood burning. A significant amount of educational material is available through the Burn It Clean campaign, which has recommended a change out program for persons who want to upgrade to an efficient wood-burning standard compliant stove. It has been a combined effort by the Federal Government and the Provincial government to begin and carry out the Canadian wood-burning stove change out programs.
Thanks to the continued efforts of the Canadian Wood Stove Pollution Control Requirements and the adoption of the standards, the efficiency gain and pollution reduction has led to the improvement of Canada’s air quality and fewer hospital visits for cardiovascular and respiratory problems due to incomplete combustion.
Sources:
Air Pollution from Wood-burning Fireplaces and Stoves, Toronto Public Health, Dr. SheelaV. Basrur, Medical Officer of Health, Authors: Sarah Gingrich and Ronald Macfarlane, Dec. 2002. Found online August 10, 2011
Canadian Standards Association B415b Found online August 10, 2011
City of Kelowna, How to Choose a Wood Stove. Found online August 10, 2011
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Reverse-Process Wood Burning Stoves
To fully appreciate the subtle, yet simple genius of Jan Steen, the developer of the reverse-process for wood burning stoves in the late 1970′s, began with the process that is “reversed.”
A wood stove making use of inside air for burning results in problems, simply because outside air is pulled into the property to replace the stove exhaust going up the chimney. The exhaust air, carrying combustion fumes and smoke, is replaced by cold exterior air infiltrating through small cracks and openings around doors and windows. The process that is reversed is the negative pressure caused by the wood burning stove using indoor air for combustion. In fact, ANY furnace using indoor air for combustion can cause a negative air pressure in a building!
To reverse the negative pressure, Jan Steen used trial-and-error to create the Chinook stove. Instead of creating constant drafts of cold air infiltrating through and around windows and doors, Steen reversed the process by using cold, exterior air to fuel combustion. By piping in exterior air there was no negative pressure inside the home. By separating the burn cycle from the heating effects the stove’s thermal efficiency increased.
Steen enhanced the reverse-process wood burning stoves even more by applying the concept of piping in exterior air to also include the air heated by the stove.
The reverse-process stove is based upon two straightforward principles.
1. It draws in outside, fresh, cooler air into the building. That air runs through interior piping and is used for combustion near the back of the stove. This prevents cold air infiltrating into the building.
2. Using the draft effect of the hot stove, additional exterior fresh air is drawn into the stove’s exterior rear baffle, where it is heated and released into the room.
The heated exterior air, oxygen-rich, creates a small positive air pressure within the premises. The positive air pressure is minimal, but still requires a corresponding exit somewhere high up in the building allowing the pressure differential to continue.
The double effect of drawing exterior air for combustion as well as introducing heated, fresh air into the building, makes this unit the ‘reverse-process’ wood-burning stove.
Associated LINKS:
Bryden, Mark; Dean Still, Damon Ogle, Nordica MacCarty.
http://www.bioenergylists.org/stovesdoc/apro/Heat/Heating%20Stoves%20LO-RES.pdf Designing Improved Wood Burning Heating Stoves (A .pdf file needing Adobe Reader.) Aprove Research Center. Shell Foundation. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
United States EPA/Office of Air and Radiation. Co-sponsored with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/insidestory.html “The Inside Story: A Guide to Indoor Air Quality”. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
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Types Of Wood Burning Stoves
Mention wood burning stoves and many people picture a classic potbelly stove usually situated in the living room or kitchen of a farmhouse. Mandatory to completing the image is the family gathered around the stove sharing some conversation, savoring down-home cooking style aromas and enjoying the radiant warmth on a cold winter evening.
The central item in this nostalgic image is the wood burning stove; providing warmth, a place to cook and a central point around which people gather.
The wood burner of our postcard image has changed radically, yet stays true to its basic functions of heating and cooking. In the last 250 years the wood burning stove has specialized yet become more general, improved its efficiency yet wood burners in the U.S. exist under much more stringent regulations and in some models have forsaken that plain appearance for making a fashion statement.
Basic wood burning stoves, think of the classical potbelly stove, so typical in Europe and North America of the mid-18th through mid-19th centuries was primarily a heating appliance with a small top that could be used for cooking. During the same time kitchen based wood-burners were primarily used for cooking with large tops and ovens; occasionally having multiple cooking levels.
The heating or cooking wood-burners of yesteryear have morphed into:
air-tight stoves,
masonry stoves,
bio-mass cook stoves, and
In the U.S. most are mandated to include catalytic converters. Of course, the iconic potbelly stove is still available as an updated replica.
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