“When you think of that little dream homestead in the woods, what does it include? Probably a well and septic system, a little stream bubbling nearby, a chicken coop, a sunroom for winter growing, and a cozy fire to curl up next to.
When my daughter and I spent a year living in a cabin in the Northwoods of Canada, our woodstove was our lifeline. It was the only source of heat in a place that reached -42 degrees. It was the only way we could cook when our power went out during snow and ice storms (as it did frequently). It was the cozy center of our home, and we survived for an entire frigid winter for less than $800. After that experience I vowed never to live in a home without a woodstove.
If the EPA has its way, however, heating your home self-sufficiently with wood could soon become illegal – or at the very least, insanely expensive.”
See more at the Organic Prepper
Thanks again to Richard for this tip.
it’s easy to make someone into a criminal, pass a law.
As long as trees are being replanted, or people are thinning where they cut. I pu limbs that are already laying on the ground, as long as no animals are using it.
I don’t see the harm. I do live in the country. I do see where people in a city, packed in like sardines. The smoke would be a problem.
Agenda 21 is slowly being forced on everyone. I don’t think common sense is used in a lot of thinking out there.
Small rocket stoves. Smaller than I see commonly built would be a good idea. Smaller home with less heating needed. Climate change, Global warming’s new name. Is all about taxing and controlling people to me.
Yes, small homes with small rocket stoves would use very little wood and produce almost no smoke.
PT you need to be in a bubble. Your exactly what I don’t like about, pardon the pun, tree huggers. Your space would be invaded no matter where you lived because you would find fault with something. That’s just your demeanor.
The proliferation of chic urban wood burning stoves is something that local councils, mp’s, seem reluctant to do anything about.
70% of outside smoke gets into my house, (according to scientific articles I’ve read).
this causes injury to people who have the misfortune to live next to people who burn wood or coal.
My experience so far suggests to me, that what is needed is to disabuse people of the “folksy” glamour they seem to attribute to the use of wood burning and coal burning in urban areas as some deluded expiation of an Adam and Eve primal self sufficiency. This is needed because this lifestyle choice of theirs , is being exported to unwilling beneficiaries of this selfish choice. I am ab out at my wit’s end.
My garden is uninhabitable when these stoves are lit. Inside my house, peaking particularly around 8′oclock at night, there arrives the unmistakable sour-sweet odour of my neighbour’s wood burning stove molecules finally achieving a big enough mass for my nose to detect it. Of course, before I can detect this nasally, because these molecules, less than the size of a virus, penetrates my walls, these molecules have been working their way all day invisibly into my body.
I refused to be consigned to accepting that the liberty of wood burning families is valued higher than my liberty to breathe clean air.
Please consider when getting all dreamy about your living flame the dangerous thing you are doing to other people due to your insane combusitble fetish.
Wood smoke is unhealthy, that’s for sure. No debate about it. The difference in this situation is housing density. We’re encouraging people to move to rural areas where there are few building codes. This can save people many tens of thousands of dollars on their home, enable them to grow a sizable garden and be more self sufficient. So we’re not recommending wood stoves in urban areas.
Update: Rocket stoves produce almost no smoke. Research that option if you have neighbors. Also, air currents have a lot to do with wood smoke problems. This is just one of many things to consider when buying land. Another thing to think about is pollution from power plants and the gas and oil industries. For instance, someone might criticize wood smoke while using ‘clean’ electric heating, where in actuality the pollution is occurring downwind of the power plant.
Owen
You beat me to the punch on the rocket stoves. A cheaper and much better solution but will be outlawed into non-existence. With all the testing and regulatory fees required only the biggest stove makers will remain and they will be able to charge more due to reduced competition. Any home made stove will be outlawed in the name of protecting the environment when the best solution (rocket stoves) was banned because they cannot monopolize or profit from it. Folks do you not see a trend here that has gone on for decades?
LOL, you are not alone.
Soon all (existing) fireplaces not fulfilling new introduced pollution limits need to get a “fine particulate air filter” installed. Cost (just the filter): 400 – 600 USD.
Guys, get a rocket stove mass heater producing almost no smoke…
Good point about rocket stoves producing almost no smoke. But ever invasive creeping regulations may make it impossible to use rocket stoves. Who’s going to pay the huge testing fees? See? These bureaucratic systems drive competitors out of the marketplace.
Sorry Ms. Butz I thought your drone was a duck and yes I did over kill using my 50 caliber rifle but, the dang thing was flying so high and I just didn’t want to lose the shot. You can pick up the pieces on the lawn of the Governors office.
Thank you.
You might not want to fly over my land anymore. I can’t be held responsible for shooting any others down. Just a thought you might consider.
Woodburning stoves are unhealthy. It’s a simple matter. You can stick your head in the sand about this as much as you like but the soot and smoke you’re breathing in isn’t worth the nostalgia you feel for burning wood.
It’s common sense, if you have an alternative available to a wood burning stove you should use it. You can still have a campfire outdoors whenever you want but inside homes wood smoke is bad for you.
There is very little indoor smoke with modern wood stoves. And, in many rural areas firewood is by far the best home heating option.
You are so-o-o right. Most of the “Regulators” do NOT live where other folks live. Most are behind gated communities or simply are not everyday people. The majority of REAL people have to go by the directions of the very few power hungry, my feet don’t stink, I’m better than you, thinking government tyrants. They ARE the real terrorist in America.
Carroll,
Our records show that HS drone #27386 detected excess smoke particulates from your wood stove at 7:14 on Tuesday, October 8, 2013. Particulate emissions were .00012% over official limits. This is your final warning. You must report to your local Homeland Security reeducation facility for special training.
Bertha Butz
Field Director, FEMA Region VI
It’s too bad about New Zealand. I love that country though I’ve never been there except via Peter Jackson. The over reach of America is mind boggling. Most of the crap the rest of the world is doing is a direct tie with the U.S. and it’s bureaucratic bull*%#@. Globalization. One World Government is plainly seen through the acts other governments are enforcing via the U.S. It’s a terrible thing to dislike your government for their greedy foolish ways but, they started it so, there’s little else to think.
Another point: Why not let counties or states deal with this? Obviously the situation will vary from one place to another. Why should some guy in a remote cabin have to meet the same requirements as congested areas? His entire cabin might have cost $2,000. Now he’s forced to junk his perfectly good (in his opinion) wood stove and pay $2,000 for a new one. That’s probably what pissed off the writer of this article. The regulations don’t make sense from his perspective.
Here’s my concern: creeping regulations that become more and onerous. It’s like many things the government does. What they propose sounds pretty good at first. There is some improvement. But just like any government agency, they grow and grow. The regulations gradually become more difficult to meet (hundreds of thousands of dollars for testing, etc.) and so fewer companies can afford to compete. Gradually you end up with a few gigantic companies that charge excessive prices. It’s a slippery slope just like building codes and so many other things.
I do NOT know this for sure but, what I’ve read is that this new stoves are so expensive and do but just a little. To me, it’s all about money. We are a nation of way too many regulations and most of the people who work in this quagmire don’t know themselves what is legal and not legal and why. Bureaucratic bull*%#*.
The state of Oregon passed a law about wood stoves in 2010. It says that uncertified wood stoves have to be removed from a house at the time of a house sale and recycled as scrap. There are many certified wood stoves for sale in Oregon and the prices seem OK. Oregon has many valleys that trap wood particulate and the pollution in the winter from wood stoves was quite unhealthy and dangerous. With the gradual replacement of older stoves the air in Oregon is cleaner. Wood smoke was the major source of air pollution in Medford, Klamath Falls, and Eugene. Many western states now have similar laws. This particular article seems to be more about spreading smoke than facts.
Owen
They have been cracking down here in New Zealand for years especially in suburban areas. For a while cooking stoves were exempt but they are even cracking down on them now.
You can still use propane or diesel. I call it profit by legislation they want to force you onto their grid and make you pay. Alternatives will be eliminated.
I think you and I saw this one coming a long way off.
Oh – and the guidelines issued in 1988, went into effect beginning in 1990.
This article makes it sound like there are new regulations.
It’s good to promote cleaner, less polluting devices up to a point . We all want a clean environment. But it all comes down to the details. Are the new stoves affordable? How much time do people have to make the transition?
The EPA issued standards of performance for new wood stoves back in 1988. The EPA’s mandatory smoke emission limit for wood stoves is 7.5 grams of smoke per hour (g/h) for non-catalytic stoves and 4.1 g/h for catalytic stoves. (Wood stoves offered for sale in the state of Washington must meet a limit of 4.5 g/h for non-catalytic stoves and 2.5 g/h for catalytic stoves.)
They do not appear to be outlawing wood-burning stoves, just requiring newer, more efficient stoves that have fewer emissions, and use less wood.
This is outlined on the EPA’s web site at http://www.epa.gov/burnwise/woodstoves.html
Some jurisdictions with winter air-pollution problems (such as the SF Bay Area, Seattle/Puget Sound, and Denver, CO) have stricter guidelines that implement a burn-ban when winter air pollution levels are exceeded, UNLESS the wood fireplace is the ONLY means of heating the house.
I think basically, they are just trying to phase out older, dirtier stoves.
I was searching for wood stoves a while back and I came across a few that interested me. I soon found out that they were NOT allowed to be used here in the northwest. That really got my goat because they’ve been around for years. The EPA has got power they shouldn’t have and how they have gotten it, to me, should be against the law. The Left in this country are way out of touch with everyday people. I’m fed up with this organization as are most Americans.
All they have to do is make a regulation. They don’t need a separate law to do things like this. That makes it rip for abuse. And many people who work in these government agencies are muzzled from speaking out. This keeps the public from hearing the full story.
I just learned of this yesterday and haven’t had time to research it. Do your own research and let us know what you think. If true, this is a serious blow to natural building/self sufficiency/off grid community.
So how much are these new EPA approved stoves? Has this EPA regulation already gone into effect? What’s the deadline?