To avoid escalating heating bills, many are going back to burning wood (solar power – from concentrate). Wood does NOT contribute to global warming. It merely cycles ACTIVE carbon without ADDING carbon to the atmosphere as fossil fuels do. Wood is carbon neutral, low in sulfur, and renewable – sounds great.

But does wood heat help or hurt your health and wellness? The answer is… yes! Confused? I’ll explain.

I love wood heat. I won’t endure a U.P. winter without wood, but only because I burn it in a healthy, efficient and safe way. You should too.

The answer to wood heat questions relates to one word – smoke. Smoke is shockingly important. Smoke is unburned fuel, filled with chemical distillates and dumped into the air we breathe. It is visible inefficiency, toxicity, danger. What REALLY billows out of that chimney is safety, health, money and time.

Smoke contains a long list of toxic chemicals, health-threatening free radicals and dangerous micro particles that remain airborne for days and travel for miles. Smoke includes creosote, a black unburned fuel vapor distilled from the wood. It condenses and dries inside your chimney. If not removed, it eventually fuels a chimney fire.

Woodstoves with an EPA Phase II Certification tag on the back (only since 1991) meet high efficiency standards, are nearly smokeless, produce very little creosote, operate safely, efficiently, healthily and inexpensively. They deliver up to 75 percent seasonal efficiency while emitting 90 percent less smoke than the old “airtight.” This means you’ll need about 1/3 less wood for the same amount of heat.

Outside wood furnaces, so popular today, are notorious smokers, so noxious that they are frequently banned. Older units inefficiently burn large pieces of unseasoned wood and are typically oversized. Manufacturer efficiency claims are unreliable and deceptively optimistic. Old units are typically unhealthy choices for wood heat, don’t offer the radiant warmth of indoor stoves, are more expensive to buy, install and operate than other options, and don’t work during power outages. Neighbors suffer the smoke.

In 2020, all new outside wood furnaces will require Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Certification labels . Certification ensures that new units comply with new stringent federal emission requirements making these furnaces much more efficient and much less offensive. Local regulations will still apply.

The traditional fireplace offers most of the same problems as above, but has the verified disadvantage of sucking more heat OUT of your house than it puts in! Fireplaces appear to smoke less simply because they dilute the smoke with huge volumes of warmed air from your house. Only a certified fireplace insert or new certified fireplace can rescue that outdated old hearth.

Extremely efficient woodstoves do exist. I love my certified airtight glass-fronted cordwood stove. Pellet stoves burn 24 hours on one load of sawdust pellets (no certification required). Masonry stoves (massive stone woodstoves) stay warm most of the day. Each has advantages but regardless of appliance type, the wood itself is critical. You stop burning fossil fuel.

Regardless of species, dry wood generates about 8,500 BTUs per pound. Green wood often has 100% moisture content (or more), meaning the weight of the water in the log equals 100% of the weight of the dry wood.

Water weighs 8.5 pounds per gallon. Burning a typical 17 pound green log is actually an attempt to burn 8.5 pounds of wood AND a gallon of water! No wonder it just smolders!

Water keeps the fire too cool to burn all the gasses so it smokes, wasting wood and polluting the air. Seasoned wood (dried to < 20% moisture) starts easy, burns hot and smokes less.

So, to fully enjoy the cost saving beauty, safety and warmth of healthy efficient wood heat, look for EPA Phase II certification, install the stove properly, dry firewood thoroughly (it should lose at least 35% of its green weight), burn the stove at the recommended temperatures (use a woodstove thermometer), and snuggle with someone you love. When done right, heating with wood is a good thing.

To learn more about wood heat, visit www.woodheat.org/wood smoke

Steve Waller’s family lives in a wind & solar powered home. He has been involved with conservation and energy issues since the 1970’s and frequently teaches about energy. He and a partner own a U.P. wind/solar business called Lean Clean Energy. He can be reached at Steve@UPWallers.net.

Reprinted with permission from the Winter 2007 – 2008 issue of Health & Happiness U.P. Magazine. All rights reserved