Paul Zayer asked:


I love my wood burning stove Maybe you have noticed but many people have one these days. When the cold season arrives, it is sure nice to have a wood burning stove. I can tell you that.

When I see a wood burning stove in a store or in a magazine it brings back a lot of nice memories. I truly loved the smell and the nice heat my family’s old wood burning stove was giving us in the kitchen in the cold season.

It may seem strange in this day in high tech, but wood burning stoves are getting more popular than they have been in almost a century. Many individuals would suppose that a wood burning oven was about the least practical thing that you would put in your residence. After all, there are a lot of negative aspect to a wood burning stove. First of all, there isn’t the same kind of fine temperature control as with a gas heater. Wood burning stoves, basically, are either on or off. When they are on, you have to constantly supply them with wood. When they are off, they take hours to get going again.

Even so, the wood burning stove has a lot of advantage too. First of all, wood burning ovens are multipurpose. You can use them to heat a room but they can also be used to dry clothes, and warm cold hands. You can even bake certain things on some wood burning stoves! You also have to think of energy cost. Wood burning stoves was thought of as impractical because of the amount of work that goes into using them. Today, however, they make more and more sense. They burn wood very slowly, and in many regions fire wood is accessible at no cost. Having a wood burning stove can save you hundreds and hundreds of dollars every winter. For many families, that is no laughing matter.

But wood burning stoves do have a lot of hazards to them. Though they are not difficult to maintain, they have dangers that regular gas furnaces do not have. Wood burning stoves required in the middle of your living space. That means that if you have young children, they are at risk. If they run into the wood burning stoves, they can burn themselves! Also, a lot of persons believe that wood burning stoves have much greater emissions than other kind of heating systems. Even oil burning furnaces - infamous for the air pollution they produce - are known to be healthier for you than wood stoves. If your wood burning stove is not adequately insulated from the residence, it can liberate dangerous indoor pollution and poison you and your family.

Nevertheless, even with all of these disadvantage, wood burning stoves make sense. They enjoy a renaissance among environmentally conscious individuals. Not only are they more efficient now, but they also allow you to survive with less exterior dependence on our shrinking natural gas supply. So next time you see a wood burning stove, why not get in the store and have a closer look at it? I am pretty certain that you will enjoy the experience.



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Ariel Vanderhorst asked:


That depends on the stove you have in your mind’s eye. The old-fashioned, pot-belly stoves that appear in most Western movies didn’t do the atmosphere any favors. But today’s wood burning stoves, engineered with fuel economy in mind, are a different story.

Back in the days of cowboys and general stores, wood stoves could have been mistaken for indoor smokestacks–and that wouldn’t have been too far from the truth. But modern stoves are actually one of the “greenest” sources of radiant heat available to home owners today. Here are some of the big reasons why.

Let’s start with a little history. In the early 20th century, even the most efficient wood burning stoves left a lot to be desired and it wasn’t hard to tell. The smoky haze these stoves produced was a telltale sign that an unknowing home owner was literally giving the torch to his heating budget. Fortunately, there has been a revolution in stove design since those days.

Around 1990, there was a growing interest in alternative heating sources, caused by the rising awareness of the impact of fossil fuels (oil, coal) on the environment. In addition, the goal of energy self-sufficiency caused home owners to reevaluate wood stoves as a heating method. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) got involved, instituting demanding emissions standards to make sure that new stoves would be kind to the environment.

As new stoves were produced, engineers incorporated the EPA standards, and the “modern” wood stove came into being. Since 1990, every new wood stove is approved by the EPA, and produces a mere trickle of smoke (2-5 grams per hour) and very little ash. This amounts to a 33 percent increase in fuel efficiency over the old potbelly stoves, and a 90 percent decrease in emissions. In plain English, this means that advanced wood burning stoves burn a lot less wood and are simultaneously kinder to the planet.

At this point, a natural question would be, “Don’t wood stoves put pollutants into the atmosphere just like other heating sources–gas, oil, or coal?” The answer is nuanced. When fossil fuels are extracted from the earth and consumed, they release carbon dioxide into the environment at unhealthy levels. And after the monumental costs of extracting and producing these fuels, once they’re burned, they’re gone for good.

As a fuel source, wood is different on several counts.

Trees, like all other green plants, take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and convert it to fiber in order to grow. When trees die, and wood decomposes, this CO2 is released back into the air. But in this case, it is a natural cycle, since all trees eventually die. The same thing is true when wood is burned. Making the wood-burning cycle sustainable is the fact that wood is a renewable source of fuel.

We started this article asking the question, “Are wood stoves good for the environment?” The answer, when you compare stoves to other heating methods, is yes. Today’s stoves are fuel efficient: they produce more heat with less wood, keeping emissions to a minimum by meeting strict EPA standards. Best of all, perhaps, they don’t deprive the earth of non-renewable fossil fuels.

So, call to mind that rusty, black iron stove you saw in a Western movie, a vacation lodge, or at your grandparents. Then prepare yourself for an updated picture as you explore the world of modern wood stoves. Environmentally speaking, today’s stoves are very green.



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