Using wood heat is really a mixed bag from an environmental point of view. Burning wood in a regular fireplace or wood stove (a new, EPA-compliant wood stove) will generate more polluting of the environment per Btu than other fuels employed for heating. Wood is especially bad in relation to particulates, unburned hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, and deadly carbon monoxide. For this reason conventional wood burning is banned in some regions or during polluting of the environment alerts. Burning wood also releases CO2.
On the contrary, wood is really a alternative energy source. So long as wood is grown and harvested sustainably, it may be a stylish fuel source. Although burning the wood releases CO2, growing the trees sequestersmore co2 than is released during burning, so heating with wood-fromsustainable fuel-wood sources-can be looked at carbon-neutral. For cleanest burning, wood should be dry to lose hot. Hardwoods have significantly higher Btu content and fewer resins than softwoods, resulting in cleaner combustion.
The end result is that in areas vulnerable to atmospheric conditions that trap polluting of the environment in valleys (inversion conditions), burning wood isn't the ideal choice for warming. But in rural places that relatively clean-burning hardwoods can be found, burning properly seasoned wood could be okay. It could even be better than cleaner-burning natural gas along with other non-renewable fuels.
To reduce pollution from wood burning, an extremely efficient wood stove, pellet stove, or masonry heater should be used. Probably the most efficient, least polluting wood stoves have catalytic combustors that use special catalysts (often containing platinum) to lose up most of the unburned hydrocarbons that would certainly increase the chimney. Some of the new non-catalytic wood stoves also burn fairly cleanly.
Pellet stoves and masonry heaters generally burn even more cleanly. Pellet stoves have electric blowers that supply extra air, resulting inmore complete, and therefore cleaner, combustion. The drawbacks to pellet stoves are that specially made fuel pellets usually made from compressed sawdust can be used, plus they aren't effective throughout a power outage.
Masonry heaters depend on natural airflow, however they burn in a much higher combustion temperature than conventional fireplaces or wood stoves. Masonry heaters are operated because they build a little wood fire that burns at temperatures of 1,500°F or more, while metal wood stoves and wood furnaces can't be safely operated at temperatures over 800 or 900°F.
Some gasses from firewood don't burn until temperatures up to 1,100°F are reached, so a hot-burning masonry heater achieves significantly higher combustion efficiency than the usual wood stove or wood furnace; efficiencies up to 94% are possible, in contrast to more like 70% in a great wood stove. Because of the very complete combustion, little creosote is produced (when compared with a wood stove) to clog the chimney, and pollution emissions are much lower.
The flue gasses out of this intense fire flow through channels included in the masonry heater, transferring heat towards the masonry. The big quantity of masonry mass gets hotter and slowly radiates heat to the room. In an extremely well-insulated, tight house, the masonry heater generally has only to become fired once or twice daily. When the house has passive solar heating, the masonry heater may be needed on cloudy days.
The main drawback is cost; most well-designed masonry heaters cost over $5,000. Also, in contrast to a wood stove, a brand new fire is usually built each time the heater can be used, which some homeowners will discover inconvenient. Most masonry heaters are ordered as kits that an experienced mason assembles in your home.
Wood energy may also be used for water heating. Even though plumbing can get complicated, a wood stove fitted having a heat exchanger can offer a great complement to solar water heating in a passive solar home.
When there is not enough sunshine to maintain the home warm, for example in the deep of winter or during long cloudy spells in the spring or fall, the wood stove is required for heat, and that is also when solar power might be inadequate for water heating. Throughout the warmer months whenever you wouldn't wish to attempt a wood stove, the solar hot water heater usually supplies most of the warm water needed.
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