Banning wood stoves in new home construction

reply to post by FRIGHTENER


yep hickory is my fave wood to smoke food with and when i have apple always use that too- makes some tasty fish and jerky and whatever else you decide to smoke in it.
anyway back on topic- here in the poconos(pa) some people have those outdoor heating stoves. don't know much about them but from what i understand you load them up with logs up to 4' long and they will burn for days before you have to feed them again and the heat is fed thru ducts and keeps your place toasty warm. they are expensive tho i know that much

I LIVE IN CALIFORNIA AND I HAVE ALREADY GONE THROUGH 2 AND A HALF CORDS SINCE NOVEMBER AND JUST ORDERED MY LAST ONE FOR THE YEAR!!!!!

SURE WE HAVE SPARE THE AIR NIGHTS BUT WHERE I LIVE IN SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO ITS ALWAYS WINDY SO THE SMOKE DISAPPATES QUICKLY!!!!

I LIVE IN CALIFORNIA AND I HAVE ALREADY GONE THROUGH 2 AND A HALF CORDS SINCE NOVEMBER AND JUST ORDERED MY LAST ONE FOR THE YEAR!!!!!

SURE WE HAVE SPARE THE AIR NIGHTS BUT WHERE I LIVE IN SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO ITS ALWAYS WINDY SO THE SMOKE DISAPPATES QUICKLY!!!!

reply to post by bigfoot1212

You're alright, ya know that bigfoot? Star!

Glad you mentioned those Outdoor Wood Furnaces, because they just got banned in a city near where I live. . .

The news caught my eye, since I intend to heat my home with wood forever! Those outdoor ones are expensive, but a great investment. Happy I'm located out more rural, not within city limits.

That smoked fish sounds delicious; Salmon? Walleye? Nothing like a smoked dinner! I was pondering ways of installing an indoor smoker, just for the Halibut!

How about a "cook stove"?
My county limits wood stove permits, that is, unless you cook on it.
Cook stoves don't fall under the same category, sure, it's a loophole, but as long as you scramble an egg every now and then..

reply to post by spacedoubt

How tastily clever of you, spacedoubt, Star!

Wouldn't have it any other way! My current indoor woodburner is a Vogelzang Boxwood Stove Model BX42E. . .with the dual "sewer caps" built-in on top for cooking!

My favorite dish to serve (and impress) with, is chicken fajitas! Ohhh, those sizzling, mouth-watering slices of tender chicken, and green peppers with sweet Vadalia onions.... sorry, got carried away!

Affordable, available, and easy to install with simple 6-inch stove piping, and double-wall sections for through-the-wall codes. As long as one remembers to place each pipe section 'male' side up, as they're linked one on top of another, due to that nasty drip, drip, drip of creosote fluid!





[edit on 2/13/2009 by FRIGHTENER]

reply to post by FRIGHTENER


Very nice!
That's a great little stove. and dual purpose too.
Some of the best meals of my youth came off of a wood burning cookstove.
My grandmother was a magician on hers. Fried potatoes and onions, Bean and ham hock soup, with venison steaks..mmmm mmm good.
She had a pot belly coal stove too, but you couldn't get near that thing once the coal got going.

BTW, my dad has one of those outdoor woodburners. Looks like a little shed.
He pipes heated water into the house and warms up the whole place. He's got oil for backup, but rarely has to use it.

reply to post by spacedoubt

Hey thanks spacedoubt!

Wow, your grandma sounds like mine! They musta been of similar age, and capable of feeding a small army with a woodburning stove, some veggies, a cut of meat, and a box of Bisquick!

Dad sounds like the man, with that outdoor model, they're relatively new. I'd bet his is set up with the fancy under-ground stainless radiator.

Those shed-like outer shells are plastic, I believe; I wonder how it is, they don't melt off at peak operating temp??





[edit on 2/13/2009 by FRIGHTENER]

reply to post by FRIGHTENER


thanks dude- salmon is my fave to have smoked, walleye is good when i can get some but they are too tasty to begin with to smoke. just did some bluefish about 5 months ago- not bad- only way they are edible to me. catfish and pickerel are good too. making deer jerky this coming week!!! woohoo! if you want an indoor smoker not sure how you would make one but must EXTEMELY airtight. my one friend made a smoker out of an old refrigerator and it works good but definitely not indoor safe lol
i live in a nice typical suburban neighborhood and the first time years ago when i fired up the smoker the fd was there in 5 minutes because someone thought my house was on fire lmao when my neighbors found out i was just make deer jerky they started drooling and now any time i make something they start begging. my smoker is charcoal so i use it as a cooker too. not a turkey fan but last year smoked onefor thanksgiving and it was awesome!!!! give that a try sometime- you'll be pleasantly surprised- i'll tell you how to do it if you are interested-weshould start a cooking with smoke thread now lmfao

Originally posted by mpriebe81

Originally posted by svenglezz
And you are correct on the efficiency on wood burning appliances today.
Not to mention the "pellets" they are even sold as a green-alternative.

Yeah my mother and stepfather back home burn the pellets, it is practically smokeless and gets their big 2 story house cooking!

Wood would be basically smokeless as well if its good and dry. Folk should buy their wood a year in advance. The last few years I have had to burn wood toward the end of the season that is only about half as dry as it should be and it smokes and stinks. Stinks becouse its locust but man does it burn good.

Some wood types really should set for at least two summers. About 18 months.

reply to post by Logarock


i said before as long as it is well seasoned and hot enough there is very little smoke- after all where does the smoke come from? the SAP
and i cut down 2 locust trees in my yard and omg do they burn nice and hot and long. agre with the smell tho. just be sure to cut them unseasoned or you will kill your chain and bar, and split them wet too. when seasoned they are almost as hard as steel- learned my lesson the hard way on that

reply to post by bigfoot1212


Man I let some of that set for about 6 months split and then split a few pieces down smaller and it was still fairly wet the stuff is so dense. Also burn some yellow locust its not as dense but it gets rock hard when it dries as well. My wife seems to be allergic to the smoke from this wood as it makes her break out so I may have to stop using it. Just a little smoke escapes sometimes when the door is open. Naturally if it were fully dry this might not be a problem.

reply to post by Logarock


locust is one of the hardest woods i have come across. mine were honey and black. they beat me up big time- i even borrowed a log splitter from a friend and it had trouble. i was cutting 1/2 seasoned locust and there was literally sparks flying. heard ironwood is even harder but never ran across that and really hope i never do even tho i heard it is one of the best woods to burn

I have to agree that this doesn't make any sense.. The problem is air quality in extremely cold populated regions. I live in Fairbanks, Alaska and our air quality is honestly some of the worst in the world in the coldest months of winter (December and January). In mid-winter it isn't unusual for our air quality to be orders of magnitude over the limit the EPA deams safe and healthy.

uafsunstar.com...

Coal, wood fires damage Fairbanks air quality

In early winter 2008, Fairbanks has had some of the worst air quality ever recorded, according to Jim Conner, an air quality specialist for the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

"We exceeded (federal air quality) standards in October this year for the first time," Conner said. "It looks like we'll have twice as many exceedances this year, about 50 (days)."

The bad air -- caused by tiny floating particles from burned fuels -- will lead to the Environmental Protection Agency in December to declare the borough as "out of attainment" of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.

This means that Alaskans will have three years to come up with a plan on how to solve Fairbanks' air problems, or the federal government will draw up a plan for Fairbanks.

Health officials are most concerned with pollutants in air smaller than 2.5 micrograms -- about the size of bacteria or 1/50th the width of a human hair.

Those specks are small enough that they travel past your nose and trachea and deep into your lungs.

What happens here in Fairbanks is probably similar to what is going on in Montreal. You have the main city in a low-lying area partially surrounded by hills. Cold arctic temperatures up here usually involve very little to no wind. The temperatures become so cold that any moisture becomes instantaneously vaporized on contact with the cold, dry air (even boiling water). vehicle and home heating exhaust, powerplants, and the like build up fast. Eventually, an inversion layer of warm air forms over the colder air underneath and this basically locks all that exhaust and disgusting air in the low-lying areas of the city. You can go a mile out of town into the hills and it is completely fine.. You can literally see a sea of smog rolling over buildings and houses from the hills too.

This sais it all...


As far as Montreal goes..I think this is some kind of last-ditch effort to do something to improve Montreal's air quality because there is basically nothing else you can do (just like here). But people have to be warm to survive too. A family out of heating oil needs a wood stove if they are going to survive. That or live in your vehicle (and I know people who have done that). With the ever-incresaing cost of home heating oil, people often supplement the high home heating costs with wood stoves to offset the high prices.. It makes sense but it adds to the overall air quality issue.. But there really isn't a whole lot you can do either.

When you live up here in the arctic for a few years, you pretty much realize that air quality is an extremely small concern compared to temperature (LOL).. There isn't anything you can do about it anyway. Press on and get through it.. The summer months are what make it worth it anyway. The winter months can be pretty miserable..Some people just can't do it. You have to find indoor hobbies like posting on ATS!

-ChriS

i lived in anchorage(went to college there). the biggest reason for the poor air quality is there is very little available hardwood to burn- almost all is evergreen and it is so sappy that is what causes alot of smoke soot chimney fires etc. and most people buy and use bituminous coal because it is cheaper and easier to burn- anthrocite burns quite cleanly
i'm lucky since i'm back home in the poconos we have so much hardwood i never burn any kind of evergreen unless it is scrapwood from a job and only then it is for kindling
i have always thought if i could get the wood and it was cost effective i would take it out west where they only have the evergreens and sell it for over $1000 a cord lol