Many Canadians are turning to wood heat in the face of soaring natural gas prices to heat their homes. There is much talk about the negative health and environmental impacts of heating with wood. So what`s the answer? Whatever energy source you choose to heat your home, its use will always have an impact on the environment. The best energy sources are renewable and the best of those are solar power, wind power and geo-thermal power because their environmental impacts tend to be low. As good as they are, though, they do have their problems and limitations. Namely, they have high initial costs and most solar and geo-thermal heating systems do need to be supplemented by conventional heating methods to bump the temp up that last 5 to 10 degrees. Still, if you have $10,000 kicking around, installing a geo-thermal heating system is definitely the way to go. Burning wood for heat has been practiced ever since cave-man times and it is definitely a renewable energy source but comes with its own problems and limitations, some of which can be managed and minimized, others of which cannot. But when it is used effectively, wood is a fine fuel compared to the fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal, whose consumption leads to global warming. Heating with wood also provides a cozy, pioneer-days feel that is said to reduce stress and to be good for the soul. As with anything in life, the choice is of personal preference and can only be made if you have all the facts and consider all of the social, economical and environmental effects it will have. Let’s look at the efficiency of burning fossil fuels vs. wood. Late model furnaces burn natural gas or propane at around 85 to 97% efficiency. That’s a great output no question about it but natural gas or propane doesn’t just appear magically in your home, it is extracted from the earth, refined and trucked to you at a high cost to you and to the environment and, of course, natural gas and propane are non-renewable. When deciding how to heat your home, there are many things to consider. Not the least of which is (and we often forget that we, the consumer, wield the power in our economy) which companies do you want to support? We are always very quick to smack-talk the oil and natural-gas industries as evil, greedy bullies who have global politics by the short and curly’s but when it comes to making a choice between them and an alternative source of energy, most of us choose to support these guys by regularly giving them money, without much fight! Yes alternative energies cost more initially but the pay-off is usually seen within 5 to 10 years. And in face of soaring gas prices that pay-off period is on the shrink! Wood-burning stoves have come a long way since their invention. Your old wood stove at the cottage burns at an efficiency rate of 25 to 35%, that’s not very good. That means that that remaining 75 to 65% is released as airborne particles into the atmosphere. These smog-inducing VOCs and greenhouse gases contribute to global warming and can cause serious respiratory problems over an extended exposure and aggravate asthma cases. Today’s wood-stoves burn much cleaner at an efficiency of 60 to 75%. All EPA certified wood-stoves are at least 60% efficient, come with re-burn technology that traps the first wave of smoke and re-burns it to yield maximal heat and wood-burning efficiency and can emit no more than 7.5 grams per hour of particulate matter. Most models emit less at around 3 to 4 g/h and the efficiency of the unit depends largely on the operator and how he fuels the fire. Burning well-seasoned, dry wood of the right dimensions for your specific unit will yield maximum efficiency. To provide a comparison point for particle emissions consider this quote:"The average truck on the road today spews 22 grams of smog-forming pollution and nearly one gram of soot every mile." See: http://www.ucsusa.org/transportation/brf_bigdiesel.html That is about 60 g/h of particulate matter at highway speed. An EPA certified wood stove emits an average of 3 g/h of particulate matter per hour of operation. Justifying wood burning emissions just by saying the other guy is worse isn’t the goal here, we must put all pollution into proper perspective and reduce it all. Nevertheless the comparison is poignant. When it comes to finding wood for your wood-stove, identifying wood from a sustainable source can be difficult. Always question your vendor on his sources. Sustainable sources can include private land cultivation, firewood as a by-product of sustainable logging operations and firewood as a by-product of tree removal services. Heating your home with a high-efficiency wood-stove is definitely a great option for the eco-conscious person. If you live in a big city like Toronto, secure a reliable, local source of good-quality fire-wood before installing a wood-stove. Keep in mind that trucking fire-wood from far away to heat your home is probably not the most eco-conscious option. Try, rather, to secure wood from a local tree cutting service. If you have an old, inefficient wood-stove in your home, keep its use to a minimum especially if you live in a big city with poor airshed ventilation. For more high-quality information about wood-stoves visit www.woodheat.org. I cannot stress enough that renewable energy systems are the way of the future. Solar, wind and geothermal energy are the best environmental options, provide you with a certain independence from utility companies and are quickly becoming the more economical option for home and water heating. If you have the means to install these systems, I urge you to be a pioneer and make the investment. You’ll thank yourself in 5 to 10 years and so will future generations. |