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Traditional small wood stoves are absolutely atrocious for the environment. Compared to an industrial-scale power plant, small wood fires don't burn as cleanly,
by slavik81 6y ago
Traditional small wood stoves are absolutely atrocious for the environment. Compared to an industrial-scale power plant, small wood fires don't burn as cleanly, have fewer scrubbers on their exhaust, and are much less efficient. Their only saving grace is that they're small, and thus the scale of the problem is also small, but that only holds as long as they're also rare. Even with the relatively few wood fires we have today, the effects on air quality are noticeable:
> Toronto Public Health (2002) estimated that residential wood burning accounts for 11 percent of the PM2.5 found in Ontario’s air, 0.8 percent of the total particulate matter (TPM) and 15 percent of the VOCs. (http://cleanairhamilton.ca/wood-burning/ http://cleanairhamilton.ca/wood-burning/)
- klodolph 6y agoCame here to say this. Wood is an incredibly dirty fuel. It makes coal look as clean as driven snow, by comparison.
- abstractbarista 6y agoLooks are not everything. Wood ash isn't (nearly as?) carcinogenic.
- klodolph 6y agoWood smoke is carcinogenic. Compared to cigarette smoke, wood smoke is 12x as carcinogenic. Of course, it depends on the wood.
- patall 6y agoI have wondered about this before: are there standard available solutions to clean your wood stove exhaust air in an economically sensefull way. I mean, my garden produces that much wood each year, I better use that somehow. And I cannot use all of it for growing mushroom.
- chipsa 6y agoTo clean the exhaust of an existing stove, not really. But if you replace your stove with a more efficient one, possibly. The problem with most wood stoves is incomplete combustion, which results in smoky, sooty exhaust. Rocket stoves are a solution. Also, electric blowers are a solution.