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Buy an air filter with an AQI meter. Not only will you never use your wood stove again, you may end up cutting down on your pancake Saturdays.

stephen_g 3y ago
I still feel like there must be a difference in particulate matter from things like combustion products (which we know are very bad) and those from cooking - as long as nothing is getting hot enough to char and smoke… Still a good idea to have a good exhaust fan in your range hood (and pick induction over gas if possible) but still…
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- kibwen 3y ago
  > and those from cooking I presume the parent commenter is referring to cooking using a gas stovetop, rather than to any particulate emitted by the food itself.
mrits 3y ago
A good vent hood does wonders here
nkurz 3y ago
Presuming you've actually done this test, I think it must depend on your woodstove and how it is installed. We heat almost exclusively with wood, and have a modern EPA compliant wood stove connected to a continuous stainless steel liner that runs to the top of the chimney. We got an AQI meter based on comments on like this. The AQI meter showed that there was no perceptible difference in air quality with the wood stove on versus off. Startup shows some smoke that decreases in an hour, but continuous operation shows no effect. Since we are in a cold climate, we burn essentially 24-7 for the entire winter, and thus startup effects can mostly be ignored. You are right that there was a tremendous decrease in air quality when cooking, especially anything that was fried. So I agree that you might cut down on pancakes, but my evidence does not back your assertion you will "never use a woodstove again". To the contrary, using the meter tremendously reduced my worries about indoor air quality due to using the woodstove. Did you actually do this test and find different results? What sort of system were you testing?
- newsclues 3y ago
  Yeah, comparing an old out of date stove/fireplace from peoples memory to modern high efficiency models seems rather disingenuous on the part of commenters.
- jwr 3y ago
  Does the smoke magically disappear once it exists your chimney? Because your neighbors might get AQI results that aren't that great — or yours might deteriorate, too, if everybody around you starts heating with wood. It's just not a good idea, period.
  - chongli 3y ago
    A modern wood stove doesn't emit much smoke at all. It recirculates smoke through the combustion chamber (and/or through a catalyst) which causes secondary combustion. This greatly increases the energy efficiency of the stove and gives you a much cleaner burn. Not only are you not polluting your house with wood smoke particles but you aren't polluting your neighbours either!
    - Applejinx 3y ago
      This. Mine has the recirculation thing with extra air channels and a big ol' soapstone wall interposed between the combustion chamber and the exhaust, and you can't just start it up full of wood, you have to fire it properly at which point it's hot enough to burn its own smoke, which you can see happening. And then once it's going, engage the catalyst, which also burns the smoke more, until there's basically nothing left. No more 'nice cozy smell of neighborhood wood fires', but on every other possible metric, way way better.
      - gvurrdon 3y ago
        May I ask what brand of stove you are using?
        nkurz 3y ago
kevinmchugh 3y ago
Losing hot breakfast on the weekend is a very strong argument against monitoring my air quality

stephen_g 3y ago

I still feel like there must be a difference in particulate matter from things like combustion products (which we know are very bad) and those from cooking - as long as nothing is getting hot enough to char and smoke… Still a good idea to have a good exhaust fan in your range hood (and pick induction over gas if possible) but still…

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
kibwen 3y ago
> and those from cooking I presume the parent commenter is referring to cooking using a gas stovetop, rather than to any particulate emitted by the food itself.

mrits 3y ago

A good vent hood does wonders here

nkurz 3y ago

Presuming you've actually done this test, I think it must depend on your woodstove and how it is installed. We heat almost exclusively with wood, and have a modern EPA compliant wood stove connected to a continuous stainless steel liner that runs to the top of the chimney. We got an AQI meter based on comments on like this. The AQI meter showed that there was no perceptible difference in air quality with the wood stove on versus off. Startup shows some smoke that decreases in an hour, but continuous operation shows no effect. Since we are in a cold climate, we burn essentially 24-7 for the entire winter, and thus startup effects can mostly be ignored. You are right that there was a tremendous decrease in air quality when cooking, especially anything that was fried. So I agree that you might cut down on pancakes, but my evidence does not back your assertion you will "never use a woodstove again". To the contrary, using the meter tremendously reduced my worries about indoor air quality due to using the woodstove. Did you actually do this test and find different results? What sort of system were you testing?

newsclues 3y ago
Yeah, comparing an old out of date stove/fireplace from peoples memory to modern high efficiency models seems rather disingenuous on the part of commenters.
jwr 3y ago
Does the smoke magically disappear once it exists your chimney? Because your neighbors might get AQI results that aren't that great — or yours might deteriorate, too, if everybody around you starts heating with wood. It's just not a good idea, period.
- chongli 3y ago
  A modern wood stove doesn't emit much smoke at all. It recirculates smoke through the combustion chamber (and/or through a catalyst) which causes secondary combustion. This greatly increases the energy efficiency of the stove and gives you a much cleaner burn. Not only are you not polluting your house with wood smoke particles but you aren't polluting your neighbours either!
  - Applejinx 3y ago
    This. Mine has the recirculation thing with extra air channels and a big ol' soapstone wall interposed between the combustion chamber and the exhaust, and you can't just start it up full of wood, you have to fire it properly at which point it's hot enough to burn its own smoke, which you can see happening. And then once it's going, engage the catalyst, which also burns the smoke more, until there's basically nothing left. No more 'nice cozy smell of neighborhood wood fires', but on every other possible metric, way way better.
    - gvurrdon 3y ago
      May I ask what brand of stove you are using?
      - nkurz 3y ago

kevinmchugh 3y ago

Losing hot breakfast on the weekend is a very strong argument against monitoring my air quality