Wood Burning Tips

You just do not get much better than cuddling up in front of a crackling fire with your loved ones on a cold winter’s eve. Especially if you can also be certain that you’re helping to protect the neighborhood air from excessive wood smoke. But how, you may ask. Simply burn wood responsibly.

What does that mean?

It’s all about minimizing the emissions from your fire.  Here are some wood burning tips for better air quality. Develop good habits like:

1. building small hot fires using seasoned wood or manufactured logs
2. using low emission wood burning hearth products.

Wood burning fireplace inserts and stoves which are certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and new state-of-the-art clean burning fireplaces help to reduce smoke by more than 85 percent. Basically, if you care about the quality of the air you, your family and your neighbors are breathing and want to protect your right to burn wood in the future, you will want to heed these tips.

The following chart illustrates the amount of emissions produced by various types of wood burning hearth products.

Unfortunately, the majority of wood fires burned today are in units installed before 1988, making them inefficient and unnecessarily dirty. Today’s technology can create a cleaner burn by reducing the smoke produced.  In many cases, smoke is less than 6 grams of emissions per hour! EPA-certified products need to emit no more than 7.5 grams of particulates per hour.  Also, manufactured firelogs and wood pellets help to reduce smoke.

How does this technology reduce smoke?

Traditional fireplaces and old wood stoves and inserts smoke excessively because they do not burn with complete combustion.  Smoke is essentially unburned fuel.  In order for wood to burn completely, the right environment must exist. This includes the proper mix of fuel, oxygen and heat.  New hearth products now include technology that creates an optimum environment and essentially burns the smoke away. An example of this technology is the two types of EPA-certified wood stoves and fireplace inserts -- Catalytic and Non-Catalytic.  Catalytic wood stoves and fireplace inserts have ceramic honeycombed chambers coated with a metal catalyst (usually platinum or palladium) that works to increase the rate of combustion.  The catalytic combustor burns away gases and particulates normally emitted into the air. Catalytic wood stoves allow a lower temperature burn for longer periods.  With Non-Catalytic wood stoves, combustion occurs in the firebox. These stoves are generally less expensive than catalytic stoves and require less maintenance.

What can you do?

1. Use low emission hearth products such as
   • EPA-certified wood stoves and fireplace inserts - all such products sold in the US today are required to meet their standards and bear a permanent EPA label on the back.
   • Pellet stoves and fireplace inserts - these units burn pellets made from recycled sawdust and are the lowest emission wood burners available, making them exempt from EPA-certification.
   • Masonry heaters - high performance, very clean burning and substantially sized, producing a tremendous amount of heat.  Also exempt.
   • Clean burning fireplaces - look much like traditional fireplaces but produce as little emissions as EPA-certified wood stoves and fireplace inserts. Although they do not qualify for testing, some localities do have qualification processes to recognize them as clean burning.
2. Upgrade your traditional fireplace by installing an EPA-certified insert or a pellet fireplace insert.  You may also choose to use a wax/sawdust fire log to reduce emissions by about two-thirds.
3. Change out old wood stoves or fireplace inserts - You can cut emissions substantially by replacing these appliances with the new efficient models. It is important to take these old units out of circulation completely, by recycling them at your local steel recycler.
4. Use seasoned firewood - It has about 20% moisture content and should be stacked and dried for 6 months before burning. It is easier to light and will burn more readily and efficiently. The type of seasoned firewood also impacts the fire.  Hardwoods such as oak, hickory and elm tend to produce a longer-lasting fire and reduce creosote build-up.
5. Build small hot fires - Use smaller pieces of seasoned firewood for small, hot fires.
6. Use a fire starter - Wax/sawdust firelogs are perfect for occasional use in Traditional fireplaces to cut emissions. Use sawdust only fire logs in both fireplaces and wood stoves. They will reduce smoke.