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How to Maintain a Woodburning Stove

A corner wood burning stove-burning stove is a reliable and effective method of heating a home. It is crucial to maintain your woodburning stove in order to ensure it is operating at its best.

Tips: Choose seasoned wood that has a low content of moisture. This will allow for more time to burn and more heat output.

State environmental agencies are wrestling with the problem of particulate air pollution from old woodburning stoves.

How They Work

Like the name suggests, wood-burning stoves burn electric wood stove to generate heat. They do this by containing the fire within a metal and glass body. This also helps to keep the temperature in your home at a consistent level. It also serves as a barrier to smoke entering the living area.

Stoves regulate combustion by regulating the amount of oxygen that they let into the fire. This is done by opening and closing one or more air vents.

Modern stoves typically use either non-catalytic or catalytic technology to manage this. Catalytic stoves feature a catalytic converter which is designed to reburn the gasses generated during primary combustion to ensure that they do not escape into the room. Non-catalytical stoves don't have a catalyser and rely on secondary combustion inside the firebox to reduce emissions.

It is recommended that you only burn seasoned wood in your woodburning stove. This means that it must have a moisture content of less than 20 and this will allow the fire to burn more efficiently. This will help reduce smoke and harmful pollutants from the flue system, and it will also make the glass inside your stove less likely to become blackened by creosote, a byproduct of burning wood which can accumulate over time.

The use of seasoned wood can lower emissions and help you save money on heating bills. It generates more heat per unit of fuel. This is because the surface area of dry wood is larger and generates more heat per unit.

However, smoke from wood can be harmful to anyone, particularly older adults and children with weakened lungs. It can also cause irritation to people with lung conditions like asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). If you live in a smoke control zone, ensure that your stove is properly seasoned. It must also be fitted with a chimney that meets the local standards.

Burning Wood

Woodburning stoves provide a clean, renewable heat that is also a great choice to keep the home warm during power cuts. They also help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which can be harmful to the environment from fossil fuels such as oil and gas.

Modern wood-burning stoves are more efficient than earlier models, and are designed to avoid the build-up of creosote. However it is essential to keep an eye on the combustion. Creosote is a dangerous by-product of incomplete combustion. It can block the chimney if left to accumulate, leading to less efficiency and creating a fire risk. Using seasoned logs will reduce the amount of creosote in your chimney and help you save money on logs. It can also help you avoid having to hire an expert to clean your chimney.

You can also select stoves that use coal and wood which gives you a choice between carbon-neutral sources of energy. It is crucial to remember that coal is not a sustainable fuel and there are concerns about how it is extracted.

It is recommended to choose an Defra approved stove and ideally one that is Ecodesign ready, since they will be in compliance with the most current emission regulations. The UK building regulations have specific rules for how the flue is installed as well as the size of the hearth and the distance the stove can be from combustible substances It is therefore advisable to talk to one of our stove experts before buying a stove.

Paper and other combustibles such as rubbish and paper should not be put in wood-burning appliances. They can contribute to pollution and, at worst, a chimney fire. At most, they can make them less efficient. Other combustibles are lighter than firewood, and thus produce less heat and produce more particles.

It is also essential to use only dry, seasoned, split, and dried firewood as it will burn more efficiently. If you use damp or wet wood, it can produce plenty of smoke and also create more pollutants. It is also recommended to make use of a high-quality stove pipe to make sure that the flue temperature is high enough and that it is installed correctly.

Emissions

Woodburning stoves release a range of gases and particles. Mostly they produce fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that is tiny enough to enter the lungs and penetrate into the bloodstream, which could harm the liver, heart and brain. However they also produce carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and carcinogenic compounds like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, also known as PAHs. Some even release harmful metals such as arsenic and mercury, depending on the type of fuel they're burning.

In the US, there have been numerous attempts to regulate how much pollution woodburning stoves generate, with varying degrees of success. In 1988, the Environmental Protection Agency established emission guidelines that regulated the amount of pollution new stoves were permitted to release. Since the time, there have been two changes to the regulations. The most recent revision in 2015 stipulates that all units catalytic or non-catalytic release less than 4 grams of pollutants each hour.

While these strict regulations caused a major change in the industry, leading to hundreds of smaller companies to close their doors They also sparked the creation of well-designed and efficient stoves that were both durable and able to produce lower emission levels than traditional models. To improve their products, stove designers studied and analyzed combustion flow baffles, combustion chamber shapes. They also analyzed the insulation of materials and the recirculation systems. Over time, they succeeded.

The emission levels are mostly influenced by the moisture content of the wood that's burned. The more moisture content, the more pollutants a stove will produce. Therefore, the best method to reduce emissions is to use seasoned firewood that has been properly dried for 6-8 months.

According to numerous studies which compare the impact of exhaust-related particles only wood-burning stoves can produce as much particle contamination as 15 diesel vehicles. These tests were not scientific. However these studies fail to take into consideration that approximately half of the car's particle pollution originates from the brakes, engine, and tyres rather than its exhaust.

Ten blue states have been pressing on the EPA to review its carbon emissions and guidelines for air quality for wood-burning stoves. Attorneys general from New York, Washington and Illinois have announced that they will sue EPA in the event that it continues to allow high emitting wood-burning stoves to to be sold in homes across the country.

Maintenance

Wood burning stoves are efficient in heating homes, but can be a challenge to maintain. A stove needs to be regularly cleaned to keep it looking and functioning correctly. A dirty stove can be detrimental to the health of the occupants as well as how much heat it produces. Cleaning the stove isn't the only maintenance task that must be completed to ensure it is working well.

It is simple to clean the interior and exterior of a stove. Cleaning a stove is recommended every week or every two weeks depending on how frequently it is used. It is also recommended to empty the ash from the fire box each time after the stove has been used. Spread newspaper on the floor and wear gloves when taking the ashes out. Use a container made of metal instead of a bucket to avoid rusting.

Keeping the flue and chimney clean is also essential. A chimney sweep professional should be hired every year or once to clean the stove and chimney thoroughly. This will help to keep creosote off the chimney and decrease the chance of fires in chimneys.

Additionally, chimneys should be inspected for cracks in the flue liner and the masonry and creosote deposits that are excessive as well as bird nests and other debris. A professional chimney sweep will be able to repair these problems and restore a safe, functional chimney.

Finally, the clear glass on a wood burning stove can become smudged and cloudy with soot build up over time. Spray an ammonia-based mixture and water onto the glass and wipe it clean with a clean cloth. Be careful not to scratch the glass, since this can cause it to weaken and shatter when it's hot.

Paint that is heat resistant can be used to re-paint a woodburning fireplace if the paint begins to chip. The paints can be bought at the majority of retailers for wood stoves and are available in a wide range of colors.