Friday, February 21, 2020

Woodstoves, 2020 and the EPA

New Environmental Protection Agency rules for woodstoves took effect January 1, 2020. The new rules cut the amount of permissible smoke in half.

Dealers can sell out their old, non-compliant stock until May 15.

If you have been thinking about a woodstove or fireplace insert, there might be some screaming deals out there.

The new stoves are likely to be more expensive as many of them rely on catalytic converters to meet the more stringent goals.

Not every manufacturer found it necessary to add catalytic converters.  For instance, Drolet seems to have figured out how to inject and mix air in some clever way to negate the need for a platinum/palladium/rhodium catalyst.


7 comments:

  1. I figure when my current 1970's woodstove dies I will just weld up another one to replace it.

    Screw that catalyst shit.

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  2. Might be a good time to pick up a few, new and good used, to stick out in the barn. May have a great sale price down the road in a couple of years.--ken

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  3. For the most part the amount of smoke is proportionate to how dry the wood is and how much air you allow. If you load a stove full and try to restrict the air enough for an eight hour burn you are likely to get lots of smoke especially if the wood is damp. We bought a compliant cast iron a couple years ago to replace an older box stove in the sauna. It had no draft controls at all. You had to just build a fire and feed it. We couldn't get an eight by eight heat room above 140 in July much less at 20 below in January so we got our old stove welded and sold the new one on the local sale site. I hate to see what the new technology is like.



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  4. The person who first had the idea of 'government' should have been quietly strangled by the other members of his tribe befor his terrible secret got out. The wworld would be an infinitely better place now.

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  5. I bought a tiny morso squirrel that I converted to coal. Stupid epa won't allow them to sell it fitted for coal. It easily overheats the house when it's warmer than 30's. Not so much when it's -30. Domestic heating coal is the problem. 285 miles from my house. But, 5000lbs for 200$ lasts about 3 years. You do need a little bit of wood, to burn small amounts of coal cleanly. One trip to truss company fills my truck with wood scraps per year. Also I do have to occasionally replace the removable cast iron in the flame path. A stoked coal stove can glow red anything not protected by firebrick.

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  6. I'm with B. My 70s vintage Emerald does just fine, and the only time it smokes is when I add wood. It's not air tight and doesn't need to be. If/when it dies, if I'm still able to do firewood, I'll get my son the welder to make a new one. Probably need to find some wood stove plans to stash away before the govgoons plug that "loophole".

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  7. Anytime you get the government involved in something it turns south and accelerates...
    A solution looking for a problem...
    @ B I'm with you. But the 'do gooders' will eventually outlaw it so they can 'save the environment'

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