Heating wood-burning stove

If a person has the choice of installing oil, gas, or electric systems to heat a house and believes that any one of the three would perform equally well, the system that is cheapest is the efficient choice. If, however, the individual compares heating with an oil furnace to heating with a wood-burning stove, monetary cost may not be the only consideration. 

Honickey RE, Osborne JS, Akpom CA. 1985. Symptoms of respiratory illness in young children and the use of wood-burning stoves for indoor heating. Pediatrics 75(3) 587-593. 

Burning wood can be a very efficient source of energy in the home, but much depends on how the wood is being burned. Open fireplaces, while very cosy on a winter s night, allow most of the heat to vanish up the chimney. A step up is a wood burning stove. Fueled by either logs, wood shavings, sawdust, or corn or wood pellets, it requires a third of the fuel of an open fireplace and Is up to 70 percent more efficient. 

In addition to wood burning stoves, a range of wood-fueled boilers are also now available tbat are as efficient as modern furnaces—converting over 90 percent of tbe fuel into heat. Compared to a conventional furnace, it does take effort to keep wood burners fed, and log stoves need to be refueled every day, but wood chip or corn or wood pellet stoves can be automated to control temperature settings and only need refilling every few days. 

Biomass heating. If the biomass heating system is based upon a wood-burning stove, then the property must have a chimney or flue system or the facility to install a chimney. I see lots of stainless steel chimneys being installed to provide a flue for a wood burner. A wood burner is a desirable feature in many homes these days, even very modern homes. The stove provides a focal point... 

Pellet Stove - A space heating device that burns pellets are more efficient, clean burning, and easier to operate relative to conventional cord wood burning appliances. 

Wood and coal fueled stoves and wood-burning fireplaces are frequently used for residential heating. The combustion of wood and coal is often incomplete due to slow, low-temperature burning with insufficient access to air at the burning surface. This results in formation of large amounts of PAH, which may be released directly to the atmosphere. 

Domestic biomass heating can today be found in the increasing popularity of wood stoves. A wide variety of wood-burning appliances are used by households, particularly in rural areas of countries with traditional forest cultures such as Canada, Austria, Finland and Sweden. Since wood fuel was classified as a carbon-neutral fuel under the Kyoto Protocol, most countries that require winter space heating have begun to look again at wood. 

It is estimated that 50% of the world s households use biomass fuel (most commonly wood) for indoor cooking purposes. 32 Though these households are found predominantly in developing nations, firewood smoke is not limited to them. Wood is used extensively in fireplaces and stoves for heating and for aesthetic purposes in the households of developed nations. When burned, wood emits particulates and VOCs that have respiratory toxicity. Wood smoke has been shown to be associated with the development of obstructive airways disease, 32 an(] alone or in combination with other indoor air pollutants it can contribute to SBS. 

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