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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Wood burning stoves

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  • From: Marimike6@cs.com
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Wood burning stoves
  • Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 08:22:38 EST

Spencer opens the discussion with "I'm interested to read about the
efficiency of burning wood versus the pollution caused."

Wood grows by sequestering carbon from the air. Then when it is cut and
burned, the carbon is released back in the form of carbon dioxide. Therefore
in our
present context, burning wood undoes the good that growing trees perform for
our atmosphere.

However... in our society a huge quantity of trash wood goes to waste. The
form our landscape takes is increasingly being led by developers, who own the
local and state jurisdictions and who make money by transforming wooded and
scrub areas into tract subdivisions. In the American West, "More than half of
the
nation's 68 million acres of private industrial timberland has changed hands
since 1995." [from the hcn.org web site] Much of this land is being bought by
developers, who instead of managing it for sustained yield cut it down and
turn
it into top-end ranchettes for rich retiring American pigs. Once it achieves
this final form it is unlikely to ever reconvert to forest or tree farm.

The slash, scrub and tree litter produced by this process is normally
wasted-- either burned in place or landfilled, where it rots to return the
carbon to
the air in the form of methane. Municipalities also have large quantities of
tree waste from urban trash tree removal operations. So if you live in an
area
where you have access to slash or wood chips, you're doing no more harm by
using this fuel than would occur anyway. Many areas give this stuff away for
mulch, since it's expensive to store.

In fact many industrial operations now employ wood chip furnaces to drive
steam turbines. One would hope that the current push toward renewable fuel
sources would drive an industry in manufacturing wood pellets for use in home
stoves.

It won't be cheap. Wood is heavy and bulky compared to other fuels, and
transportation/distribution would have to be by truck. But although the
exhaust
fumes are toxic, and have to be vented outside the home, what smoke does get
into
your home has a pleasant aroma.

Of course if you have wood on your lot or farm, and are managing it for
yield, you're chopping down a lot of second grade trees anyway that might as
well
get burned in your stove. No fault there.

Here's a rosier picture about the implications of wood burning:

http://hearth.com/clear/clearing.htm

You can easily find all the information (and more) that your mind can contain
by googling "wood burning carbon dioxide" and "wood burning carbon monoxide".

A final caution: damping down your stove at night makes the wood burn slower
by starving it of oxygen. This creates carbon monoxide, the same way it does
when you make charcoal. Make sure your vent is drawing properly. One bird or
squirrel nest could conceivably turn your cozy winter's nap into the Big
Sleep.
I like to make certain there's a rain cap on the vent pipe-- or a squirrel
guard if you have a chimney. And that it is still in place (raccoons love
chinmeys, and knock these things over so they can sleep in the hot exhaust).

Mike Elvin




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