Home Ownership Wood stoves are economical provided you have access to an ample supply of inexpensive firewood and own a reasonably efficient stove. Making the modern stove airtight, adding draft controls and using baffles to slow the exit of the hot gases from the firebox greatly increase efficiency over old-fashioned non-airtight versions.

Unfortunately, slowing the rate of combustion has a side effect: creosote. Creosote buildup in chimneys can cause chimney fires. The increased popularity of wood has yet another outcome: air pollution.

Creosote hazards can be controlled through methodical maintenance: keeping the chimney swept; not burning green, wet wood; and routinely running the stove hot (for at least 15

minutes each day, and when adding wood) to burn off creosote deposits in the chimney.

Now there's an even better way to combat the creosote and pollutants created by slow-burning fires. Wood stoves with catalytic combustors can reduce these emissions by burning them away before they reach the chimney.

Until now, homeowners burning wood faced a two-pronged problem. Airtight wood stoves run at 370° to 425°C - too cool to burn many by-products of incomplete combustion. These by-products require temperatures exceeding 650° to ignite. But increasing the temperature for a cleaner burn (fewer byproducts) means less efficiency and losing heat up the chimney.




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December 4, 2008