Are you considering adding a wood burning stove to your home?
A wood burning stove can be a beautiful asset and a great way to heat your home, but is it eco-friendly?
In the modern world there is more discussion than ever before regarding sustainable living choices. A large part of that discussion focuses on our energy choices and how we heat our homes.
We’ll dive into the details to help you make a better choice.
Table of Contents
Is a Wood Burning Stove Eco-Friendly?
What is a wood burning stove?
A wood burning stove is a heat-producing appliance that utilizes wood or wood-derived fuel. They have a solid metal firebox that contains several air controls, and the air controls are usually pipes that allow smoke to escape. The firebox may also have a glass window where you can enjoy watching the dancing flames.
If you’re looking for a way to heat your home, wood burning stoves are very efficient. They are efficient at burning firewood to produce heat due to several efficiency-enhancing designs, such as baffle plates and controllable air vents. The average efficiency rating of a wood stove can be between 60% and 80% but can be higher or lower depending on the model of the stove.
Are wood burning stoves bad for the environment?
Whether a wood burning stove is eco-friendly or not depends on which stove you choose to buy.
Unfortunately, there is not a clear-cut answer to whether wood-burning stoves are bad for the environment or not. However, how you use the wood burning stove will impact how good or bad it is for the environment.
Wood burning stoves can be a low-carbon alternative to heating your home because they don’t require burning fossil fuels as typical gas and electricity alternatives do. Trees absorb carbon dioxide in the air as they grow, and they then take carbon out of the system. This means that when we burn them in a stove, the carbon is returned to the atmosphere. Therefore, the carbon emissions are balanced between what is absorbed initially by the tree and later released by the stove. Furthermore, wood stoves can be carbon neutral in the best-case scenario.
However, wood fires produce vast quantities of particulate matter, tiny fragments of soot. This contributes to climate change and cause breathing problems if a person is exposed to the smoke, in a confined space over a long period of time.
How to use wood burning stoves sustainably?
It is not always true that wood burning stoves are eco-friendly, even if you have chosen to buy an efficient and modern stove. How you use the appliance will determine how sustainable it is. Here are some ways you can make the appliance eco-friendlier:
Buy a new model
Let’s face it, older wood burning stoves aren’t as efficient and are bad for the environment.
We understand that arguments can be made to reuse older stoves (to cut down on further production) but we would recommend that instead you invest in a new, more modern stove. Due to new regulations, new stoves are designed to ensure that harmful gases and particulates are emitted.
Old stoves can also be repurposed in all manner of creative ways.
Use dry wood
One of the easiest ways to make your wood burning stove more sustainable is to use dry wood. The less moisture in the wood, the more complete the combustion, meaning less carbon monoxide and less particulate emissions.
If you choose to burn wood from your garden, you need to be patient as it can take as long as two years for wood to air-dry naturally. Or you can buy moisture content testers which are easy to use and extremely useful for those who season (dry-out) their own logs.
Keep it clean
Keeping your wood burning stove clean is essential if you want to keep it as sustainable and eco-friendly as possible.
This is because the more ash and soot there is in your stove, the less oxygen it will have and therefore more harmful emissions will be released. You also should ensure that you get your flue swept regularly. If your chimney is clogged, smoke won’t be able to escape and will therefore come back down the flue when your fire is unlit.
Keep it hot
Keeping the fire very hot from the very start will help make your wood burning stove more sustainable. Without adequate airflow, the fire won’t start quickly so make sure you keep the air vents and door open when you’re getting the fire started.
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So, are wood burning stoves really eco-friendly and sustainable?
Well as we’ve discovered, there is no clear-cut answer to that question. Wood burning stoves can definitely be sustainable and a great way to keep our homes warm and cozy. However, we need to ensure that we’re buying a new, well regulated stove and using it correctly.
By using a sustainable energy source (wood) and a well regulated, clean stove, you can keep your wood burning stove as eco-friendly as possible.
We hope this helps! For everything else home heating, stick with CosyWarmer.com