I hate Fireplaces and Woodstoves.

[Leyawiin]

Here's a touchy subject considering its winter, but I really hate wood smoke. I live in one of those winter inversion layer places in the Western US and its been compounded for the last couple of years by a drought. High pressure sitting over the area for weeks = nasty air quality. My neighbors don't really care and run older wood stoves 24/7 and it smells like a campfire in my house almost all the time. I've weatherstripped as much as I can to keep it out, but it still finds a way in. Plus you need a little fresh air in a house on a regular basis, and its pretty hard to get when it smells like a forest fire is going on outside most of the time. I've read that wood smoke is just as hazardous as any other kind and once the fine particulate get lodged in your lungs they're in there for good.

Basically, I wished I'd saved for a few more years and bought a place out of town with a little more space around me. Now I'm just waiting for the "personal freedoms" types to come around and call me a big baby and to suck it up. That's O.K., I'll just sit here coughing up phlegm and sneezing while I read.

 

[IronWing]

Our neighbors burn anything that will fit in the stove. Jackasses.

 

[NetWareHead]

I'm not buying fuel oil at $3.91 a gallon when I have wood and coal to burn instead.

 

[Fritzo]

Aww, cmon. There's nothing like the smell of seasoned fruitwood in a fireplace.

If they're burning pine or some crap, yeah, I can see that. We have a gas fireplace that we have on at every waking hour. It's pretty efficient and keeps our furnace from running by keeping the area with the thermostat warm

 

[lxskllr]

I like the way smoke smells. My neighbors have an outdoor stove(yay suburbia! :^D ), and the smoke was coming in my window this summer. I enjoyed it.

 

[Number1]

I love my 2 wood stoves and right now they are both going full blast 24/7.
They are cheap to operate and I can keep the house as hot as I want. Right now, it's -12 outside and 23 indoor. Love it.

So suck it up baby and try not to choke on your phlegm.

 

[IronWing]

I see the self-absorbed polluters are out in force. Screw the neighbors, I got mine.

 

[TheSiege]

Pellet stove FTW

 

[Leyawiin]

Never used to think about it. I grew up in the Sierra Nevada on the side of a mountain and we always burned wood in a wood stove (and it was the stinky oak and pine). Its just we were the only house for a quarter mile and in a thinly populated mountain valley it dispersed. In town with 60x100 lots and every fourth one burning wood it gets a little out of hand. Can't do it right now, but in four or five years I'm selling this place heading back for the hills!

 

[NetWareHead]

I see the self-absorbed polluters are out in force. Screw the neighbors, I got mine.

I'll burn fuel oil instead if you buy it for me. Deal?

 

[Newbian]

Sucks to be you but wood smoke smells a lot better then most other stuff plus it's something you can't really run out of.

I suggest you grow a pair and breath it in to make you stronger.

 

[Imp]

Good luck on the lung cancer thing...

One more reason for me to stick to renting for the mobility.

 

[Leyawiin]

Good luck on the lung cancer thing...

One more reason for me to stick to renting for the mobility.

Yeah, I bought in the summer and didn't even think about it (last home was a apartment two blocks from the ocean so it wasn't an issue there).

 

[unokitty]

Here's a touchy subject ...

A few facts

In most areas of the country, woodburning from fireplaces and woodstoves is the largest source of particulate matter air pollution (PM) generated by residential sources. In some localities, fireplaces and woodstoves have been identified as the source of 80% or more of all ambient particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5) during the winter months (Source: American Lung Association)

Breathing air containing wood smoke can: Irritate eyes, lungs, throat and sinuses; Reduce lung function, especially in young children; Increase severity of existing lung diseases such as asthma, emphysema, pneumonia and bronchitis; Increase risks of heart attacks; Trigger headaches and allergies.

A few states already have wood burning regulations. See the epa page.

Its only a matter of time before we see more enforcement of epa regulations regarding this...

Best of luck,
Uno

 

[Leyawiin]

Surprisingly California doesn't. Individual cities can enact burning regulations, but nothing statewide. Given how they go off the deep end on automobile emissions I can't believe they haven't jumped on this issue.

 

[Imp]

Surprisingly California doesn't. Individual cities can enact burning regulations, but nothing statewide. Given how they go off the deep end on automobile emissions I can't believe they haven't jumped on this issue.

Not really. Automobiles and the petroleum industry are bad bad corporations. Wood is relatively renewable and "green". They're not going to declare war on "green" wood and the good old, pre-petroleum days...

 

[brianmanahan]

i get all my wood for free, so hey, im not gonna pass up free heating! ^_^

 

[Red Squirrel]

I hate the fact that wood stoves and wood fireplaces don't have an outside air intake. They should be a closed system just like a high efficiency furnace and also have more heat exchanger area so that more of the heat is used. When you use a wood fireplace you may be warming the room it's in but you are sucking 90% of that heat outside including existing indoor heat and pulling cold air in while doing it. You can negate that effect by lowering the dampers but it's still doing it.

I love the smell of wood smoke though. Nothing like smelling that on a cold winter day. Though, not a lot of people burn wood in my area (probably for the reason above).

 

[tortillasoup]

they have wood firestoves that use outside air for the reason you listed. Fireplaces are useless.

 

[NetWareHead]

I hate the fact that wood stoves and wood fireplaces don't have an outside air intake. They should be a closed system just like a high efficiency furnace and also have more heat exchanger area so that more of the heat is used. When you use a wood fireplace you may be warming the room it's in but you are sucking 90% of that heat outside including existing indoor heat and pulling cold air in while doing it. You can negate that effect by lowering the dampers but it's still doing it.

Anyone serious about heating with wood won't ever ever ever use a fireplace. They do make coal/wood stoves that draw combustion air from outdoors as to not create a draft of cold air inside the house. The terminology is different among each vendor. Some vendors call them "direct-vent"

If you lower the dampers, you starve the fire of oxygen. Sure the burn rate slows and fuel use is extended but at the cost of producing creosote in the flue, carbon monoxide and smoke/smoldering. Production of these represents less than ideal burn conditions and amounts to a waste of fuel. Ideally for efficiency reasons, a wood fire should be burned as hot with maximum oxygen. Coal (hard coal) doesn't have these restrictions and can be throttled down.

 

[quackagator]

I love my 2 wood stoves and right now they are both going full blast 24/7.
They are cheap to operate and I can keep the house as hot as I want. Right now, it's -12 outside and 23 indoor. Love it.

So suck it up baby and try not to choke on your phlegm.

23 indoors your water pipes would freeze?

 

[Leros]

23 indoors your water pipes would freeze?

23 c = 73.4 f

 

[Chaotic42]

Me too. I've got a fire place and I've never used it. Heck, I haven't turned the heater on in three years. I don't like any kind of smoke. I think growing up in a house where people smoked turned me into a hater.

 

[destrekor]

I like the way smoke smells. My neighbors have an outdoor stove(yay suburbia! :^D ), and the smoke was coming in my window this summer. I enjoyed it.

I LOVE the smell of good wood smoke.

I ate some of this jerky earlier today (Jack Link's Small Batch Original No.11), and still a few hours later, every now and then I get a whiff of this amazingly awesome and strong scent of fire, like that smell in your clothes after being around a well-stoked fire. I smell my fingers and yep, awesome smoke scent. (this is fully natural smoke jerky, no liquid smoke shit)

/off-topic. sorry, it was on my mind.

 

[lxskllr]

I LOVE the smell of good wood smoke.

I ate some of this jerky earlier today (Jack Link's Small Batch Original No.11), and still a few hours later, every now and then I get a whiff of this amazingly awesome and strong scent of fire, like that smell in your clothes after being around a well-stoked fire. I smell my fingers and yep, awesome smoke scent. (this is fully natural smoke jerky, no liquid smoke shit)

/off-topic. sorry, it was on my mind.

You'd probably like this...

https://mistersnuff.com/catalog/kralingse-snuiff-p-316.html?osCsid=ff39523587aca338b0bc815985d8f631

Very smoky; like a campfire. DeKralingse snuffs tend to be a little burny, but the scents are unique, and very high quality. They're made in a windmill :^)