I have a fireplace. Should I feel bad?

[kansasblue]

I use it to cut down on the heating bills. Is it a big problem? The Greenhouse gasses?

Is there a way to reduce the polution output?

Thanks,

Chuck

[Bonobo]

1. Install a pellet stove!

[appal_jack]

5. NO! Enjoy a fire!

Your fireplace can be a source of renewable heat in an eco-friendly way, if you manage it right.

First of all, is yours an open fireplace? If so, you will want to get an insert that makes your fireplace more like a wood stove. This conserves fuel and heat. I have a fireplace insert that allows me to adjust the air entering the combustion chamber (i.e.- the draft), the gases leaving the combustion chamber (the flue), and it also has a blower that draws air across the firebox, and blows the heat (but not smoke) around my living room. By paying a little attention (which is easy if you were the type of kid who liked to poke at the campfire), adjustments to these parameters will allow you to get a hot fire going, then bank it down for just the right amount of heat and efficiency. Don't bank it down too much: you need some heat to enter your chimney to prevent creosote build-up.

Secondly, where are you going to get wood? If you can/are willing, get yourself a chainsaw and cut wood yourself from crowded stands of trees nearby. Some landowners will let you take crowded and downed trees for free (I'd pass-up on offers of pine or softwoods though: hardwoods are where your heat is). Thinning an overcrowded forest actually improves tree health and even potential carbon sequestration. Plus, when you've got a bad-ass chainsaw (and know how to use it), nobody is going to accuse you of being an effete, latte-drinking liberal, and it's good exercise to boot. If cutting wood is not on your agenda, try to buy from a landowner or independent logger or firewoood dealer.

There are tons of good books on cutting and burning wood safely and efficiently, so I won't re-invent the definitive "how-to's" here, but feel free to ask follow-up questions.

-app

[dysfunctional press]

8. buying wood from a supplier is a lot easier/cheaper.

i get a face cord delivered for $100...and there's no way that i would ever chop up that much firewood for $100 in pay...not to mention that there aren't all that many thickly forested areas in the vicinity anyway.

also- if you cut down trees for your own wood- you have to let them season for at least a year or so, since green wood doesn't burn all that well.

but- i also pick up a lot of fallen branches(larger ones) and scrap lumber when i can, and burn those too.

[appal_jack]

13. good points, all

I agreee that the work that goes into a $100 face cord of seasoned firewood is far more than the money that it's sold for. I honestly don't know how folks who sell at those rates keep their trucks and saws running.

For myself, firewood work is my gym membership for this time of year. Right now, it's generally too cold or wet for mountain biking, and the gardens have not yet gotten too busy, So, needing to cut wood gets me off my lazy arse now and then on weekends, and I don't worry too much about other returns on investment aside from the exercise, the chance to be in the woods, and a secure supply of heat. I think it was Aldo Leopold who said that firewood should warm a man three times: once when cutting, once when hauling, and once when burning.

I also agree about seasoning the wood. The wood I cut in the next month or so will not be burned until Feb. 2008 at the earliest. Right now, I'm burning cherry from two years ago, and some maple cut last year. Burning green wood is not a good idea.

-app

[Jim Warren]

10. Can that always be good?

Where I am the pellets are shipped 2600 miles from MT.

[caligirl]

2. We use a gas log and it really heats up the house. Never even

once usede the regular fireplace in our former house. This was because we felt we lost more heat going up the chimney than we gained with the fire. And the other reason is Asthma in children and the huge increase in the rate of occurrence now.

[Warpy]

3. First, wood is a renewable resource

and what you're burning in that fireplace is all the CO2 that tree absorbed in its lifetime and converted into cellulose. The tree would release just as much CO2 if it died and rotted on the ground in the forest.

However, fireplaces are very inefficient heat sources. A fireplace insert that juts out into the room would be much better. Fireplaces throw out radiant heat, but suck heated air from your furnace right up the chimney. Because you have to leave the chimney damper open after the fire has largely gone out, that is a huge problem and results in a net heat loss. A good fireplace insert controls the air flow into the fire and thereby limits the amount of heated air that goes up the chimney along with the smoke.

There are fireplace inserts that burn wood, coal (nasty), corn, and pellets made from compressed sawdust.

The main pollution from a woodburner, fire place or stove, is the amount of particulates it puts into the atmosphere, not the C02 or CO. Pellet stoves and corn stoves are the cleanest burning stoves, but both require electricity to run. Coal stoves are the worst.

[gravity]

4. You are contributing to global warming

But if you were to heat your house conventially, you would just be burning fossil fuels somewhere else in the world, so don't sweat it. If you want to lower polution, just use less energy and less heat.

[Harper_is_Bush]

6. It's up to you how much you use it....but buy carbon offsets. See this post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x243713

There's no fireplace calculator, but just buy a chunk of them, and have a few fires a year. If you're preventing coal from being burnt in India after it's been trucked hundreds of miles (which you can also prevent) then you can enjoy your fireplace guilt free!

[TreasonousBastard]

7. As a couple of others have noted...

a properly managed fireplace can be more efficient and put out less CO2 than conventional heating. I know several people who have done it right and it really cut their heating costs way down. You can even use coal, which is more efficient than wood and real cheap if you buy it in the summer. You'll still emit CO2 because you're burning stuff, but it could well be less than an oil or gas furnace.

But, it's got to be be set up well and properly managed, and there will still be particulate emissions. Some towns have banned fireplaces because of the way they stink up the air and cause local smog.

And, properly insulating the house could be more important than the heating source-- it can reduce fuel usage enormously.

[all.of.me]

9. fireplaces suck the heat out of your house.

as others have mentioned, get a fireplace insert. the newer woodstoves and inserts have catalytic converters, which allow for a more efficient burning of fuel as well as putting out cleaner emissions. i have been burning a vermont castings dutchwest with a catalytic converter for five winters now. what a difference from the old stove! the chimney is cleaner, which says a lot.

i heat solely with wood. here in new mexico, we are allowed to go into the national forest and take 'dead and down' trees. that's where everyone gets their wood.

[kansasblue]

11. Correction: I did use the work 'fireplace'...but

it's an exclosed unit in the basement with forced air.

I was just mainly concerned about the smoke and carbon dioxide out the chimmey.

Thanks everyone.

kb

[madokie]

12. check out one of these critters

http://www.harmanstoves.com/