WOODSTOVE UPGRADE INFORMATION

With spring in the air, it’s easy to put thoughts of winter heating behind us. But, if you heat your home with wood, the warmer months also offer the perfect opportunity to plan for a healthier, safer, and more cheaper heating season next year.

New stoves create the right conditions for the firewood to be burned with completely – high temperature, enough air, and sufficient time for the combustion gases to burn before they go up the chimney. These stoves use 1/3 less firewood to get the same amount of heat and that means either less chopping or less money being spent on wood.

Whether using an old woodstove or a newer one, you will use less firewood and reduce smoke if you always build small hot fires and keep the ashes cleaned from the woodstove so it can burn more efficiently. Always make sure your firewood is well seasoned and never burn trash or treated wood.

Older stoves create unhealthy air – both inside your home and in your community. New wood stoves make about 70% LESS smoke and makes the air cleaner for everyone. Although many people enjoy the smell of burning wood, the smoke from woodstoves is the result of incomplete combustion or burning. This releases many poisons into the air and circulates tiny bits of particulate pollution that can work its way deep into the lungs and cause serious health conditions.

Wood smoke can cause problems for everyone, but is a particular problem for children, older adults, and those with existing health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, and asthma. These problems range from burning eyes and running notes to bronchitis, asthma attacks, heart attacks or cancer.

Older stoves are also more likely to lead to a fire, which could destroy your home. The National Fire Protection Association estimates that $45 million in property damage and up to 50 deaths per year can be blamed on heating units such as woodstoves. The poor combustion in these stoves can lead to build-up of flammable creosote in pipes and chimneys. And improper or deteriorating installation can cause materials surrounding the stove to ignite or lead to smoke coming back into the home and possible death from carbon monoxide poisoning.

When replacing an older woodstove, make sure your old woodstove doesn’t endanger someone else by being used. Once your new woodstove is installed, have your old woodstove removed and destroyed. Ask a local steel recyler for information on recycling old woodstoves.

To learn more about replacing woodstoves or woodstove safety, download the pdf files listed below or visit www.epa.gov/woodstoves/

Woodstove safety is a partnership of the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association; the Chimney Safety Institute of America; the American Lung Association; the Steel Recycling Institute, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.

            WOODSTOVE FLYER                                     WOODSTOVE BROCHURE

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Copyright 2006. The American Lung Association® of Ohio.