"When the contributions of all the components of energy production for residential space heating and the atmospheric fate of pollutants are taken into consideration, wood combustion has the lowest greenhouse gas and acid precipitation impacts per unit of heat delivered among the energy options". From the proceedings of the U.S. EPA and Air Waste Management Association Conference, 1998. http://www.woodheat.org/environment/hpawma.pdf

The questionable aspect of wood burning is the fine particulate emissions. This however can be managed through proper burning practices and new technology. Below are a few not so obvious but critical tips.

NEVER BURN:

• green wood
• wet wood
• salted driftwood
• plastics
• any kind of paper including magazines
• cardboard
• treated wood
• railroad ties
• painted, stained & varnished wood
• plywood, particle board, OSB or any other pressed &/or laminated wood

  Why? Green and wet wood both create excess smoke (pollution) and a build-up of creosote which can lead to chimney fires. Salted driftwood, plastics, papers, cardboard, ties, plywoods and painted and treated woods create dangerous poisons.

Additionally:

No one said burning wood is rocket science. It's not. However, getting the most from that wood while minimizing pollution takes diligence and a fundamental understanding of physics. Below are some things learned after the better part of 39 pyromaniacal years of observation.

Need to sweep or vacuum around your wood stove? Wait until you have a fast hot fire & crack the door open. The resulting draft will pull much of the dust in to the stove. Your lungs will thank you & your house will stay cleaner.

• Use a modern and certified wood stove with a glass door for easy fire monitoring. Remember: more flames = more heat, less smoke and less pollution. Vigilantly watch the fire. A glass door makes this considerably easier. The flames also create an unmatched ambiance.
• Limit the time the damper is closed or better yet, leave it wide open all the time. Closing it starves the fire of oxygen causing the wood to smolder & smoke (see below right photo). You'll have to feed it more often with the damper open but you'll be producing more heat and polluting less.
• If natural tinder isn’t available, start fire with as little

  Control the heat with the size & positioning of wood. If you want lots of heat in a hurry, once you have a fire established, stack on several or more pieces of wood in a random crisscross manner. This allows airflow under & around the wood. To intensify this, use smaller & more pieces. For the hottest fires, do that while using less dense hardwoods such as those from the genus Populus species which are 2”-4” in cross section. BE CAREFUL though! Doing this over a thick bed of red-hot coals can have synergizing effects causing fires to get intensely hot very quickly. Regardless, mix & match with different sizes, shapes & wood species for desired effect. Just start out small & treat your inner most pyromaniacal tendencies to lots of observation.

  newspaper as possible. Shiny slick paper works poorly.
• 3-4 smaller pieces of wood make for a hotter fire with less smoke than 1-2 large pieces. Remember also that the denser (heavier) the wood, the smaller the pieces need to be to get the fire burning strong and hot.
• Consider wood 6” in cross section the maximum size for large stoves. Size down accordingly for smaller stoves.
• When putting larger wood in the stove, try to get it elevated to promote airflow. This will insure full ignition, maximum heat and the least smoke. If the coals aren't situated naturally to allow air circulation, place a shorter piece of wood under and perpendicular to the larger piece on one or both ends.
• For optimal burning (least pollution & most heat), the wood needs to be split smaller than most think (wrist to forearm of average person) and thoroughly dried. If split small and stacked loosely to promote airflow, some wood (assuming it was green when cut) can be ready to burn in 6 months in hot and arid climates. However, most should be cured for at least 9 months and some, such as Chinese Elm, shouldn't be burned for 12 months or longer.
• Given the choice, burn mostly hardwoods (deciduous trees) as they generally produce less smoke than softwoods (conifer trees).
• Use your chimney for diagnostics. Though it is

  Nice fire inside & no detectable smoke outside = heat w/ minimal pollution. This is optimum & easy.	Though some burners wouldn't consider this a lot of smoke, it is still unnecessary pollution. Smoke can be caused from a number of things (see list to left). In this instance, it was from closing the stoves damper.

  normal for smoke to exit your chimney upon starting a fire, once a good fire is established, there should be little to no smoke (see photo at right), depending on the wood used. If there is excessive smoke (see far right photo), it indicates incomplete combustion (fire not hot enough) and means one of the following:
  • wood is too wet
  • wood is too green
  • wood is too big
  • damper not open

New technology and good burning practices are a great start to healthy wood burning but only 2/3’s of the picture. The remaining factor is sustainable harvesting. To learn more about this and how to obtain free firewood while helping the environment at the same time, click here.

A wealth of wood heat information can be found at these outstanding sites:

http://burnitsmart.org/english/index.html
http://www.canren.gc.ca/prod_serv/index.asp?CaId=103&PgId=584

WARNING: don't start any fire until you know your chimney is free of creosote & the stove & pipe installation are to all applicable codes!

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