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Posted on April 1, 2006 by Deon Melchior | Posted under Home Improvement
Choosing the Right Wood Burning Stoves and Fireplaces
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Choosing and making the right decisions when purchasing your new woodstove or fireplace inserts is very important. Consider safety and the home environment while you are looking for the right wood burner to have installed into your home. Woodstoves come in different sizes to provide you with the most efficiency and comfort from one room to a full size house. Today's wood burners have improved in proving more safety and efficiency that the old pot bellied stoves from the past. You will find that there are many different wood burners now to choose from even pallet stoves and there are decorative gas logs that you can use in the fireplace. The stoves today produce hardly any smoke and will use less wood by burning the wood up more leaving very few ashes. When purchasing a woodstove or insert be sure that both the ULC and EPA certify it. There should always be to certification labels one is the ULC (Underwriters' Laboratories of Canada) and the other test label is by the EPA making sure it is meeting the low-emission (smoke) standards. With these two labels, you can be sure that the stove has been tested, and meets all rules and regulations to put your family in a safer environment. There are standard regulations on the low-emission of smoke that can be produced when burning wood. The standard limit for producing smoke emissions is 7.5 grams per hour with some producing as low as 1-4 grams. If there is a slight difference of one or 2 grams per hour on a day-to-day usage it is ok, it is not enough to worry about. There are two ways to meeting the EPA smoke emission limits. The non-catalytic and the catalytic approach both of these are effective but the heat performance varies. The non-catalytic throws out a beautiful flame and heat but the catalytic will give a better heat performance but with more technology being used. Choosing the non-catalytic stove it has three different characteristics for its good environment performance. You will find that the firebox is more insulated, the larger baffles will produce longer and hotter gas flow and the pre-heated combustion air runs through small holes above the fuel in the firebox. People choose this non-catalytic stove for the beautiful fire it will created for their enjoyment. The baffles and some of the other parts need to be replaces more often due to the high heat deterioration. The catalytic stove involves more technology for the user but produces a longer even heat output. The smoke exhaust passes through a coated ceramic honeycomb that is located on the inside of the insert. The smoke gases and particles ignite and burn inside the honeycomb. A lever operated bypass damper is on the catalytic stove to be opened when starting a fire or reloading it. Because of the heat, the honeycomb will need to be replaced from time to time. The durability of wear depends on the owner with proper maintenance and cleaning this stove insert will usually last for about 6 years. If this stove is not properly maintained it will probably need repairs approximately every 2 years to keep in good working condition, you need to be sure it isn't over fired, no garbage is being burned and cleaning maintenance is performed as instructed by the manufacture. EPA rules and regulations say no burning garbage in your burner. You can find more information on the rules and regulations from the EPA on the Internet by going into the EPA Library and use the keyword, woodstoves and fireplaces. Always be sure to check for safety labels and follow all rules to give your home the most benefits of burning wood safely. About The Author: Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit - www.articleclick.com |
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