questions about outside wood stoves

[muddobber]

Hello All;
I've spent the majority of my life in the tropics but now live in missouri. I'm wondering about outside wood stoves. Is the burning of wood a contributer of global warming? Also, it seems like there's alot of stove manufactures. I don't have a clue as to how to choose. Thanks.

[tufhelp]

What global warming? :-*

[flatwater]

Muddobber
I don't mean to be disrespectful but where do you get the notion that there is global warming? Now back to your question--NO because there is no global warming. They do a great job though of house warming.
Flatwater

[machinemaker]

Muddobber,
When looking at CO2 production, everything that is used for heating,except solar produces some CO2. The questions is what has the least impact on the environment, and sustainability. If your breathing, you are producing CO2! Now if we use electricity it was probably produced by burning coal or natural gas, but maybe hydroelectric or wind. Now if you heat with oil, natural gas or propane, you produce CO2 and other gases and particulates, plus fosil fuels are not short term renewable. In my opinion, at least wood, corn stoves are and should be renewable.

you can debate global warming all day long, both for and against, but no one can deny that everything we do has an impact of out evironment and the future of our children and grand children. If you have a farm and deplete the soil or let erode away it does not grow productively, develop it into a housing track or mall and not only do you lose the sustainable growing capacity, but also what that does to clean the air, provide for non farm wildlife and healthier human life style. I think that being environmentally active is and should be part of homesteading, and especially part of conservative thought. unfortunatly part of our conservative political brothers and sisters have been taught to think that being conservative is to be rabid consummers, and that its OK to take what ever is wanted without thinking about the future. This is not the conservative ideal of 50 years ago. The very word conservative is to conserve. I think it is sad that corporate greed has brain washed the masses to have an lust for being consummers and environmental opposers. Most of the conservative voters in this area are living in the suburbs surrounding the city. They call themselves conservatives, yet they live in 4000 - 6000 square foot mini mansions built like track homes, drive escalades, mercedes, lexus SUV, they have look right, act right, and it is all finnaced with money they do not have. That is not being conservative! It is short sighted, live today for myself with out regard for tomorrow.

Is there human caused global warming or is this a nature cycle of warming? While everone is argueing about the cause, no one is concerned about the out come. If is is part of a natural cycle it still will have an impact of how we live due to changes is avalible water, growing season, and other effects. If you think that due to the need to fit into our culture you deserve a home that is three times the home size your parents or grand parent lived in is "needed" or you could not be seen in a car or truck thats more that a coulpe of years old or that you have to have the latest or greatest gizmo, or you are not working in carreer that has a positive impact on the world or saving money and resources, THEN YOU REALLY ARE NOT CONSERVATIVE!

[SleepersRiverAlter]

Well said machinemaker,

I have an outdoor woodboiler and have been running it to heat my domestic and hydronic water. I live off the grid and away from folks so the smoke that comes out of there bothers only me. It does carry with it it's fair share of particulates and unsavory gasses. I do not like the old selling points for these things which ends with "Oh, you can burn anything in there." I remain of the woodburning ilk which believes the dryer the better. Dry wood burn cleaner and more efficiently than the stumps I've seen piled up in front of other outdoor stoves.

[macgeoghagen]

my mom's neighbor uses an outside wood burning boiler and heats with the resultant steam. the wood he uses is the ends and refuse from the local saw mill. it's free and efficient. he produces a little smoke, but its all from wood that would have been burned in a bonfire anyway. he doesnt have to pay a huge electric bill for electric heat or pay for the propane or kerosene guy to bring fuel from the middle east. wood is a renewable resource too. you could say it grows on trees(ha ha)

[MadTripper]

There is a question of efficiency with outdoor burners. *Some people claim you can burn green wood and other items which of course, you can. *The truth is that seasoned wood will produce the most heat at the highest rate of efficiency. *When you have green wood in your firebox, a portion of the btu output is used to boil the moisture away which is then lost. *

Beyond that, all the carbon you put into the environment when burning wood was captured during the life of the tree so the truth is, wood burning is carbon neutral.

If you choose to get an outdoor wood burner, spend the money and get the highest efficiency you can. *This will go a long ways towards the amount of wood you burn and perhaps give you the "warm fuzzy" feeling you are looking for. *I considered one however I didn't find a unit that was efficient enough for my tastes. *Typically, 57% is considered high with these units.

Tripper

P.S. I believe these units were mentioned somewhere on this site however Greenwood is supposed to one of the best.

http://www.greenwoodusa.com/residential.php