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residential wood furnace use

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brokenarrow
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 1288 Wisconsin
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2007-12-25          149617

Whats your take on the use and opertation in a semi residential area? I live in the county but my dead end road has 24 houses on it in a 3/4 mile length. I now have two neighbors with wood burning furnaces. I just came in from walking/playing wiuth the Lab for 15 min. and I smell horribly! I am not against em, I plan to have one again in two years or less when I move. BUT This will be in a rural setting. I can not believe how nasty they are when they are not yours!. Im telling you, I I was not moving soon, I really dont know what I would do! Almsot to the point of taking matters in my own hands. This ruins our quality of life to a level that is scary. I open the door to let the dog out and the whole living room smells for an hopur. NO, it dont smell like a nice hickory burning smell but more like a PUNKY garbage crap smell.

Nuff of my rant, I will be taking this up with the Village board at the next meeting. I figure even if they cant do anything about my problem, maybe they can eliminate some one eles in the future!
Merry Christmas all!
(PS) You all know this TEE'S me off to write this on Christmas!


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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3583 iowa
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2007-12-25          149622

Broken; I do know that wood burning and or corn stoves/furnaces have been outlawed within the city limits in a small town neighboring ours for that very reason, the smell. And I know it is being discussed by the council in our town now. ....

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nosteiner4me
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 113 ohio
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2007-12-25          149624

Are they the outdoor wood furnaces, or indoor wood furnace?
Indoor furnaces will usually produce less smoke, and the owners will usually only burn good stuff to stop creosote buildup and chimney fires. Outdoor furnaces can burn whatever to churn out BTU's, you just have to keep them honest and report them if they burning crap and trash. ....

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bloggins
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 104 Kingston, Ontario
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2007-12-26          149625

Their is no doubt that wood/corn/pellet burning appliances will be banned in the future in the suburbs. I just hope that they don't apply the regulations across the board to include rural homes. They did this with vehicle emissions, city and rural cars/trucks have to be tested even though the air quality issue is an urban problem. It's a shame that I don't get a credit for my approx. 5000 trees that are cleaning the air. ....

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3583 iowa
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2007-12-26          149626

Nostirner; Both, I think. I haven't personally saw it,or even know where it is, but I've been told of someone around here who built a homemade outdoor furnace with lids on the top that he can dump fuel in with a loader. He could burn anything that will fit thru the top. Frank. ....

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3583 iowa
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2007-12-26          149627

I'd better restate my answer to Nosteiner. Now that I think about it I'm not sure if all wood/corn burners in the neighboring town have been banned of if no new insallations are allowed. Frank. ....

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kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2007-12-26          149631

Not living where the out door furnaces are common have a couple of questions: what is burnt that gives off such a foul smell? Does the furnaces used to burn true garbage give off foul orders or their stack tall enough to get it about nose level? Is what they are burning that gives off the foul smell allowed to be burnt by the EPA in such a furnace? ....

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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2007-12-26          149635

We live in a rural area and won't install one of those outdoor woodburner specifically because of the smoke. We don't even like to burn slash because of the smoke. Irritated eyes, sore throats, coughing, and the endless smell just aren't worth the savings. ....

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nosteiner4me
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 113 ohio
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2007-12-26          149644

I have a guy 20 acres down the road, i live on 5 of those, who has an outdoor wood furnace. He burns all sorts of crap and the smell of burning trash and rubber was coming into my gas furnace outside fresh air vent. Now i plugged up that line and draw the air from the basement only. Any one with a newer furnace that draws in fresh air from the outside is just sucking in bad air from an outdoor wood furnace. Now with my indoor wood furnace, my gas furnace never comes on unless i'm out of town or something. ....

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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2007-12-26          149645

Our house is very tight so we have to bring in a continuous supply of fresh air through an ERV. Those do some filtering but they won't take smoke out of the air, so whenever burning is done the smell fills the house. So.. no burning here. The few times I've tried the wind always changes direction and blows right at the house :( ....

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nosteiner4me
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 113 ohio
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2007-12-26          149646

My house is approx 5600 sq ft ranch including the basement and have plenty of air to handle a 90 plus furnace drawing air from the basement. My father in law has a small tri level house with basement smaller than my garage and he has a 90 plus furnace and draws the air from the basement as well. We both have never had any issues with drawing the air from the basement. I always figured it takes less time to heat 68 degree air than to heat 20 degree outside smelly air. I just know that i breath in fresh air inside my house regardless of who burns outside, including myself. ....

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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2007-12-26          149648

Maybe we have two different style of basements. Our basement is part of the insulated building envelope so drawing air from it would cause the air inside to become very stale and unhealthy. We have to bring in fresh outside air. ....

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acerguy
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 69 Wisconsin
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2007-12-27          149659

nosteiner4me: Are you talking about your cold air return (the air that actually gets heated) or the air supply for combustion? Because if you're talking about the combustion air supply, that should come from outside if possible so that you're not making up the air from other, non-controlled sources such as gaps around windows and doors. If you have combustion products leaving the house via a chimney (which, hopefully you do!) you need to make up that air somewhere, hence the outside air intake. :)

Regarding outdoor wood furnaces, the problem I see with them is that they are generally operated in a "smolder" mode a lot of the time; that is, a fire is kept at a low level, starved for oxygen by the damper. This will create more smoke to linger around. We use a indoor masonry heater in which you make smaller, more intense fires that burn quickly, heating a large thermal mass (rock). This then radiates heat through the house. It is definitely more work, however, as it requires building two fires a day. I understand that there are some outdoor furnaces available in Europe that also work by heating a large thermal mass and you burn them hot and relatively briefly.

The crux of your situation to me sounds more that these folks are apparently using their wood furnaces as garbage burners. I know in our township that wood furnaces are legal (except in town) but burning garbage is NOT. ....

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 3583 iowa
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2007-12-27          149665

Acerguy; 20 yrs. or so ago air to air heat exchangers were used around here to pre warm the outside intake air for the combustion of the furnace with stale inside air being exhausted. Most of the heat was supposed to be retaind in the incoming airstream that was given up by the exhausted air. I haven't heard much about them lately, maybe they weren't all they were claimed to be? Someone here spoke of the European mass heaters. There was a show on History/ Discovery/Science channel, not sure which a while back about the older homes that were built in Europe where a massive stone fireplace was the center of the home and the rest of the house surrounded it. I forget now but it was a long period of time that the stone would hiold enopugh heat to keep the house warm. ....

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nosteiner4me
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 113 ohio
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2007-12-27          149676

acerguy...Now for the last 4 years in winter i have been burning wood 24/7. 2 of those years with an insert and the last 2 with an indoor wood furnace. I really never gave it a second thought that i needed outside air to replenish air that was used to keep fire going inside an insert or a wood furnace. I do have plenty of draft up the chimney in my wood furnace and lighting a fire has been no problem at all.
My basement is part of my house and is insulated and a walkout. Maybe just the normal use of doors,opening and closing letting the dog out and so on everyday lets enough air in and out to not be a big deal. It is a newer house 5 or so years old, all brick with all casement windows.
I did get worried last night reading about carbon dioxide levels so i unblocked the fresh air inlet from the outside and lifted it off the gas furnace inlet to let fresh air in somewhat to the wood burning furnace. When i burn the wood furnace, my gas furnace will never come on.
Anyone else burn 24/7 and doesn't feel the need for a fresh air pipe inlet from the outside? I'm going to get a carbon dioxide tester just to make sure. I have all the smoke detectors and carbon monoxide testers. ....

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nosteiner4me
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 113 ohio
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2007-12-27          149681

Broken...didn't mean to break off from your main point but you really need to call the local EPA and the health department about the toxic stuff being burned by your neighbors.....they will shut him down right now!! A wood smell is just that a wood smell, but toxic trash smell....thats just a bad neighbor. My guy down the street is burning some kind of trash with a rubber kinda smell to it in his outdoor furnace....His days are numbered!
good luck ....

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kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2007-12-27          149682

Broken, I agree with nosteiner on the EPA, that is why I asked about the same thing. Many things that are burnt are not legal to. kt ....

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acerguy
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 69 Wisconsin
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2007-12-27          149684

When we built our place 3 years ago, we used Insulated Concrete Forms so we have a pretty tight house. The centrally located masonry stove that we fire twice a day has it's own 6" dia outside air inlet that I open and close when the fire is burning. The stove is hot to the touch for about 12 hours from a 1 hour fire (about 15lbs of firewood). In addition, we have a tiny cast iron stove in the walkout basement that we use when we're down there. It also has it's own fresh air inlet that we open when the stove is fired. You can really feel the air rushing through when the fire is burning. We do have a propane backup furnace which has a PVC pipe fresh air inlet as well as exhaust. It doesn't go on very often though. Finally, for indoor air quality, we do have an air-to-air heat exchanger. While we could run it continuously, we choose to run it periodically via switches in each bathroom; i.e., after a shower or whatever ;-) you hit a button on the wall and the unit runs on max for about 20 minutes.
....

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nosteiner4me
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 113 ohio
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2007-12-27          149685

acerguy...sounds like an awsome system that you get heat out of 15 lbs of wood for 12 hours!!! I load my wood furnace with 3 to 6 cubic feet of wood and load it 6am then load again at 6-10pm for nite then wake up to 67-70 degrees at 6am again. I think most wood pcs i put in mine are 5-30 lbs each. Yours sounds like a really efficient system,and i am just starting to learn about the fresh air thing. ....

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acerguy
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 69 Wisconsin
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2007-12-27          149690

Well, we designed it as a passive solar house so it is pretty efficient. Plus we keep it pretty cool. When it's below about 10F or so outside overnight, the furnace will occationally kick in at 5am for a bump up to 68 so we don't have ice in the corn flakes. As much as I would have hoped, we can't quite heat it with a match and cool it with an icecube!

Anyhow, sorry for dragging this off-topic. To the original poster I would echo the suggestion that someone is burning trash that they shouldn't be and that's just not being a good neighbor. As much as we all hate to get the "guv-ment" involved, this may be one of those cases. ....

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