Our home in Princeton came with a 1978 Vermont Castings Vigilant wood stove, which still does a good job, putting out lots of heat and burning cleanly enough that no smoke comes out of the chimney. But newer stoves have more efficient designs, delivering air to the combustion chamber in more sophisticated, strategic ways. Since pollution is caused by uncombusted gases, a well-designed and well-tended wood stove turns those gases into heat before they can become pollution.
Pleasures a Furnace Can't Provide
It begins with the sheer pleasure of having an active, radiant hearth in the living room, of sitting with family in the evening, talking of the day and basking in its warmth and glow. Our older stove, by contrast, lacks the glass front and so provides warmth but no glow.
Then there's the more technical aspects, which also have an aesthetic dimension. There's pleasure, for instance, in tending a fire and getting it to burn as cleanly as possible, particularly if one lives in a neighborhood with lots of houses around. The fire in this photo is burning the actual wood, my friend tells me. You can see that the flame is close to the wood itself.
If he gets the fire hot enough, then turns off all the air into the fire except what comes out of small holes at the top of the chamber, the fire burns not the wood but the gases cooked out of it by the high temperature. You can see that the flames appear to be suspended in air rather than rising from the wood itself.
A closeup of those rows of airholes show an effect more like a gas stove, with jets of flame seeming to shoot out of the airholes themselves. The more thorough the combustion, the fewer pollutants head up the chimney.
The stove is part metal, part soapstone. Water in the teapot humidifies the air, and the flat top works for cooking soup.
Its slim profile owes to it not having a catalytic element inside, which requires more room in the back of the stove to protect the catalytic element from direct contact with flames. Though a catalyst can help combust gases that might otherwise go up the flu, it's possible to meet EPA standards without it.
Vital Ingredient: T.L.C.
No matter how good the design, though, burning wood cleanly depends on the owner supplying dry, well-cured wood and making sure the fire's getting enough air. EPA can set standards for design, but it's tender loving care that determines whether the stove performs up to those standards.
Benefits of Integrating Grid and Off-the-Grid
Being a country-city person, a nature enthusiast who plays urban jazz, I like the idea of a fusion lifestyle, finding ways for the town's grid and the country's off-the-grid elements to complement each other.
Particularly during a power outage, one of which we just had this morning in New Jersey, a wood stove brings a sense of empowerment and peace of mind, providing a backup for the furnace and the cooking range. What is taking longer to figure out is how to develop a similar complement to the electric power grid. For some, that means buying a generator, either gasoline or natural gas. Not having a basement flooding issue or other critical energy needs, I'm looking for a system that would help meet ongoing energy needs, not just during energy outages. That will likely be some combination of a few solar panels and an electric vehicle with batteries that could be used both for short trips and powering the house in low-energy mode during power outages. The ongoing improvements in batteries, "plug and play" solar panels, and electric vehicle technology show promise for putting such a system together.
Note: A maker of soapstone stoves won the Wood Stove Decathlon, which took place on the National Mall this past November. The winning stove was chosen based on "efficiency, cleanliness, consumer appeal and price."
No comments:
Post a Comment