Indoor PM release through firebox door

[josephcrawley]

I was talking stoves to a potential client and he brought this article and the study it is about to my attention. Long and short of it is as you all know stoves produce particulate matter and unfortunately when the stove door is opened some escapes into the house. This has an adverse effect on indoor air quality in an amount the study authors found alarming.

Any thoughts?



www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/18/wood-burners-triple-harmful-indoor-air-pollution-study-finds

[peterberg]

I've read that one, it's about refuelling while the stove is running. In my situation this doesn't apply because I simply don't refuel. Moreover, I load the heater's full batch first before it is lit on top. In the shoulder seasons I run the heater once a day with one batch and in freezing weather twice a day, morning and evening. No fire at all in the time between.

[Vortex]

The worst I've seen was when shoveling ash out of the firebox, it would billow everywhere. Since I've had an ash-box I don't get much dust in the house from it at all. Unless I forget and open the stove door mid burn without opening the bypass first.

[fuegos]

It's one study & whilst i wouldn't dismiss it out of hand i would like to see some more info explaining the wide range of μg/m3 measured - from 27 to 195.This is similar to what has been measured on the London underground - about 200 .I also wonder about the installation and operation of the stoves.Having a woodstove in the UK is more likely to be a middle class lifestyle choice as property prices in rural areas force working people into urban living.This maybe the reason that woodburners are being targeted more as a source of pollution.

[Karl L]

One of the benefits of using a sliding door (on my DSR2 core) is that you can open the door a useful amount without any smoke coming out into the room.

This means I can add smaller pieces of wood to help burn up the larger pieces near the end of a fire.

I can also use a poker adjust the position of larger peices to make them burn more quickly, so they aren't left to burn inefficiently after the smaller pieces of the wood have burnt out.

(But maybe those of you with more experience can tell me how to avoid having to do these things in the first place!)

[hallinen]

Particulates in the sub 2.5 micron range are bad for your heart and lungs. I’m a fan of HEPA filtration units. In the era of Covid, they are very effective at reducing virus floating in the air. With a wood stove, running a HEPA unit for 15 minutes after the door Is closed can clean up the air. A cheap effective filter can be made by taping a merv 13 furnace filter to the sucking side of a box fan. For outside air pollution, I’ve seen an electrostatic precipitator that fits in a chimney. The designs Peter comes up with kick out less particulates, but if the wood is wet, your chimney will be putting out too many particulates.