Should towns or counties require wood be stacked and covered?

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The potential effects of smoking and non-use of seatbelts cost all of us bazillions of dollars every year. You may think it should be your choice to use or not, but I don't have a choice where my insurance and tax dollars go, should you end up a vegetable or otherwise bed-ridden.
Well, I can't get into the tax issue, without sending this thread to the can, but the insurance issue is simple. Select plans that refuse smokers. Free market, eh...
 
Well, I can't get into the tax issue, without sending this thread to the can, but the insurance issue is simple. Select plans that refuse smokers. Free market, eh...

Not all of us have that choice.

And I never have covered my stacks. After last winter, I might think about it before the snow flies.

Will this ordinance also include top covering only? Type of covering material? Color?
 
I am not a fan of OWB, but with that said, it should be local ordinance that deals with them, not at a fed level (just as one example). A person in rural Indiana using one is a whole bunch different than some dude smoking up his little community.

That's a good way to go, local. So now we get to decide what "local" means with regards to air pollution. If you only measure pollution levels with one device per state then statewide is as local as you can get. If you are one of those people that don't understand dilution then you think of our air as a swimming pool with one kid peeing in the corner, that is, the whole thing is polluted or it is not. You'll hear lines like, "air pollution cannot see county lines". If you had a zillion measuring stations and could monitor real time for a trigger level of contaminants then that's pretty good but you have to deal with human nature and how 1) it takes 40 hours for my stove to go out and 2) Many people don't even know what county they live in or what direction "east" is.

"local" regulations have their challenges.
 
I understand the difficulties. I am also not a fan of regulating peoples personal actions - unless they are having ill effects on others. Nobody said it was gonna be easy but the fact is - if it isn't handled at a local level it WILL be at state or fed. To have the feds dictate that you WILL have your stacks covered is a pretty silly notion in my opinion.
 
Yep, the American free spirit. Force people to follow rule YOU believe in. If they do not agree,,, call them ignorant or some other name.
Many states have laws against and fines for texting while driving. Locally we have seen some tragic accidents from fools texting and driving. Is this a bad law too just because some want the freedom to text and drive? How comfortable would you be in a car where the driver texts?

I think the idea of covering stacks as law is silly. But I am all for the state's weights and measures dept. to set standards for advertising seasoned wood and for setting penalties for violations.
 
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Many states have laws against and fines for texting while driving. Locally we have seen some tragic accidents from fools texting and driving. Is this a bad law too just because some want the freedom to text and drive? How comfortable would you be in a car where the driver texts?
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we can site individual laws all day long that make sense or don't. I was commenting on the name calling for not agreeing.
 
Cowboy spits in a dry creekbed

Henry Fonda - "I am going to have to arrest you."

Cowboy - "Arrest me? For what?"

Henry Fonda - "Polluting a stream."

Cowboy - "But there ain't no water in it."

Henry Fonda - "Law don't say anything about water."
 
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I am all for more people burning dry wood it would make my job a hell of a lot easier. But I would like to know who would and how this would be enforced. In our area there are not enough people for building code enforcement much less checking moisture of wood. And i love the idea of wood sellers selling dry wood but none of them here have anywhere near enough space or money to hold inventory long enough to dry it. If they were required to sell only dry wood there would be no one legitimately selling wood here. I feel the answer is educating the consumer. Many times we go to service a stove and the customer has no idea about drying wood or proper burning procedures the stove shop never even mentioned it to them and forget it if they bought it from any of the big box stores.
 
I am all for more people burning dry wood it would make my job a hell of a lot easier. But I would like to know who would and how this would be enforced. In our area there are not enough people for building code enforcement much less checking moisture of wood. And i love the idea of wood sellers selling dry wood but none of them here have anywhere near enough space or money to hold inventory long enough to dry it. If they were required to sell only dry wood there would be no one legitimately selling wood here. I feel the answer is educating the consumer. Many times we go to service a stove and the customer has no idea about drying wood or proper burning procedures the stove shop never even mentioned it to them and forget it if they bought it from any of the big box stores.


Kiln dried wood......... I know of an operation with a hot house. They dry 100+ cords at a time, no different than lumber. Adds a bit of cost but is well worth it if you dont have room to have stacks in various stages of drying. before i get jumped here i know, some of use do this to save $$$. In areas where the air pollution is bad this could be a good solution.
 
How much does a cord of that cost?
 
Kiln dried wood......... I know of an operation with a hot house. They dry 100+ cords at a time, no different than lumber.
Wish I knew if these guys a few years ago. Name and number, please?
 
I, and a careless burner, could take the best kiln dried wood you can find and make a smokey chimney out of it.
 
Well, one could blow up the stove with carelessness too I suppose. The odds of a modern stove burning better and cleaner go up considerably with properly seasoned wood. And that's all that can really be done other than increasing the enforcement of existing clean air laws and increasing education.
 
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Wish I knew if these guys a few years ago. Name and number, please?

Here is just one, in the DC metro Area, the pricing for the guy north of me is at $270 per cord delivered, not stacked. In PA the Emerald ash borer has a moratorium in place on transporting firewood. The only way around this that i know of is if the wood is kiln dried or treated to kill the pest, or if the raw lumber's ultimate destination is a facility that will render the pest dead, ie. pulp mill, lumbermill ,mulch........

http://www.fivestarfirewood.com/Order-Firewood.html
 
Every so often I see kd firewood for sale around here. Think it was at $300/cord. All depends on how busy the lumber mills are
I give them credit; at the height of the recession, one mill was nearly at full shut down. They came up with a process where they stick remote thermometers in the center of a few logs and bake it at X degrees for X time. The process was approved by whoever writes the laws for interstate transport.
Building is picking up, mills are running hard, no more KD firewood around, go figure.
 
Don't let the morons running the People's Republic of New York hear any of this. They'll be sending inspectors out to fine me for my relatively messy, currently untarped pile. Funny though, I'm 2 years ahead on my wood and I get no smoke out of my stack.

As to the neighbor issue, there is a reason I moved to a location where my nearest neighbor is over 1/4 of a mile away. He burns in an old smoke dragon. He can do whatever the hell he wants on his property and I can do whatever I want on mine.
 
this is the kiln dried guy near me, finally found his site.
 
URL?
 
That is expensive green wood. I wish they listed their kiln dried price i would bet i have customers that would get some if it was under 300
 
$195 per cord for 16" is pretty average for my area. We are mostly farmland with few wooded spaces Left. These guys are allowed to sell outside their county because of the kiln drying.
 
I am surprised that it is that much more in reedsville we 45 mins west and it averages $160 a cord here. And i beleive that the cross county ban was lifted last year now that the ash borers are so wide spread. but i could be wrong on that
 
Actually I would guess that it is a small percentage. The large percentage of hearth.com visitors are silent and read only. The core posters here are wood burning enthusiasts and not necessarily a representation of the average wood burner. In full disclosure we rarely have wood stashed that is over 2 years old. But we also don't have any oak or hickory. However, madrona gets a couple years seasoning here.
 
My wood is usually only a year old and it is dry. And i think covering is important personally. I know many here that cut it split it and throw it in the stove right away. I mean here as in near me not on this site
 
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