EPA new wood stove requirements!

What exactly does this mean for us?

I guess all new stoves in 2019 will be cat stoves. This might backfire because the average woodburner probably doesn't burn properly nor would properly care for a catalyst wood stove's needs, so I imagine failure rate will be high, and some folks will just remove the cat and emissions will be worse than an early epa stove. So the question is, how can wood stove catalytic technology be changed/developed to make it more user friendly and ubiquitous for those that only see a wood stove as a necessary heating item?

Perhaps an automatic bypass control system and a self cleaning cat?

Or would it be possible to mimic the design of a gassifier in a wood stove thereby perhaps meeting the emissions requirements without a catalyst?

It looks to me like barrel stoves are about to become a thing of the past for new installs. The so called exempt status is going away as of Dec 31, 2015 for new sales and 60 days after posting in the Federal Register for manufacturing. This will give the dealers a few months to clear their exempt stove inventory out. OWB regulations are being phased in, so that group of manufacturers has a little more time to fix their emissions.
The tougher part is 5 years down the road where a large fraction of present stoves will not meet standards without some improvement. Again it will be only new installs that are affected.
The most disturbing part for me is what they will try to do for existing installations over time. So far they have left those alone. As so many other industries have found out, once they have a foot in the door the EPA seldom stops there.

Oldman47 said:

It looks to me like barrel stoves are about to become a thing of the past for new installs. The so called exempt status is going away as of Dec 31, 2015 for new sales and 60 days after posting in the Federal Register for manufacturing. This will give the dealers a few months to clear their exempt stove inventory out. OWB regulations are being phased in, so that group of manufacturers has a little more time to fix their emissions.
The tougher part is 5 years down the road where a large fraction of present stoves will not meet standards without some improvement. Again it will be only new installs that are affected.
The most disturbing part for me is what they will try to do for existing installations over time. So far they have left those alone. As so many other industries have found out, once they have a foot in the door the EPA seldom stops there.

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I find it shocking that people are still installing barrel stoves?? Why would you?

It still happens today but this will stop it in the US.

I'd use a barrel stove for something like a hunting cabin or a detached workshop. Something that isn't used regularly so you don't want to dump money into it.

you'll probably still be able to buy the barrel stove kit and do it yourself. The kit is tech. not a stove, so i dont see how they could stop that(IMO of course)

My Harman TL-300 meets the 2.0 grams also.

Average Emissions 1.1 Grams Per Hr.
Emissions on Low 0.8 Grams Per Hr.

I think the focus of this is on Non-EPA approved stoves.

Theoretical question:

I'm looking at getting a Drolet Tundra wood furnace add-on to replace my 40 year old inefficient unit. It currently met EPA regulations as of 1/1/15. Now, I'm not so sure.

To clarify, they want 4.5 grams per hour in all wood stoves. The Tundra releases 6.6. Does this mean that I have until December 31, 2015 to purchase my Drolet Tundra, or are they still good to go since they are already EPA certified? My initial thought was to wait until next tax season to purchase the unit, but I may now not have that luxury.

I apologize for my ignorance on this whole subject; we're talking $1400 for a new unit, or potentially $5000 for a new unit now under the new regulations.

Does this mean that we have until 2020 to buy any new unit we want without ridiculous regulations, or do we have until Dec 31 2015?

j7art2 said:

Does this mean that we have until 2020 to buy any new unit we want without ridiculous regulations, or do we have until Dec 31 2015?

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No , neither one. The EPA has published a separate fact sheet for furnaces. It is located here:
http://www2.epa.gov/residential-woo...y-requirements-wood-fired-forced-air-furnaces

small furnaces one year, large furnaces two years

I dont have a clue

did u see the grams they were listing per btu's burned. by 2020 it was like .15 grams. that is really low, i hope the stove companies have a rabbit up their sleeve

Is there a separate list of EPA regulated wood furnaces? I checked http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2013-08/documents/certifiedwood.pdf but it does not list wood furnaces under this list. There are units like the Drolet Tundra (again, just an example, its 125,000 BTU/H) that meet the 1988 EPA regulations, but are not on this list. I apologize, but the EPA website is not particularly user friendly, or I am profoundly stupid when it comes to navigating the site and finding information on wood furnaces.

Another thing that I found in the fact sheet is:

The EPA regulations are "Emissions limit of 0.93 pounds of PM per million Btu heat output, weighted average. Cordwood testing is required for forced air furnaces."

This is confusing. In the listing of the unit itself, it's listed as 6.6 grams per hour, not per BTU heat output. Is this some sort of ratio or calculation that I'm failing to see?

Again, I apologize for the questions. I'm rather inadequate in understanding any sort of government logic in general, and can't seem to make heads or tails of this.