My girlfriend has asthma and allergies, and complains about the wood smoke from the stove affecting her breathing. I try as best as I can to minimize any smoke when reloading the stove, but a little usually makes it way into the room. I use a HEPA filter in the bedroom when we go to sleep, but the room the stove is in is large with a two story ceiling, which is too large for my HEPA filter. The problem seems to be exacerbated by the fact that the forced air central heating system (which has an air filter) rarely comes on now that I use the wood stove 24x7. I then remembered that the fan for the central heating system can be switched to the 'on' position as opposed to 'auto' which will make it run continuously. Doing this really seemed to help tremendously; the smokey smell disappears quickly and my girlfriend can breath more easily. The problem is that the fan draws 9-10 amps which somewhat reduces the advantage (from an expense point of view) of heating with the wood stove instead of with the propane whole house system.
How do you folks with asthma or allergies to smoke deal with this? If you use your central heating system to filter the air, what filter do you use? I am currently using a 3M Filtrete Maximum Allergen Filter (1700 rating), but don't know if this level of filtration is necessary, and there are many Filtrete alternatives.
How do you folks with asthma or allergies to smoke deal with this? If you use your central heating system to filter the air, what filter do you use? I am currently using a 3M Filtrete Maximum Allergen Filter (1700 rating), but don't know if this level of filtration is necessary, and there are many Filtrete alternatives.