The important thing is we still can burn wood, if we choose to. Hopefully that never goes away. I burn wood now as a supplement, being in my later 60's, it is nice knowing I don't have to burn to heat our house, but having that choice is the nicety. Wood stove cost and installation cost are a growing concern for most younger folks, I can understand that too. Everybody stay warm with your stoves, the important thing is we can should we want to.
Are Wood Stoves Going the Way of the Horse and Buggy?
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> Are we wood stove aficionados a kind of dinosaur?
You would be in Scotland, of all places. They have basically outlawed wood burning anything.
You would be in Scotland, of all places. They have basically outlawed wood burning anything.
I liken wood burning to driving a stick shift. Though I love the idea of owning an electric vehicle, and I've driven some really great ones that were wonderful, I have no desire to buy one because my family will literally have to pry my cold dead hands off of my stick shift. Even though, from a practical point of view, it makes no sense anymore. Even ICE engines have transmissions now that are more efficient than any human can create manually. But I love the sense of engagement that a stick brings.
Were I to buy a new car, good luck even finding one. Here's a list of the 28 cars that can still be found with manual transmissions. It used to be cheaper to buy a stick but now it costs more. How weird is that? It's cheaper to include this super complex automatic transmission than to leave it out and replace it with a clutch, a stick and a few linkages.
I'm glad there are still cars that can be purchased with sticks and I'm glad that there are still wood stoves one can purchase.
Were I to buy a new car, good luck even finding one. Here's a list of the 28 cars that can still be found with manual transmissions. It used to be cheaper to buy a stick but now it costs more. How weird is that? It's cheaper to include this super complex automatic transmission than to leave it out and replace it with a clutch, a stick and a few linkages.
I'm glad there are still cars that can be purchased with sticks and I'm glad that there are still wood stoves one can purchase.
Not true. They were banned in new builds in April of 2024. And that was reversed in November of 2024 because of to much pushback.
I have a fond memory, driving a big truck with a super slushy gear box. I was 17, working in a warehouse during summer break from college. This truck was so poorly maintained, other experienced drivers, guys in their 30s, 40s and 50s, couldn't handle it. I was the youngest guy there, the summer kid, still a teen, but was able to get it started and move between the gears. So whenever that thing needed to be driven, someone would throw me the keys.
Whitenuckler
Minister of Fire
Remember, most of these condo fireplaces are not like the stoves you guys run. That first picture was like mine.
> Not true.
WAS true 🙃
www.bbc.com
"The new regulations have no impact on homes that already have a wood burning stove installed however the government is developing proposals for existing buildings."
Don't worry "they'll be back".
By banning stoves in new construction, they basically kill the industry. What will most likely happen now is emissions standards for new stoves so strict that even a human breathing would violate them.
WAS true 🙃
Wood burning stoves - have they been banned in Scotland?
New regulations came into force last week that broadly ban burning stoves from new-build homes.
www.bbc.com
"The new regulations have no impact on homes that already have a wood burning stove installed however the government is developing proposals for existing buildings."
Don't worry "they'll be back".
By banning stoves in new construction, they basically kill the industry. What will most likely happen now is emissions standards for new stoves so strict that even a human breathing would violate them.
Yes it was true in new construction. Its not any more. And regardless we are talking about the usa here and there is absolutely no motivation to ban woodstoves here. The only noise about it comes from one relatively small group that is loud but has no backing. And people who claim there is a new law coming every couple years that will do it. There has never been a law proposed here. And the best thing we can do to make sure there never is one is to burn good fuel properly> Not true.
WAS true 🙃
Wood burning stoves - have they been banned in Scotland?
New regulations came into force last week that broadly ban burning stoves from new-build homes.
"The new regulations have no impact on homes that already have a wood burning stove installed however the government is developing proposals for existing buildings."
Don't worry "they'll be back".
By banning stoves in new construction, they basically kill the industry. What will most likely happen now is emissions standards for new stoves so strict that even a human breathing would violate them.
Where I live, the regulations get tighter from year to year. The stove that I bought in 2013 wouldn't come close to meeting the standard today. The stove I bought last year of course does. I looked at used stove options but couldn't find one that would qualify and, since I felt the need to pull a permit for the stove swap, this was important.
Perhaps others would have just substituted one stove for another, but I didn't want to give my an insurance company an out if there was ever a fire that gave rise to a claim. They were initially insane, making demands that no one could meet. Most likely because they were applying the wrong rule, one meant for commercial properties. A few photos and calls from my agent got it straightened out. They saw how professional the installation was. But that, for me, is yet more evidence that they don't deal with a lot of homes with wood stoves anymore. I had no similar issue in 2013.
Whitenuckler
Minister of Fire
Yes, I agree. I am dealing with a big insurance company CAA. They would rather not insure anyone burning wood (or pellets), but they "accommodate" us for now. Now, if you don't want insurance, that could simplify the matter. Even then if you see what's happening in Vancouver, they don't care about your insurance, they are going after the stoves themselves.
The regulations got tighter once since 2013. And that was scheduled to happen since the 90s.
NY banned ng installs in new homes with that starting soon.
They are trying to push everybody to electricity.
All we need is 1 big ice storm to drop trees and lines and it’s going to be chaos.
Pendulums swing both ways. If you turn your voters into icicles, they can’t vote.
They are trying to push everybody to electricity.
All we need is 1 big ice storm to drop trees and lines and it’s going to be chaos.
Pendulums swing both ways. If you turn your voters into icicles, they can’t vote.
Is that still on the books? I thought they dropped it. But I could absolutely be wrong
I grew up in New York. In a very working class suburb. The homes weren't fancy enough to have fireplaces, most of them. As the energy crisis arrived, those who had them often had inserts with fans to blow the hot air into the house. But I recall them being really smoky. As if the family was full of really chronic smokers, going through dozens of packs a day. I don't recall anyone worrying about the health effects back then. From outside the house, it smelled great. As a kid, when I smelled a fire, I'd inhale deeply because it seemed so wonderful.
When I got to high school and made friends from fancier parts of town, some of them had amazing fireplaces, though I don't recall any of them suffocating themselves with poorly designed blowers.
When I got to high school and made friends from fancier parts of town, some of them had amazing fireplaces, though I don't recall any of them suffocating themselves with poorly designed blowers.
Bellingham has to be about the hardest place to run a wood stove shop in Washington. I am east of the Cascades, still plenty of wood stoves around.
Maybe so but there used to be a lot of them. I don't think Bellingham has changed that much over those years. More traffic on the streets, higher housing prices, but that's pretty much it. Hamsters are still Hamsters.
Ctwoodtick
Minister of Fire
Interesting. I wonder if all the smokiness was a combination of wet wood, old technology, “slammer” style installs, etc. I bet an energy crisis had people scrambling and thus, making rash decisions.
Whitenuckler
Minister of Fire
A lot of folks back then smoked cigarettes. People didn't wear seat belts. Many men prided themselves on not having seen a doctor in years. People aged faster and died younger. Lung cancer and emphysema were common among the old. It was really unusual for anyone to live into their 90s. Even living into one's 80s was an accomplishment, whereas now it's quite common. Most people saw a good human lifespan as 70 years, give or take. There just wasn't consciousness that breathing smoke wasn't a good idea.
ColoradoPine
New Member
I'm 40, but I am going with a wood freestander because it's nostalgic (I grew up in a house heated by wood stove), love the ambiance and it forces me to get outside during the winter. I also like the energy independence from the grid and the carbon-neutral aspect of it. I do think climate change is a big deal, and wood is far better than natural gas (and in most places, electricity) in this respect. And I don't live somewhere where particulate emissions matter much.
I think people are moving away from wood in new construction because builders are chasing tighter and tighter envelopes, which is good, but wood places an extra constraint in that. People also like the ease of gas fireplaces, which I get.
I think people are moving away from wood in new construction because builders are chasing tighter and tighter envelopes, which is good, but wood places an extra constraint in that. People also like the ease of gas fireplaces, which I get.
The passing of Tom Oyen and with it the Chimney Sweep shop in Bellingham definitely affected your area. He set a high bar. I'm sorry that no one continued his business. I've been told that Craft Stoves is a good shop in Mt. Vernon.
Tom was definitely a fixture in Bellingham. He's not the only dealer whose gone but probably the most iconic. Every time I'm in Fairhaven on the street where his shop was, I look at that store front and remember his place.
True. I think he was talking about carbon neutrality. One could argue that wood burning is carbon neutral. It is if you plant enough new trees to offset your stove's carbon footprint. I'd argue the same is true for any carbon emissions. Planting new trees could go a long way to addressing global warming but it would take billions of trees.
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