Neighboring town to restrict OWBs?

[Danno77]

http://www.dailygate.com/news/article_12f7c015-ea69-586f-a598-ad3a24aa4ccc.html

To add a little something to this, there are a couple of manufacturing plants in this town and it is well known by every other town around that Keokuk smells nasty. No joke, the whole town is stinky. I'd much prefer the smell of wood smoke.

 

[pen]

I'd much prefer the smell of wood smoke.

So you feel the OWB's make the smell better?

pen

 

[Danno77]

So you feel the OWB's make the smell better?

pen

Well, let me say this. IF an OWB is run improperly it will belch smoke all over the place and THAT would smell better. Otherwise I don't really see or smell much.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

No doubt both smell pretty bad. I can certainly vouch for most of the OWB stinking bad and I too have always wondered why they don't put taller chimneys on them. For sure I'd hate it if our only close neighbor put one in because the prevailing wind would carry the stink right to us. We know that because they love to burn outdoors. If they don't have a wood fire going, for about 2 months in the fall and again in the spring, they burn leaves. Smoke hangs here bad when they do it. I think we have finally go them to understand just how bad it is here when they burn. Very thankful for that.

If those with the OWB would take it upon themselves they could lessen the situation quite a bit but everyone I've talked to tells me that the seller tells them to burn green wood. That just makes it worse. I know of only one person who does not burn green wood in theirs. Very rare for them to have a stinking problem or even a smokey one.

Also, I posted just a short time ago that one village near us has outlawed any wood burning in the village.

 

[nate vignola]

That battle was fought here, and the stove owners lost. It's not the people who burn right, it's the people who burn pallets and other junk. figure out that part and you will win,IMO.
Maybe go forward to the city council meeting with documented methods to keep the wood smoke low, and propose methods to ways to keep the peace. I.E. propose a bylaw that states what type of wood (seasoned, etc) will be burned in the stove. Prepare a pamphlet that can be given out when the permit is granted on how to use the stove.
Bring the solutions to them.

 

[pen]

I've seen people burn everything under the sun in them around here, and for the most part, if it's wood, so long as it's cold out and the house is calling for serious heat, they burn pretty cleanly.

I don't care if the wood is seasoned or not, on a 45-50 degree day, when the house isn't calling for heat and nobody is using hot water, those things are making a mess since the air is shut right down to keep them from overheating.

From my experience, it's the idling that's the problem. I have folks in the neighborhood that use the darn things all summer long just to heat their hot water

pen

 

[Hearth Mistress]

They were banned in our township for a few years then all this whacky weather kept hitting us year after year and they are allowed again but VERY heavily regulated.

 

[nate vignola]

I've seen people burn everything under the sun in them around here, and for the most part, if it's wood, so long as it's cold out and the house is calling for serious heat, they burn pretty cleanly.

I don't care if the wood is seasoned or not, on a 45-50 degree day, when the house isn't calling for heat and nobody is using hot water, those things are making a mess since the air is shut right down to keep them from overheating.

From my experience, it's the idling that's the problem. I have folks in the neighborhood that use the darn things all summer long just to heat their hot water

pen

Happy earth day is all I can think of when the stove is used for DHW in the summer. The OWB could probably benefit from a differential style burn control, not the on/off method/heat call of a oil gun. Most oil appliances are either full on or full off, where a wood burning appliance is far from it. If the stove could be electronically throttled so that a minimum stack temp could be maintained, along with satisfying the heat load, smoke maybe a much less of an issue.

 

[StihlHead]

Eh, OWBs are completely banned in the state just north of me. My older smoke dragon wood stove puts out far more smoke than the ex's OWB ever did. Not everyone burns tires and RR ties in them, but they get a bad wrap like everyone does. They are capable of burning any type of wood though: green wet, dry, punky, buggy, sappy, etc., and they burn long smaller rounds and larger quartered rounds just fine. We had a solar water heater and shut the OWB down in the spring. Burning in anything outside during the fire season is not allowed in most western regions.