NYSERDA stands for New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. They have a program titled Environmental Monitoring, Evaluation, and Protection.
Their most recent newsletter (not on the website quite yet, at http://www.nyserda.org/programs/Environment/EMEP/home.asp) had an article, titled the same as the title of this post, highlighting the need to research the effectiveness of the newer, highest efficiency wood-burners. They mentioned the increase in the number of extremely low-efficiency, traditional OWB's, the high number of wood burners overall, and the proportion of Particulate Matter in the air in New York.
Of the Particulate Matter in the air in NY, 55% comes from "Carbonaceous" sources, such as wood burning, petroleum use, etc. The other 45% would be soil, dust and similar non-carbon based particles. Of the 55% that is "Carbonaceous", only about 19% of that total comes from gasoline and diesel engines (road and off-road farm equipment). Guess what provides the majority of Carbonaceous PM at 65%? Yep, residential fuel combustion. This lumps Nat Gas, Propane, and Firewood, but in most of upstate NY, more than 90% of that category comes from firewood (much less in NYC).
Anyway, one burner they highlighted was the Econoburn gassification boiler. The full report that the newsletter article summarizes is on the website, and can be downloaded at http://www.nyserda.org/programs/Environment/EMEP/Carbonaceous_PM_2.5_Volume_II.pdf It's pretty interesting.
On a very tangential note, a lot of the knowledge on this forum is experience-based, and the number of contributors provides an incredible body of knowledge. However, the statistics in these kinds of reports are really needed to fully flesh out some of the more opinionated discussions, such as on the merits (or lack thereof) of OWBs, and the idea that if you're out in the boonies, it doesn't really matter if you have a tremendous smoke plume out of your chimney. Take this comment for what it's worth, but the report and the content in general is probably important to all of us.
Their most recent newsletter (not on the website quite yet, at http://www.nyserda.org/programs/Environment/EMEP/home.asp) had an article, titled the same as the title of this post, highlighting the need to research the effectiveness of the newer, highest efficiency wood-burners. They mentioned the increase in the number of extremely low-efficiency, traditional OWB's, the high number of wood burners overall, and the proportion of Particulate Matter in the air in New York.
Of the Particulate Matter in the air in NY, 55% comes from "Carbonaceous" sources, such as wood burning, petroleum use, etc. The other 45% would be soil, dust and similar non-carbon based particles. Of the 55% that is "Carbonaceous", only about 19% of that total comes from gasoline and diesel engines (road and off-road farm equipment). Guess what provides the majority of Carbonaceous PM at 65%? Yep, residential fuel combustion. This lumps Nat Gas, Propane, and Firewood, but in most of upstate NY, more than 90% of that category comes from firewood (much less in NYC).
Anyway, one burner they highlighted was the Econoburn gassification boiler. The full report that the newsletter article summarizes is on the website, and can be downloaded at http://www.nyserda.org/programs/Environment/EMEP/Carbonaceous_PM_2.5_Volume_II.pdf It's pretty interesting.
On a very tangential note, a lot of the knowledge on this forum is experience-based, and the number of contributors provides an incredible body of knowledge. However, the statistics in these kinds of reports are really needed to fully flesh out some of the more opinionated discussions, such as on the merits (or lack thereof) of OWBs, and the idea that if you're out in the boonies, it doesn't really matter if you have a tremendous smoke plume out of your chimney. Take this comment for what it's worth, but the report and the content in general is probably important to all of us.
