Special report on wood stoves....tomorrow on CBS morning news.

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michael

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Nov 19, 2005
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The CBS show "The Early Show" will air a report on wood stoves and their safety on Tuesday morning (6th). From the looks of the ad highlighting that segment, it looks to be a particularly damning report. I'm sure it will be completely biased and will say anyone with a wood stove is socially maladjusted or at the very least attempting to commit suicide.

Remember Audi? The car that would magically drive itself into walls or other hard stationary objects. I expect nothing less from this report.

I could be wrong (and I hope I am), but most of these news shows attempt to sensationalize anything they can to get ratings.
 
Well, bad press is a double edged sword. If the rest of the folks decide that wood heat isn't a good thing, then more wood for me. I don't want competition for getting free wood. On the otherhand, and if I put on my eco-Nazi, anti-fossil fuels hat, then it's bad. If we want to achieve energy independence from the middle east, then we need to do something, and sitting here now, today, I'm heating my home with wood, and doing MY part.

Mainstream news reporting should always be taken with a grain of salt. It's aimed at sensationalism, and a nice cheery, warm woodstove isn't all that exciting.

A catastrophic house fire that cooks the family dog and leaves the rest in the ER is much more "exciting".

Maybe we could counter their show with one of our own. Hey, that idea of drinking beer and measuring stack temps comes to mind. We could sell ad time to Boston Beer and Lopi and Energex.
 
It must be important it would not be on national television. Big increase in sales of wood stoves this year. Don’t you think the insurance companies are worrying about this too? The more wood we burn the more homes will burn down too. Operating a wood stove is not for everyone. In 5 yrs these stoves will be outlawed. By reading all these post on this board you can see a lot of people here don’t have a clue on how to operate a stove safely. Burning wood is not going to solve our energy problem. its dangerous and requires a lot of maintenance to keep it going safely
 
From the looks of the ad highlighting that segment, it looks to be a particularly damning report. I'm sure it will be completely biased and will say anyone with a wood stove is socially maladjusted or at the very least attempting to commit suicide.

I could be wrong (and I hope I am), but most of these news shows attempt to sensationalize anything they can to get ratings.


Whoooaaaaaa, are you suggesting that the media is biased?
 
Ray4852 said:
In 5 yrs these stoves will be outlawed. By reading all these post on this board you can see a lot of people here don’t have a clue on how to operate a stove safely.

Change the word "post on this board" to talk in the coffee room and I heard exactly the same thing in 1986.
 
Ray4852 said:
In 5 yrs these stoves will be outlawed. By reading all these post on this board you can see a lot of people here don’t have a clue on how to operate a stove safely.

Change the word "post on this board" to "talk in the coffee room" and I heard exactly the same thing in 1986.

What I see on this Forum is people that are concerned about properly installing and operating wood burning appliances. I would drive to work each day feeling easier if people wanted to learn this much about maintaining and driving that car in front, beside, and in back of me.
 
Ray4852 said:
It must be important it would not be on national television. Big increase in sales of wood stoves this year. Don’t you think the insurance companies are worrying about this too? The more wood we burn the more homes will burn down too. Operating a wood stove is not for everyone. In 5 yrs these stoves will be outlawed. By reading all these post on this board you can see a lot of people here don’t have a clue on how to operate a stove safely. Burning wood is not going to solve our energy problem. its dangerous and requires a lot of maintenance to keep it going safely

Granted, as the cost of heating goes up, more people will try to heat cheaply, and news reports will and should warn folks of the dangers, but what stoves are going to be banned in 5 years? Seems like an awful lot of prognostication is happening on this forum.

My take on most posts is that the primary issue is not maintenance, but safe/unsafe installations and burning habits. This is a good thing. Asking questions so that one can install and use a stove safely is a very healthy trend. A post 90's stove properly installed can burn safely with minimal maintenance (chimney cleaning, annual gasket checks). But there is an issue that neither this board, nor insurance companies can solve: the Darwin factor. Some people just seemed destined to do really dumb things.
 
CBS News has the wood stove piece available online:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/earlyshow/main500202_overflow.shtml

It's about halfway down on the right under "The Early Show Videos".

It seemed like reasonable coverage to me.

Do folks usually keep a fire extinguisher in the vicinity of their stove? My stove isn't installed yet, but I was planning on it.
 
Anybody notice that they don't have the proper setback at the front of the hearth? Hearth rug over wall to wall? Would you pass that Elk?

And how about the bit at the end about 'some inspectors really knwo what they're doing and some don't.' True, but not necessarily a good message.
 
Ray4852 said:
Burning wood is not going to solve our energy problem.

Solves mine. Two years ago I burned about 2,300 therms over the course of the heating season. This winter, fewer than 100, and that's just the gas dryer.

Nobody's going to ban wood stoves. Outside boilers, maybe. If that kind of regulation were possible, things like motorcycles and chainsaws would have been banned decades ago. Shoot, we can't even get assault weapons banned, and you're predicting the end of the wood stove as we know it? Get real.
 
Steve said:
Anybody notice that they don't have the proper setback at the front of the hearth? Hearth rug over wall to wall? Would you pass that Elk?

Easy to see how the some could be confused over what is right and wrong

Hearthrug over a carpet = NOT going to pass inspection, at least in my town
Put up a screen, everything will be just fine 8-/

Good advise on the dry wood
Bad advice on only getting a chimney check once a year

If I am not mistaken the one that caused the fire they referenced in the story (not the woman and her family) was a chimney that had not been used in years and they decided to fire it up
 
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