I didn't! I live in Alaska and my old cast iron was taken away, swapped out through our interior weatherization program. I was told I was getting a 3500 and I did lots of investigating on that! But when they showed up they said oh you're getting the 1500
I was wondering that myself. I mean like do the wood stove police show up and take your stove?
A 1.1 cu ft box won't burn long (enough, in Alaska) even after the learning curve has saturated.
Well not exactly. They swapped out his old stove for a new one which is much better (although possibly undersized) for free.
It's not the the state it's the Borough. The interior is down in a hole so when the temperature drops well into the -'s all the pollution hangs low and the air becomes unhealthy to breath. Their answer to the problem is to change out woodstoves to modern ones that burn cleaner and even at that they tell us we can't burn when it gets really cold. Problem with their solution is the woodstoves are not the problem. When you have coal plants, tens of thousands of oil boilers that may have not been serviced for a decade, thousands of cars and numerous other smoke bellowing devices your going to have unhealthy air. They have even overreached far enough that it's now illegal to sell green firewood. They figure the average homeowner is incapable of seasoning their own firewood the way mother nature intended, instead it has to be kiln dried, wonder how much pollution that kiln provides 🤔
Nope they show up and fine you for keeping your house warm. You can have a old woodstove, just can't light a fire in it during cold weather. We know a elderly person who has since passed away that use to heat with wood. When this whole change-out program started her stove was replaced with a modern stove half the size of the old one. The new stove wouldn't heat the kitchen where it was installed let alone the whole house like the old one did. Not sure who decides what stove you get but there seems to be a problem.
There is nothing free. Where you think the borough gets the money to buy all these undersized wood stoves? My old stove probably didn't qualify for the change out because it was a catalyst and not that old but I didn't even think about using the program, I just bought the stove I wanted and got on with my life. I have yet to see a government program that doesn't cost the taxpayers millions.
Yes of course it's paid for by tax dollars. My comment was in response to the people acting like the op was forced to give up their old stove and buy a new one. That simply is not the case. And btw the research indicates that wood burners are a major contributor to the air quality issues. I don't know personally because I don't live there. But the data says it is.
Not uncommon in an area where smoke is trapped in a geographic location that is prone to smoke buildup in winter due to temperature inversions. When hundreds or thousands of people start having health issues due to smoke, it becomes a public problem. Libby, MT, the Puget Sound region, and parts of VT all have this issue.
![[Hearth.com] Too small to burn regular logs](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/299/299577-57f5c61067d7e6ce8c3fac2b0b12b24c.jpg?hash=uCo99zjR1c "[Hearth.com] Too small to burn regular logs")
