So far have not seen any bumps for VOC or PM2.5 from the Progress Hybrid at all, including when it went black for a while and then did an explosive whoosh. Cooking, on the other hand, is pretty surprising, even though we have a very good range hood that vents to outdoors. Both VOC and PM2.5 bump quite a bit.
Wood stove use and health
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Hi John, that's an interesting data point for me given that your stove is a similar construction to mine (cast iron frame, soapstone panels, gaskets between panels and frame) from the same manufacturer. I've got some more data to report (hopefully this weekend) and things are increasingly narrowing down to my double-wall black stove pipe connection to my chimney pipe, which I will be updating this summer.
The progress is actually different in that it is a welded steel stove with soapstone panels inside, and then the cast iron frame with more soapstone outside of it. So the whole firebox is a steel stove. But then the top part of the stove, the exhaust gasses and cat, are topped by a gasket with steel topper.
Well, good news- my new pm 2.5 seems to work. Went to bake bread this morning and the numbers shoe up to 999 pretty quick. Turns out some grease must have spilled on oven bc house got pretty smoky like we were self-cleaning.
Gives some perspective to the low numbers I’ve been seeing during wood stove operation.
Gives some perspective to the low numbers I’ve been seeing during wood stove operation.
This is where it gets tricky with VOCs - they come from a lot of different sources and some are a lot more benign than others. The VOCs that come from late-stage coaling combustion would be far more harmful than those that come from ripening fruit, for example, but the detector registers them as all the same.
In this context (and while I don't know whether coaling stage combustion products are necessarily worse for one's health than cooking - and I do see you instead contrast with ripening fruit), I have always wondered about spray deodorants.
Much of that is VOCs, we "atomize" (a misnomer; it makes the droplets as small as possible, and stuff evaporates) that, spray it right to our body, and breathe it in.
Just a thought from a layperson on the issue of health.
Much of that is VOCs, we "atomize" (a misnomer; it makes the droplets as small as possible, and stuff evaporates) that, spray it right to our body, and breathe it in.
Just a thought from a layperson on the issue of health.
So I *am* seeing spikes in VOC from the Progress Hybrid on my instrument in spite of my earlier claims to the contrary. IDK of recent burns were different or if the instrument is now calibrated and more responsive/sensitive.
So pretty much as soon as I close the bypass the last couple of fires, VOCS start to rise to over 300ppb and continue above baseline until the latest stage of coaling. Those last fires also contained some or a lot of the last-summer-cut ash, which is 20% moisture toward the edges of the interior of a freshly split log but up to 25% in the middle of the interior. So definitely not ideal firewood. I've just run out of the really dry stuff last week, so this isn't a fair test of the stove. Also with warmer temps outside air movement through the house -- natural ventilation -- is probably less.
I doubt I'll burn at all for the rest of this year, since it's mini split weather.
I won't really be able to study/work on this until next burning season. But for now I have to retract my assessment of at least my version of the PH in this regard.
So pretty much as soon as I close the bypass the last couple of fires, VOCS start to rise to over 300ppb and continue above baseline until the latest stage of coaling. Those last fires also contained some or a lot of the last-summer-cut ash, which is 20% moisture toward the edges of the interior of a freshly split log but up to 25% in the middle of the interior. So definitely not ideal firewood. I've just run out of the really dry stuff last week, so this isn't a fair test of the stove. Also with warmer temps outside air movement through the house -- natural ventilation -- is probably less.
I doubt I'll burn at all for the rest of this year, since it's mini split weather.
I won't really be able to study/work on this until next burning season. But for now I have to retract my assessment of at least my version of the PH in this regard.
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