Woodburning & Allergies

[MeLikeUmFire]

I am planning to put a woodburning insert into my masonary fireplace once i find a good used one. I have mild to moderate allergies. When we have an occasional fire in our open masonary fireplace I get a little stuffy. With a airtight insert i am assuming my reaction would not be a "bad" due to the fact that the allergens would not be open to the room while burning. Anyone with allergies have any experience or advice. I know when i empty the ashes I might need a mask or something.

 

[ShenValSteve]

I have some allergy issues. You could kill me by locking me in a room with a cat, I'm OK with hay in the field but in the barn it really works on me, etc. When I got married and moved into my wife's house, I was sick the whole first year. No real central heat, a gas Warm Morning heater running up an unlined chimney and I thought I'd freeze. The second year, I put a wood stove in and it was like a miracle cure. I think the dampness in the house was what was making me sick, the stove fixed that problem. Good luck.

 

[Slow1]

I imagine it all depends on what exactly it is that your immune system is reacting to. I.e. what are you allergic to? If it is something that is carried in with wood (i.e. a particular mold spore that is common on the wood in your area) then simply having the wood in or near your home may be enough to cause you trouble no matter how you burn it. However, if you are sensitive to some byproduct of the burn then it may help. Most likely I would guess it isn't the smoke - unless you have a very bad system - as the smoke should be heading right up the chimney even with a non-airtight fireplace. If anything that is sucking more house air up with it. However once the fire dies down you do have the coals and unburned bits there as well as ashes that may be getting into the house and your air. If that is what is bothering you then the stove may well help to some degree.

I just picked up a small bit of very well seasoned wood from a fireplace burner simply because the homeowner said they couldn't have it in their house due to allergies - they said newer wood was fine but some particular mold on this wood caused them all sorts of trouble just to be near it. I was happy enough to get rid of it for them - 6 year old wood that seemed solid enough to me. I expect it will burn fine in my stove.

I guess this is a bit of a rambling way to say that unless you know what allergens you are reacting to, you won't know if the stove will be any better. I'd be terribly disappointed if I were you and found that it was the wood, not the way it was burned, that caused the trouble after spending the time/money/effort in getting the stove.

 

[bren582]

My wife has allergies and would always react very badly when I burned fires in the open fireplace.. I found myself alone most of the time as she just could not tolerate it. Now i'm burning in an insert and she has no issues at all, She loves sitting in the room staring at the light show almost as much as I do.. The only time these stoves introduce smoke into the living space is when you open the door to reload and even that can be greatly reduced if you have a good drafting chimney and follow some basic rules like cracking the door for a few seconds to evacuate smoke up the flue before opening to reload..

Its funny, The one thing I miss burning in my insert versus my fireplace is the aroma of wood like oak, hickory, cherry and sugar maple.. Love it.. Sometimes when the wife is not around I will open the door just to introduce some of the aroma into the room...

I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how clen your room air is when burning one of these new EPA certified stoves..

 

[DBoon]

I am allergic to everything (field pollens, tree pollens, cats, horses, molds, sawdust, some foods, etc. etc.). If the pollen levels are really high, I can get mild asthma. My wife has less allergies, but worst tendency to go to asthma.

We burn in a Lopi Answer with no problems. I do have a HEPA ash vac I use when I am cleaning out the ashes (more to vacuum up the airborne ash than to pull all the ashes out - another story). I do also wait to reload until the wood is in the coaling phase, and even then I first increase the primary air supply to maximum, crack the door for five seconds, then open it more - this reduces the chance of wood burning particles into the room. Some stoves have a secondary bypass that will eliminate this problem completely, and if your wife is that sensitive to smoke, I would look for a stove with that. Otherwise, one mistake on your part and then there is a little smoke in the room and the woodstove is now suspect.