Manufacturers cut emissions from wood-fired heaters

Source: WasteNews

Jan. 29 -- Manufacturers of wood-fired heaters have agreed to begin producing outdoor units that burn fuel more cleanly.

Key manufacturers will begin making the cleaner wood-fired heaters available for purchase this year under a voluntary partnership agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The new heaters, which provide heat and hot water for outdoor facilities and buildings, will be about 70 percent cleaner than models currently on the market, according to the EPA.

"This partnership, along with efforts from Northeast states, will provide consumers with a choice to purchase cleaner outdoor wood heaters and communities with tools to take action now," said Bill Wehrum, acting assistant administrator for EPA´s Office of Air and Radiation.

Outdoor wood-fired heaters also are called outdoor wood boilers, outdoor wood furnaces, or outdoor wood-fired hydronic heaters. Use of the heaters has increased in recent years, prompting complaints about smoke and concern about particle pollution.

Ten manufacturers that make 80 percent of the units sold in the United States have joined the partnership, agreeing to bring at least one unit meeting new performance specifications to market beginning this spring. The cleaner models will be marked by an orange hang tag showing that a unit meets the requirements of the program.

The EPA developed the voluntary program with input from heater manufacturers, states and the Hearth Patio & Barbecue Association, an industry trade group.

The manufacturers agreeing to make cleaner outdoor wood heaters are: Aqua-Therm, Black Bear/Clean Wood Heat, Burns Best, Central Boiler, Hardy Manufacturing Co., Heatmor, Mahoning Outdoor Furnace, Pro-Fab Industries, Woodmaster /Northwest Manufacturing, and Sequoyah Paradise.

Under the voluntary partnership agreement, the new models must emit no more than six-tenths of a pound of particle pollution per million British thermal units of heat input.

For information about outdoor wood heaters and the voluntary partnership, go to www.epa.gov/woodheaters.