In which I'm not a math major and I don't help with a yearly chore
Maybe lytha's man can do the math for me on this one,
because I really want to know the answer:
How much total pollution is caused by burning wood in a certified wood stove?
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| Most people would say "a lot" because they can see the chimney smoke, although a proper fire in a certified stove should have smoke that is practically invisible. |
Math question, part 2:
How does the amount of pollution generated by burning wood in a certified stove compare with the amount of pollution generated by burning fossil fuels for heat?
I actually think this is a trick question, because I want to count all the pollution, not just the pollution that happens at the ignition location.
For example, to burn wood in a wood stove, you start with a tree:
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| This tree was in Sandy's backyard this morning. |
To turn this tree into heat, you have to chop it down.
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| gas-powered chainsaws make pollution too, as anyone who has stood downwind can testify. |
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| This isn't us up in the tree, BTW. I'm at work all day, and Sandy hired a tree service. |
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| With the right (gas-powered) equipment and some killer skillz, the tree comes down safely, in pieces. |
In this case, the pieces of tree were then loaded into trucks by another gas-powered machine.
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| Usually it's me and Jim and Monica lifting rounds into trucks, without machines. Today, Jim and Monica and Sandy and Sirie and the tree service guys did the work, with the machines to help. |
The trucks drive from Sandy's house in Everett to our farm in Arlington (23.5 miles or so).
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| Laden diesel trucks get about 13 mpg. This tree requires (at least) 2 trips with two trucks + 1 horse trailer. |
In theory, the wood rounds can be split by hand...but with this much wood, it's more time-efficient to use a gas-powered splitter.
Once split, the wood gets stacked in the shed and allowed to cure (dry) for 6-12 months.
Then we burn it.
So, the pollution creators in this process are:
- chainsaws,
- the bobcat (moving the big rounds to the trucks),
- trucks,
- and a splitter.
Seems like a lot of pollution, right?
But how does it compare to this?
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| The Exxon Valdez, BBC photo |
I'm not saying that wood heat is absolutely clean. I'd love to install solar panels and get some cleaner power from them, if not some heat, in order to decrease our pollution footprint.
But when we add up the pollution, I want to add it all: pollution caused by extraction, transport, and consumption.
And also spills.
Because truthfully, when we drop a load of firewood in the driveway,
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| 2014 firewood in our driveway |
it's pretty easy to pick it back up without poisoning anything.
Okay, Math Majors: do your thing!
Sorry J could not help - it's a controversial issue and it's hard to find answers.
ReplyDeleteWhat I found was 1. use a certified stove (you do) and 2. use a sustainable source (you do - trees from someone's yard are definitely preferrable to illegal cutting).
It's impossible to find unbiased info, check out this Puget Sound clean air chart:
http://www.familiesforcleanair.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/chart_circles.gif
Electric heat produces NO emissions? Where do they think it comes from? Is Puget Sound producing electricity from 100% renewables?
"Washington is the leading hydroelectricity producing state in the nation. ... Washington is a major electricity exporter, supplying electricity to several other states, including California. Natural gas, coal, and nuclear combined generate almost 25 percent of the state's electricity." --Institute for Energy Research.
DeleteThis is corroborated by the United States Energy Information Agency (https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=WA) which says that Washington generates about 25% of the nation's hydro power.
Hydro energy is not without issues itself, of course--ask any salmon you meet. But it is much cleaner to extract and "burn" than oil or coal (though not very efficient for heating). Because WA makes its own electricity, our rates are almost the lowest in the country, but heating with electricity is NOT cheap. We have to use the forced air/electric heat during air quality burn bans and I hate it because it's loud and $$$!
Washington now houses a lot of wind farms, too--again, less pollution to extract, and we don't worry about "spillage" but wind farms have their own issues (bird deaths, for one).
Math, ugh.