Does heating with wood cause global warming ?
\nWhat about local air quality ?
\nDoes wood heating harm the forest ?
\nIs wood heating safe?
\nGood questions. Real Answers.<\/b><\/p>\n
Wood heating and global warming<\/p>\n
By heating with wood you do not contribute to the greenhouse effect as
\nyou would by heating with one of the fossil fuels like oil and gas. When oil
\nand gas are burned, carbon that has been buried within the earth for
\nthousands of years is released in the form of carbon dioxide, a by-product
\nof combustion. The result is an increase in the atmospheric concentration of
\ncarbon dioxide, the cause of the greenhouse effect.<\/p>\n
Although carbon makes up about half the weight of firewood and is
\nreleased as carbon dioxide when the wood is burned, it is part of a natural
\ncycle. A tree absorbs carbon dioxide from the air as it grows and uses this
\ncarbon to build its structure. When the tree falls and decays in the forest,
\nor is processed into firewood and burned, the carbon is released again to
\nthe atmosphere. This cycle can be repeated forever without increasing
\natmospheric carbon. Heating with wood, therefore, does not contribute to
\nthe greenhouse effect. And there’s more good news: when the use of
\nwood for energy displaces the use of fossil fuels, the result is a net
\nreduction in greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n
Wood heating and air quality<\/p>\n
Wood is not an inherently dirty fuel that causes serious air pollution. While
\nit is true that old technology like open fireplaces and simple heaters could
\nnot burn the wood completely, the new generation of woodburning
\nappliances produce almost no visible smoke and deliver efficiencies in the
\nrange of 70 percent. Developed since 1980, improved technology has cut
\nparticulate emissions (smoke) by about 90 percent compared with
\nconventional equipment. Wood may not be the best fuel choice in densly
\npopulated urban areas where automobile exhaust and other pollution
\nalready puts excessive strains on the air shed. But in suburban, small town,
\nand rural areas, wood makes good sense.<\/p>\n
Wood contains only a negligable amount of sulphur, an element that leads
\nto acid rain. In this age of environmental awareness, a big advantage of
\nwood over the fossil fuels is that its main environmental impact occurs at
\nthe point of use and is visible for all to see. In contrast, the real
\nenvironmental impacts of oil and gas are hidden from view because they
\noccur during extraction, refining and transportation of the fuels to market.<\/p>\n
source:
\nhttp:\/\/www.hearth.com\/econtent\/index.php\/articles\/clearing_the_air<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Does heating with wood cause global warming ? What about local air quality ? Does wood heating harm the forest ? Is wood heating safe? Good questions. Real Answers. Wood heating and global warming By heating with wood you do not contribute to the greenhouse effect as you would by heating with one of the fossil fuels like oil and gas. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n