I need Forum participation. Get your thinking caps on. Lets get together and impact our enviorment

[begreen]

Uncle Rich.... slightly off topic, but here goes. WA state requires 4.5 grams or less per hour. WA also requires an OAK on all installations, though a variance can be received. WA says stoves are grandfathered, but even if you move the same stove within the same structure, that is considered a "new" installation, and hence the rules above apply. As for the sale of non EPA stoves, people do it all the time. The reality of it is that people install old stoves, and get away with it, but yes it is against the law.

-Kevin

I'm sure chimneysweep or BG will be along soon if I messed up the rules.

My understanding is that the OAK requirement is so poorly written that the state leaves it up to the counties to decide. Thus, the largest county in the state, King county, has foregone this requirement unless the stove is installed in an airtight house or mobile home.

As to against the law, I'm not sure if that is the right phrasing. It is against code, but I am not aware of penalties for purchasing, installing or moving an older stove, as long as it is used efficiently. If you burn a non-EPA stove (or a new EPA stove) like a smudge pot, then there are air quality penalties that can be enforced in the Puget Sound region. I'm for those laws, they benefit all of us. As Martha would say, burning cleanly is a good thing.

In Skagit county, there has been a county incentive program to replace older stoves especially in the Darrington area due to the valley trapping a lot of smoke and the high number of older stoves there.

As to the Spokane area person complaining about regs, I haven't found anything in one's face WRT stove installations, including pellet stoves. From what I'm reading it's pretty much the same now in WA state as it is across the country. But some folks still want to be able to stick a dryer ventpipe out the window wired with baling wire and call it done. And my guess is that they will always complain. It may be ok if one is out in the country, but when your foolishness is likely to burn down your neighbor's house, and endanger firemen, then a safe installation becomes a higher priority.

 

[treeman08]

In Central Washington we have the Yakima Valley Clean Air Authority. They have funded in the past, and are discussing again having a rebate program for changing out old non EPA certified stoves. It is as mentioned above illegal to transfer a not certified stove.
They also monitor the particulates in the air, and institute Burn Bans in the winter if the air becomes stagnate. They have in the past issued stage 1 bans that do not allow outdoor burning and only allow wood burning in certified stoves. The last couple of years I was burning an un-certified stove and had to stop burning for a couple of weeks at a time. This year I purchased a cirtified Blazeking so I could keep the fires burning.
They have now changed the limits on particulates and as a result, issued a stage 2 burn ban for the first time in 7 years. A stage 2 ban is for all wood and pellet stoves unless it is your only source of heat.
Therefore I am now looking at my Beautiful stove wishing it was pumping out heat, and watching the Electric meter spin. I figure it cost me almost 2$ a day to not burn my stove.
Dont ya just love it when the government helps us out...