Replace your wood stove

Burning wood produces emissions that are widely recognized as harmful to human health. Many of these harmful emissions can occur both indoors and outdoors and can pose a risk to children, older adults, and people with heart disease, asthma, and other lung diseases. Check out this comparison chart of how much pollution different heating sources emit:  Heating choice comparison chart - annual emissions (PDF).

According to the American Lung Association, pollution from wood smoke includes the following: 

  • Climate change pollution: wood smoke adds carbon dioxide and methane to the air, two pollutants that contribute significantly to climate change.
  • Particle pollution: smoke from fireplaces, wood stoves, backyard and land-clearing burn piles and wildfires contains fine particle pollution, which is one of the most serious air quality problems in the Puget Sound region.
  • Carbon monoxide: wood smoke can increase both outdoor and indoor concentrations of carbon monoxide. 
  • Nitrogen oxides: nitrogen oxides harm health indoors and outdoors and helps create particle pollution.
  • Volatile organic compounds: these gases – some of which are carcinogens – include harmful pollutants that contribute to ozone pollution. 

Reduce emissions from wood smoke

Switch to a high efficiency heat pump: Energy-efficient heat pumps are electric heating and cooling systems that can keep you comfortable at a fraction of the cost of standard systems. Heat pumps have many benefits, lower heating costs by 25-50% compared to standard electric heating systems. Learn more about energy-efficient heat pumps and explore if this is the right solution for you by visiting comfortreadyhome.com/guides.

ENERGY STAR certified heat pumps – available both with and without ducts – are energy-efficient, keeping your home comfortably cool and warm, while saving money on your energy bills and reducing your impact on the climate. Learn more about buying guidance, calculating savings, and determining when it’s time to replace your equipment at www.energystar.gov

Replace older wood burning devices with an EPA certified wood stove: Recycle your old wood stove through the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency’s wood stove program, which offers a $350 reward to eligible homeowners in Kitsap County. 

Eligible devices include:

  • Wood stoves or fireplace inserts (which are wood stoves made to be installed inside a fireplace) that are uncertified or don’t meet the 2020 EPA standard
  • Free-standing manufactured fireplaces. Not built-in, zero-clearance or traditional brick fireplaces.
  • Wood-burning furnaces or coal-burning devices

Your device must be in working order and can be installed or uninstalled for the recycling reward. Indoor barrel stoves and trash burners are not eligible for the reward.

Practice clean burning: If you can’t switch to a new heating system, then make sure you practice clean burning techniques. Pellets and dry wood can burn cleaner and more efficiently than other woods.  Review the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency’s clean burning guidance. 

 Did you know…..

  • It’s illegal to burn anything other than manufactured logs or dry, seasoned wood.
  • Generating excess smoke is illegal: smoke from your chimney cannot exceed 20 percent opacity for six consecutive minutes in any one-hour period. 
  • When the air agency declares a burn ban, it is unlawful to use your fireplace or uncertified wood stove, unless this is your only source of adequate heat. 
  • It’s illegal to buy, sell, exchange or give away uncertified wood stoves, fireplaces, and other solid fuel burning devices. 

Learn more and stay informed about air quality bans by signing up for the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency’s air quality burn-ban list.