Is this the future of burning wood

http://montrealgazette.com/storyline/register-your-fireplace-or-wood-burning-stove-by-sundown-or-be-fined-up-to-500


**Register your fireplace or wood-burning stove by sundown, or be fined up to $500 **

December 22, 2015 8:00 am
Dec. 22 is the deadline for Montreal residents to register all fireplaces or wood-burning stoves (or anything that burns solid matter, as opposed to fuel or electric). It’s part of a plan adopted by the city of Montreal to implement stricter air-pollution regulations by 2018. Dorval recently adopted similar measures.
Montreal sent out 47,000 letters to residents it suspects has the appliances, based on their records of municipal home evaluations. As of late November, the city had compiled 23,000 online responses.
The penalty to residents who have not registered wood-burning fireplaces or stoves is a fine of up to $500.
Starting in 2018, wood-burning appliances will be banned unless they meet the rigorous new emission standards of 2.5 grams of fine particles or less per hour. The bylaw is among the strictest in North America, said Réal Ménard, the city’s executive committee responsible for the environment. Presently, transforming a stove or fireplace with inserts so that it is in compliance with the coming regulations costs between $2,000 and $8,000.
Also part of the new bylaw:
tisement* No wood-burning appliances can be operated on smog days, when air pollution rates are considered dangerously high.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_29002369/ban-wood-burning-heating-devices-considered-new-bay
Bay Area first: Wood-burning heating devices to be banned in new homes

By Denis Cuff dcuff@bayareanewsgroup.com

Updated: 10/21/2015 07:08:06 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO – Wood-burning heaters – including modern pollution-fighting wood stoves – will not be permitted in new homes built in the Bay Area starting next fall, as part of a first-in-the-nation ban approved by air quality regulators Wednesday.
The new rules, approved unanimously by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, will also require every seller of an existing home with a wood-burning fireplace to give buyers a disclosure statement warning of the health risks of wood smoke.
Even wood stoves certified by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as low emission would not be allowed in new homes whose construction begins after Nov. 1, 2016, in the seven Bay Area counties, plus southern parts of Sonoma and Solano counties.

The Bay Area has become the first region in the nation to ban wood-burning heating devices even modern stoves – in new-home construction. (Mathew Sumner/Staff file photo)
The air board also pledged to eliminate all exemptions to a wood-burning ban on Spare the Air days in five years. For example, people are now exempt if they don’t have natural gas lines in the neighborhood.
“We are serious about reducing the health risks associated with our residents’ exposure to wood smoke,” said Kristine Roselius, an air district spokeswoman. “We are strengthening a rule that has been successful in protecting public health.”
District officials and scientists say the ultrafine particles from smoke that lodge deep in the lungs can trigger asthma and bronchitis attacks and increase the risk of strokes and heart attacks.
Wood smoke accounts for about 39 percent of the fine particulates in low-lying air in the Bay Area on cold winter days, the air district estimates.
The air district already bans builders and remodelers from installing old-fashioned, open-hearth wood-burning fireplaces, which lack pollution controls to capture fine smoke particles.The new ban goes further, applying to all indoor, wood-burning, home-heating devices in new home construction.
The ban does not apply to gas or electric heating devices such as fire logs or fireplace inserts that have become increasingly common as the popularity of wood has waned.
The new seller disclosure requirement replaced a controversial proposal that would have required home sellers to replace old fireplaces or high-emission wood stoves with cleaner-heating devices even if it costs them hundreds or thousands of dollars. Homeowners and real estate sales representatives vehemently opposed that idea when it was proposed by the air board earlier this year.
A spokesman for the home-heating appliance industry denounced the rule changes as unnecessary and unfair.
“I think this is an overreaction,” said John Crouch, spokesman for the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association, which represents both wood- and gas-fueled heating products. “I don’t think other pollution boards will take this approach.”
He predicted the changes would cause hardships for low- or moderate-income, semirural families who rely on wood or pellet stoves for heat – especially in areas that do not have access to natural gas pipelines.
The Sierra Club and League of Women Voters, however, supported the change.
To ease the burden on those who burn wood to heat homes, the air board pledged to put up $3 million in rebates to cover at least half of the cost of replacing old wood-burning devices with modern, cleaner-heating ones.
Details of the rebates are being worked out, but priorities will go to low-income residents, air district officials said.
Contact Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267. Follow him at Twitter.com/deniscuff](http://twitter.com/deniscuff).

WHAT THE ACTION DOES
Bans indoor wood-burning heating devices in new homes begun after Nov. 1, 2016.
Requires home sellers and landlords to disclose the health hazards of burning wood from a heating device at their properties.
Provides $3 million in rebates to subsidize homeowners’ costs to replace an old fireplace or other wood-burning device with a modern, cleaner-heating one.
Requires all fireplace or chimney remodels costing $15,000 or more be replaced with modern device meeting EPA standards, or a gas or electric heating device unless the device is already EPA-certified.
Spells out that homes with no permanently installed gas, butane or electric heating option must register with the air district to get an exemption from the no-burn rule on Spare the Air days.
For more information, go to www.baaqmd.gov](http://www.baaqmd.gov/).