Heating With Wood: Why Wood Heat Is Renewable Energy

Image Gallery EPA-certified woodstoves cut wood smoke by up to 90 percent compared with older, so-called “airtight” stoves. PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO/MONTEGARI PHOTOGRAPHY

John Gulland’s involvement with wood burning began in 1974 when he built a woodstove for his own home. Since then he has gained professional experience in virtually every aspect of heating with wood, including product design and manufacture, retailing, standards development, policy and market analysis, laboratory research, professional training and writing. Most recently he helped launch The Woodpile, an advocacy project attached to the popular woodheat.org website. 

By any measure, wood is an important residential energy resource, especially outside large urban areas. More than 10 million U.S. households — a little less than 10 percent of the total — use wood as their main heating fuel or to supplement other heating fuels. More than 25 percent of Canadian households are heating with wood.

A drive through small towns and down country roads in forested regions confirms that fuelwood is a significant energy resource. The long rows of piled firewood standing in yards serve as proof. Every winter, the wood is cut from woodlots, and every spring it’s split and stacked to dry in the summer sun. In the fall it’s moved to the house and stacked again, and in winter it keeps families cozy warm. It’s a seasonal ritual, that has been recurring for generations.

Firewood for home heating is an indigenous, renewable energy resource that helps families stretch their household budgets and strengthen their local economies. And yet, an increasing number of vocal activists are clamouring to have wood burning banned from their communities because of air pollution, and even some environmentalists warn against the increased use of firewood, fearing negative impacts on our forests.

A balanced assessment of firewood for home heating is long overdue. This article explores how burning wood contributes to the prosperity of rural communities, to the health and well-being of their inhabitants, and to the environmental sustainability of our society. It also tackles the problems of wood-smoke pollution and forest resource impacts.

Smoke Emissions

Wood-smoke pollution is the most serious negative result of wood heating, so it’s best to deal with it first.

The problem of smoke pollution from residential wood burning has been debated since the resurgence of wood as a fuel after the oil crisis of the 1970s. Because it contains toxic chemicals and known carcinogens, wood smoke is unhealthy to breathe in high concentrations, and even in low concentrations can be harmful to children, the elderly and those with lung diseases or allergies. There are three aspects of wood smoke pollution that can be considered: nuisance smoke caused by a neighbor; airshed contamination caused when many households contribute too much smoke in a confined area, such as a river valley; and indoor air pollution caused when a wood burning appliance spills smoke into the house.