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Best Burn Practices
Safe Wood Burning Practices
- Operate according to manufacturer's instructions.
- Never start a fire with gasoline, kerosene, charcoal starter, or a propane torch.
- Do not burn any wood that does not meet the definition of clean wood.
- Build hot fires. A smoldering fire is not an efficient fire.
- Keep the doors of your hydronic heater closed unless you are loading or stoking the live fire.
- Regularly remove ashes from your hydronic heater into a metal container with a cover.
- Follow best practices for stack heights and proximity to property lines.
Installation Affects Air Quality, Health, and Efficiency
EPA recommends that your hydronic heater be professionally installed to insure its safety and proper performance. There are many building code requirements (e.g. heat output, efficiency, life-cycle longevity) and safety requirements that are applicable in most areas. Your dealer can assist you in finding a qualified professional.
Practical Tips for Building a Fire
Once your hydronic heater is properly installed, building an effective fire requires good fuel (using the right fuel in the right amount) and good fire building practices. The following practical steps will help you obtain the best efficiency from your hydronic heater.
- Season wood outdoors through the hot, dry summer for at least 6 months before burning it. Properly seasoned wood is darker, has cracks in the end grain, and sounds hollow when smacked against another piece of wood.
- Store wood outdoors, stacking it neatly off the ground with the top covered.
- Burn only dry, well-seasoned wood that has been split properly.
Regularly remove ashes from the hydronic heater into a metal container with a cover and properly cool before disposal.
Money Saving Tips
Look into getting your name on a list with local tree cutters who will drop wood at your home. This saves them from traveling to the landfill and paying dumping fees. It also reduces landfill dumping. Plus, you'll end up with some free firewood.
You can reduce overall heating needs and heating bills by improving the insulation in your home; caulking around windows, doors, and pipes to seal air gaps; and adding weather-stripping to doors and windows. EPA's ENERGY STAR Home Improvement provides information on home sealing.
Using Your Hydronic Heater Safely
Safety Begins at Installation
Using a hydronic heater safely starts with proper installation. EPA recommends using a professional installer as the best way to ensure correct, safe installation.
Safety Includes Yearly Maintenance
EPA and fire officials recommend having your hydronic heater, chimney, and vents professionally inspected and cleaned, if necessary, each year to keep them in safe working order.
Safe Wood Burning Practices
Once your hydronic heater is properly installed, follow these guidelines for safe operation:
- Start fires only with clean newspaper and dry kindling. Never start a fire with gasoline, kerosene, charcoal starter, or a propane torch.
- Do not burn wet or green (unseasoned) logs.
- Do not use logs made from wax and sawdust in your hydronic heater.
- Build robust, hot fires. A smoldering fire is not a safe or efficient fire.
- Keep the doors of your hydronic heater closed unless loading or stoking the live fire.
- Regularly remove ashes from your hydronic heater into a metal container with a cover. Store the container of ashes outdoors on a cement or brick slab (not on a wood deck or near wood).
- Keep a fire extinguisher handy.
Burn Smart
A properly designed, installed, and correctly used hydronic heater releases significantly less pollution into the environment. A fire that is burning properly produces little or no smoke from the chimney. If you see a lot of smoke coming from a chimney, that's air pollution. It can affect the health of everyone in your neighborhood.
Follow the additional precautions below:
- Never burn household garbage or cardboard. Plastics and the colored ink on magazines, boxes, and wrappers produce harmful chemicals when burned.
- Never burn coated, painted, or pressure-treated wood because it releases toxic chemicals when burned.
- Never burn plywood, particle board, or any wood with glue on or in it. They all release toxic chemicals when burned.
- Never burn wet, rotted, diseased, or moldy wood.
A Clean, Healthy Outdoor Environment
Smoke results from incomplete burning. When released outdoors it becomes air pollution. In some parts of the United States during a typical wood heating season, wood smoke can account for about 80 percent of the air pollution in a residential area. Visit:
- AIRNow to see the air quality forecast for your area.
- State air pollution agency to find out whether there are restrictions on wood burning in your area.
- AIRNow Inversions to learn more about restrictions on wood burning during a temperature inversion.
- Hydronic heater owners can help prevent pollution by following the practical recommendations for buying, installing, operating, and maintaining their heaters as described on this and preceding pages. If you see a lot of smoke from your neighbors' hydronic heater, urge them to visit this Web site.