EPA regs

[40to1]

I'm curious if wood-fired evaporators have to comply with the EPA's Phase II Wood Stove Emissions Regulations.
Recently I've been surfing for info on wood stoves and they all reference these regs and how clean their stoves burn with - or without - catalytic converters.

Maybe I never keyed into it, but I don't recall any manufacturers' mention that their wood-fired evaporators meet these standards.
Do they? Do they have to?

Your thoughts?

[3rdgen.maple]

I would have to think since an evaporator is so effecient at burning wood there isnt much too worry about. I know I can look at the chimney on the house and see smoke billowing out of it and never seen that on my evaporator. Nothing but heat going up the stack.

[Flat47]

...keep it to a whisper - you're giving Big Bro ideas...

[red maples]

sshhhhh!!!!

I do get some black smoke!!! usually when my wood is a little bigger or slightly damp which happened a little last year bacause it rained so much!!!

? grandfather clause ???

I would assume that just like an older car that was manufactured without a cat. converter they don't check for emissions.(or they do but its to the specs of the car ot truck. I am in NH also where they just start to check auto emission like 2 years ago or something.

but the way I see is if it wasn't manufactured with it then your fine.

I for see in the near future especially with the new force 5 from lappierre being so environmentally safe. you will start to see a trend and Big bro will step in to regulate soon. as they do every other friggin' thing.

[markcasper]

the sad thing......most people on here will let them.

[Flat47]

There are a couple of things already going in our favor.
1. We are considered as agriculture by law-makers, not industrial. There's a lot of lobby power to keep agriculture up and running, and not press more regs on the industry.
2. Our evaporators are designed to be run hot all the time, which results in near-complete combustion. This is unlike outdoor wood boilers which cycle and thereby create smoke and particulate issues.
3. Our rigs are designed to burn effiecently. Either by natural draft or by forced draft, we run high-draft rigs (woodstoves are restricted-draft by comparison). This plus the shape of the firebox combined with correct stack height equals a hot clean burn. If not, something is wrong and it's hurting the boil and we fix it anyway.
4. We're not creating nuisance smoke issues (for the reasons above). If we have, then something is going wrong in the firing of the evaporator like wet wood, green wood, burning prohibited materials (tires, tubing, trash, etc.), incorrect arch bricking, incorrect stack height, etc. Obvious polluters are reg targets. We are not polluters.
5. We are a minority within agriculture. Yes, we are big business as a whole, but there are realitively few of us clustered into a realitively small region, operating in a very small window of time. Very little benefit would be realized by any emission controls.

Now that I've stuck my neck out there, let's hear it!

[TF Maple]

There are a couple of things already going in our favor.
1. We are considered as agriculture by law-makers, no industrial. There's a lot of lobby power to keep agriculture up and running, and not press more regs on the industry.
2. Our evaporators are designed to be run hot all the time, which results in near-complete combustion. This is unlike outdoor wood boilers which cycle and thereby create smoke and particulate issues.
3. Our rigs are designed to burn effiecently. Either by natural draft or by forced draft, we run high-draft rigs (woodstoves are restricted-draft by comparison). This plus the shape of the firebox combined with correct stack height equals a hot clean burn. If not, something is wrong and it's hurting the boil and we fix it anyway.
4. We're not creating nuisance smoke issues (for the reasons above). If we have, then something is going wrong in the firing of the evaporator like wet wood, green wood, burning prohibited materials (tires, tubing, trash, etc.), incorrect arch bricking, incorrect stack height, etc. Obvious polluters are reg targets. We are not polluters.
5. We are a minority within agriculture. Yes, we are big business as a whole, but there are realitively few of us clustered into a realitively small region, operating in a very small window of time. Very little benefit would be realized by any emission controls.

Now that I've stuck my neck out there, let's hear it!

My thoughts exactly, thanks for saving me from doing all the typing.

[red maples]

yes, I did forget about all that Ag stuff. Agreed on all acounts

[cncaboose]

Another factor in our favor is that we have a very hot fire going for a few hours maybe 12-15 days of the year. Not worth regulating. The outdoor boilers go 24/7 and some people around here run them year round to make hot water. It really seems out of place to see one of them smoldering and putting out smoke when it is 90 degrees out in the summer.

[Brent]

I can't agree with many of the above claims that we burn clean and hot. Natural draft and forced draft coming up through the grates blow a lot of unburned wood gasses up the stack.

The newest commercial arches ( and some home modified rigs ) that inject air over and into the fire to try to imitate the oxygen mixing of high efficiency wood stoves are much more efficient. Papers written by the Univ of Vermont and Michigan Dept of Ag support these designs.

I don't think anyone is going to come down on us, but last year with a couple of stainless tubes and a small high pressure blower injecting air over the fire, I cut my wood consumption approximately in half, boiled more and ran the same stack temps. That should be enough incentive for anyone on wood.