Improve Air Quality with a Fireplace Insert
Some people suffer from breathing problems in the winter time. Some if these problems are caused by smoke from wood burning fireplaces. It doesn’t have to be this way. Old fashioned conventional fireplaces can put out a lot of smoke, especially if one is not careful about what is being burned. Green wood can put out a lot of smoke as can wet wood. A fire that has a poor draw will tend to smolder and put out a lot of smoke. Burning trash can also produce smoke and toxic gas, depending on what it being burned.
If you have a conventional fireplace you should seriously consider installing an EPA Certified fireplace insert. If not for yourself, do it for your neighbors. An EEPA Certified fireplace insert can cut the emissions coming from your chimney by as much as ninety percent or more to the point where you will hardly see any smoke coming from the chimney. In some areas there are actually codes that require smoke coming from a chimney not exceed a certain amount of opacity (density). A fireplace insert can help you achieve this.
The new EPA Certified fireplace inserts create a dual burning process that not only helps the wood burn at the best temperature and rate of burn to burn most efficiently, but it also re-burns the smoke and gas coming from the fire so that most of the smoke and emissions are consumed by the fire, leaving less to come out of your chimney and in fact consuming less wood over time because of the slower more efficient burn. Converting to a certified insert makes good sense for everyone, especially if you live in an area where air quality is a regular problem.
