Burning wood is bad for air quality.  Old wood stoves and fireplaces can emit as much as 50 grams of particulate matter (PM) per hour. This will pollute the air that you breathe in your home and the air throughout your neighborhood.

Burning wood may also be an inefficient and expensive way to heat your home.

Using a fireplace for heating is especially inefficient and can actually cause a net loss of heat in hour home. If the chimney draft is strong, it pulls warm air from the living spaces and draws cold air in from outside, through all the little cracks and gaps in the house shell.

If you should decide to burn wood, be sure to use an EPA-certified woodstove. Certified stoves burn more efficiently and can reduce greatly particulate emissions (from 50 grams per hour to 6 grams per hour).  Click here for list of EPA-certified wood stoves.

The BAAQMD Woodburning Handbook provides information about woodburning, the heating efficiency

of fireplaces and stoves, and tips about the cleanest and most efficient ways to burn wood and reduce emissions of pollutants.

U.S EPA page on Fireplaces and Woodstoves

US EPA comparison of particulate matter emissions from different heating sources

Also see Health Effects of Woodsmoke

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