Baby, it's cold outside!

Hello,

My name is "Bwings" and I don't have a wood stove...

... but some of my readers do.

Dear Hippie Mom,

I was wondering how environmental a pellet stove is for the environment both indoors and out.  

Anonoymous Hippie

Well Anon Hippie, tis the season to freeze our butts off in Canada, so that's a very festive question.

First, what is a Pellet Stove.

A pellet stove became popular in the 80's as a slow burning source of heat. They came about largely as a result of the 1973 oil crisis. Although burning pellets has been around for hundreds of years. Settlers would burn grass and buffalo chips, cow pie, meadow muffins, feces; if no wood or coal was available. Pellet stoves burn compressed wood or biomass pellets slowly with a constant flame. If history tells me much from my candle research slow burning is definitely a great thing as far as emissions go. But I'm not going to get ahead of myself.

So how green are these heat emitting devices in our family room? From everything I've read they seem to be very sound and the options for fuel consumption is quite vast. Some can use a long list of self-sustaining resources such as cherry pits, corn, wheat and sunflower seeds! Now isn't that great?! Then as far as their use goes there is a long list of pros as well. According to my findings most are self igniting and can be controlled by a thermostat or even a remote control.

I remember growing up with a wood stove and sitting on a freezing cold night huddled around the ice cold stove because no one woke up to stoke it. Smoke would pour out as attempts were made at starting a fresh fire. Often we resorted to boiling water, filling old pop bottles with said water and then tucking those in bed with us. We soon learned you wanted to keep these bottles a few blankets above you to prevent terrible burns like those my poor fathers leg experienced one frozen night. If you were really on top of things you would have 3 in your bed an hour before you went to bed.

To think these burns and late nights of smoked out kitchens and blaring smoke alarms that ended up disconnected more often than they offered security could've all been prevented with the addition of a pellet stove! Another pro, is that these pellets burn cleanly and create only a fine layer of ash rather than a thick sticky layer of creosote and therefore with proper care are far less likely to cause chimney fires. I know that could have saved a few firefighters from coming to my place too! In fact these pellet stoves pollute so very little they don't require certification from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) though most get certified anyway.

Also, it should be noted that because trees and plants suck carbon out of the air any burning of them would result in a 0 balance change in Carbon emissions. Thusly they are exempt from the carbon taxes in the world. I struggled to find anything for Canada but in the states an efficient pellet stove is eligible for a tax credit up to 30% of the cost of the appliance and labor. If you've just had one installed it is worth mentioning to your accountant during tax time.

These pellet stoves sound like a very practical and green choice for heating your house this winter. In fact the only two possibly negative thing that stood out was the fact that, like with a car, one should be aware of the grade of fuel they are using and try to remain consistent so as not to damage the "engine" so to speak. Also you'll want to make sure you have a pellet fuel source provider before making the switch as it's still gaining in popularity. In most cases cost is the same but if you have the mind power to use it I found a fuel value calculator that breaks it all down for you in determining how to save money.

Long story short a pellet stove is definitely a step up from a regular wood stove and doesn't use up precious resources such as fossil fuels. It causes far less toxic emissions and lessens our carbon footprint while trying to keep warm. It may not save you any money but it probably won't cost you more either. It will, however, reduce your carbon footprint as well as the carcinogens emitted into your home and that is a saving worth a switch for me!

If you want to e-mail your questions to Hippie Mom you can do so at hippiemom@hotmail.ca {note, ca not com}

Keep warm, your friendly neighborhood hippie mom.


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Blinded by the light

Hi,

My name is "Bwings" and I can't give up my fuel consumption

Have you ever thought of why the flame in your candle stays lit? I know I never did, until today. I feel like a fool for having ignored the obvious for so long. I suppose I just figured as long as there was a wick to be aflame and nothing to put it out it'd just burn. But now that I've thought about it, even for a moment, I realize that was an embarrassing ignorance on my part. 

Blinded by the light, engulfed in the delightful aroma I just ignored what was actually going on with my candles.   The candle itself is a solid block of fuel with a wick. Most of these are paraffin wax but they can also be made from beeswax, soy (and other plants) and tallow (beef-fat by-product). But I'll touch more on that later. Let's focus on the actual flame. 

Lighting a candle is as simple as applying a flame to a wick. When you do this you're also melting a bit of the solid fuel to light the wick. As the candle melts the wick continues to absorb the fuel and thus fuel the flame. Ignoring the fact that Candles are a leading source of house fires and that the temperature of liquid wax can cause skin burns (usually not severe). Disregarding those glass candle holders that, when left unattended (and sometimes just out of bad luck) can become cracked and/or break. There is the simple fact that a candle flame that is long enough to smoke will emit soot. Have you ever read the bottom of your candle where it tells you to trim the wick? Have you ever actually given two hoots and trimmed it? I know I didn't, but I certainly will start. Proper wick trimming will prevent soot emissions from most candles.

Trimming the wick maintains a lower burning temperature and rate of fuel consumption and prevent smoking. A main concern for frequent indoor candle users is a smoke film and what can be referred to as ghosting, carbon tracking or carbon tracing. Smoke can be produced when wax fuel does not burn completely and a scented candle would be a source of candle smoke deposits. Trimming wicks would be the easiest method to produce less smoke. the smaller the flame the less flickering it can/will do. Another method to produce less smoke is to avoid a draft that would flicker a candle and create smoke. 

So what does all this mean? It means you have smog (in small amounts of course) of whatever the fuel is being spread through your home. In respect to a carbon footprint any natural wax will have a neutral effect. This follows the logic that CO2 was removed from the environment to produce the wax thus burning would only replace that CO2 and thus leave a 0 balance. So let's break down the individual fuel sources. 

• Paraffin - a byproduct of petroleum refining.
• Burns far less cleanly and releases chemicals into the air. I have not confirmed this but I am told highly refined paraffin wax can burn just as cleanly as natural sources 
• Beeswax - a byproduct of honey collection
  Burns cleaner and releases fewer chemicals 
• Gel - Mixture of Resin and Mineral Oil
• Plant Wax - Palm, Carnauba, bayberry, soy. 
• Tallow/Stearin - Beef-fat byproduct using the hard fat found around the loins and kidneys, Rarely used anymore as it's not cost effective.
• Spermaceti - Extracted from the head of a sperm whale for use in candles, cosemetics, leatherworking and lubricants. 

When it gets right down to the nitty gritty though, it matters far less whether you're burning petroleum, beef fat, sperm whale skull, soy or beeswax if a lot of chemicals have been added to the fuel source. Consider your almonds. A container of untouched almonds are going to be far healthier than a container of candy coated or salted almonds. No brainer right? Same goes for your burning lump of beautifully scented, sparkly and colorful centrepiece. The cleanest burning candle will be built well, unscented, undyed, well trimmed and in a room free of drafts. In the end it's personal preference and balancing.

My resolve is to be more conscientious of the wax in my candles, the length of my wick and the amount of soot/smoke my candles may be emitting. I will also try to find some nice essential oils to replace my candles as a scent. I will never stop liking the lighting of a candle and the scent adds to the moment. But there are metal containers you can put on your lamps which you pour essential oils in. They heat and fill the room with the pleasant selected scent. If I could find an scented oil I liked I could replace my scented, dyed candles with natural chemical free candles. But in the end a few candles will certainly stay on my night stand *wink wink*

A final thought, how old is the candle you are using? Did you buy it from a second hand store? Is it your great-grandmothers? If so, you might want to toss it. Until the 1970's lead was used to hold the wicks straight up. I don't need to tell you why this is a bad thing. Current candle wicks use zinc or zinc alloy in lieu of the former lead cores.