EPA Wood Stove Safety Requirements
- Wood for burning must sit to age and dry prior to use.Firewood logs seasoned image by captainflag from Fotolia.com
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) delimits guidelines for the use of wood-burning stoves. The EPA refers to these guidelines as "Best Burn Practices," and encourages wood stove owners to follow these safety guidelines in order to prevent harm to human health or property. Some regions and states have set in place their own specific requirements regarding wood burning. - The EPA recommends that users of wood stoves "season" their wood properly. The seasoning process includes storage of chopped wood in a raised and covered area away from water and exposure to rain. Seasoning takes six months and allows the wood to dry and burn cleaner and safer. The EPA states that wood burns best when its moisture content is below 20 percent. Wood stove users may purchase a wood moisture meter to check that their wood is ready to burn. All wood burned should have no molding, diseased or rotting parts.
- Wood stove users should not burn plastics, magazines or other household garbage because the melting plastic and inks used in printing may release harmful chemicals into the indoor and/or outdoor air. Moreover, painted, glued or treated wood may also contain harmful chemicals that release toxic fumes when burned. Manufactured logs containing wax are intended for open fireplaces and so should not burn inside wood stoves.
- The EPA recommends that users keep their wood stoves away from furniture, books, curtains and any other materials that could ignite and start a house fire. Further precautionary safety measures include installation of a fire extinguisher, a smoke detector and a carbon-monoxide detector in the vicinity of the wood stove. Also, users should clean spent ashes out from the stove regularly and store them in a sealed container outdoors. Finally, users should keep the doors to their wood stoves closed unless building or stoking a fire.
