Posted on 02/07/2015 6:36:42 AM PST by xzins
When my husband and I move to a new area, we specifically look for a home with a wood burning stove. Its cheaper and if the power grid goes down, we have a way to survive it. Yep, were preppers. These regulations are meant to do away with wood stoves and force people to get their heat from gas or electric, paid for at exorbitant rates from utility providers. In some areas, even with gas or electric, the only way to truly keep a home warm is with a wood or pellet stove. This is more of the EPAs fascist heavy handedness, trying to control all we do and force us into behavior and routines like you would livestock. The EPA can pound sand as far as Im concerned.
From the Daily Caller:
The EPA has finalized a 344-page rule to make wood stoves more environmentally friendly, meaning that millions of Americans will soon be forced to buy more expensive wood-fired stoves.
Republican lawmakers have opposed the rule, saying it would harm millions in rural America that rely on wood stoves to heat their homes every winter. With natural gas and electricity prices on the rise, wood stoves can be an economical choice for many living in the countryside.
The EPAs shortsighted regulatory overreach is once again hitting hardworking Montanans in their pocketbooks, said Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines.
Some 2.4 million American households rely on wood stoves for heat. When the agency proposed the rule last year, critics argued 80 percent of wood stoves in use would not meet tightened standards and consumers would never be able to buy them brand new raising energy costs for millions of people during the coldest times of the year.
Thousands of Montanans rely on wood burning stoves for affordable, cost-effective energy yet once again, the EPA is moving forward with new, costly regulations that could stand in the way of Montanans access to new residential wood heaters or burden Montana families with higher costs, Daines said.
But EPA claims the rule will save lives while only costing $45.7 million per year. EPA also argues that forcing people to ditch their wood stoves will result in 360 to 810 fewer death per year from reduced emissions of carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds.
To the extent that children and other sensitive populations are particularly susceptible to asthma, and that minority populations and low-income populations are more vulnerable, this rule will significantly reduce the pollutants that adversely affect their health, the EPA said in regulatory documents.
The finalized version of EPAs rule also gives manufacturers more time to make and certify stoves that emit fewer pollutants. Politicos Morning Energy notes that [c]ompanies that make small wood-burning forced air furnaces will have to meet first-step emissions limits by 2016, with large furnaces having until 2017.
All sizes have to meet second-step limits by 2020, reports Politico. EPA will also allow conditional certification for up to a year for several devices if the manufacturer gets an EPA-accredited lab to certify an emissions test.
[ ]
Wisconsin Republicans State Rep. David Craig and State Sen. Frank Lasee introduced legislation to prevent state regulators from implementing the EPAs wood stove rules. Craig and Lasee argue the rule will only serve to raise energy prices for state residents and hurt manufacturers. Missouri has also introduced a law to block the EPA wood stove rule.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to introduce regressive standards that hurt Wisconsinites, particularly low income families who rely on wood heat, said Craig.
States such as Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Wisconsin and other states that have very rural areas are not likely to take this sitting down. It will hurt millions of people and many just wont be able to afford to get a new, more expensive wood stove. This has nothing to do with asthma or pollution either. Thats just another piece of governmental propaganda. It has everything to do with controlling energy and resources and wait for it
money. Like doing away with coal, this will also cause energy prices to skyrocket even more. We dont have to see Russia from here anymore
were living in it.
I meant you will get CO2 buildup in the house.
The problem with most houses, even New ones, is they are not built to be passive solar. They do not have deep enough overhangs on the south and west side of the house to block the sun coming in during the summer. These overhangs would allow the sun to come on in during the winter when the sun is lower on the horizon. Passive solar also requires more thought out window orientation. Up here in New England that means you do not put big picture Windows on the north or east side of the house. This is why almost ALL ski areas in New England face north or east. If they face south or west the snow MELTS and runs down the hill.
My daughter’s house has an airlock between the main entrance door and the house. I mean it has a little mud room with a tile floor about 6x6. It has another exterior insulated door between it and the house. It has lockers built into one wall to store your coats, gloves, hats,etc. The other wall has a double shelf for boots and assorted footwear. That wall is lined with hooks for coats.
I agree with you that they are uncomfortable with the concept of accountability and find it easier to allow excesses than to fight against them. However...there is undoubtedly a steady and increasing erosion of congressional power caused not only by agency dictates, but also by the increasing reach of executive orders, presidential memos, and frequent “adjustments” to laws (e.g., constant changes to Obamacare). Laws were not intended to be open-ended and infinitely modifiable to suit the political convenience of one party.
There is so little regard for congress’ authority that agency bureaucrats routinely have no qualms about lying to it. So what’s the point of having a congress if its not going to do its job? Why bother voting? They clearly don’t want the responsibility.
The back of our house faces south and it has a lot of windows. We strategically planted deciduous trees that help to shade the home in summer yet allow a lot of sunlight through in the winter. The west side of the house has only one window. The insulation is nothing special but we have very low utility bills.
The only downside for us is the leaves in fall. :)
Up here those "airlocks" are pretty standard. We call them "Arctic Entries".
My former neighbor had the large Consolidated Dutchwest stove. His was probably the early 80’s version. I can not remember if it was a cat stove. I remember really liking the side loader because he could get pieces in there almost 2’ long.
My in laws have been using a red enameled Catalytic Vermont Castings Acclaim since the early 80’s. It is a model from back when VC was making the best stoves. His Cat is in the back so it is kind of hard to clean. It is a top loader. Probably one of the prettiest stoves ever made. The enamel finish still looks great after 30 years.
That is the major issue I had with my Jotul. It had the cream color enamel. After a few years it started chipping off. By the time it was 15 years old(when I sold the house) it looked like crap. It needed to be sand blasted and repainted. It still worked just fine. Plus my son knocked over the fake Christmas tree once. So it had a burnt on pine needle look to it. HE also got a little too close with his down coat one time. Therefore, there was a little burn on nylon in spots.
I never worry about building small buildings on my property. I built a 12x16 barn on the last property and never pulled a permit. I rebuilt an in ground swimming pool and never pulled a permit. The town I live in now has a population of about 2500. The building inspector works part time. His office hours are Mondays 5-8pm. He is a finish carpenter fulltime by trade.
I don’t worry too much about the local govt. The only problem is IF you have a nosey neighbor. The last guy with the aforementioned Dutchwest stove was the head of the conservation commission. However, he was also a retired electrical engineer from the local utility company. The only thing he did not like were ATVs and snowmobiles. He was a big cross country skier and said they messed up the trails and went too fast.
Now my closest neighbor’s house is 500 feet away. I have 12 acres. He has 5. He has four horses. We have half dozen beagles. When I logged my property two falls ago, I purposely left most of the timber between the two houses sight line. Privacy makes good neighbors. Although, sometimes my dogs back at his horses when they are running around in their pasture.
My next outdoor project will be to build a medium sized barn on this property. I am thinking a pole barn approximately 16 x 24. I need something that would be big enough to park a 30hp Kubota or John Deere tractor(my next potential machine). Also, something large enough to also park the snow blower, 15HP John Deere tractor, spreader, outdoor furniture, wood chipper and enough room to have my Alpiner Box stove. I used to make maple syrup at the old house. I had two SS pans that fit onto this stove. It is one of those steel stoves the EPA wants to get rid of. When I am making syrup, I am throwing wood in there about once an hour.
We get stink bugs up here but not nearly in the quantity you do. Never knew they migrated like that.
Nice conversing with you.
Jim
And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!
Solzhenitsyn
How is that people who have been crushed by the sheer weight of slavery and cast to the bottom of the pit can nevertheless find the strength to rise up and free themselves, first in spirit and then in body; while those who soar unhampered over the peaks of freedom suddenly lose the taste for freedom, lose the will to defend it, and, hopelessly confused and lost, almost begin to crave slavery. Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Amen.
One of my favorite passages.
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