[Stoves] The other side of airpollution

[AJH]

On Wed, 7 Feb 2007 00:09:28 -0400, Kevin Chisholm wrote:
Q.
>
>On the one hand, the preface "a little pollution is better than a lot of 
>pollution" can simply be an excuse to continue supplying poorly designed 
>stove systems. On the other hand, if there is a "pollution threshold below 
>which health hazards are minimal, then any stove venting inside but not 
>exceeding these levels would be quite acceptable, and would represent the 
>most cost effective solution.

Some time back I thought that just such a pragmatic decision had been
made by those people promoting rocket type stoves over the more costly
fan stoves, in the past year the extra cleanliness of forced draught
seems to have roused more interest. I had acknowledged that if natural
draught stoves could me a standard for indoor air pollution then their
simplicity made them better, trouble was I was unable to make a
natural draught stove to work this well, which I took to be a failing
on my part.
>
>Have you seen any IAQ standards that are meaningful and that fairly reflect 
>the health consequences to the person living in that environment? 

No I haven't looked into this aspect at all as, whilst I know it is
important, I have no background in that sort of analysis and I am
basically a "tinkerer".

>If such data, as outlined above were available, it should be a relatively 
>easy task to confirm that inside venting of stoves was a sound move, or if 
>exhaust hoods and/or a chimney should be used.

I guess we could do with some input from someone in the know, such as
what indoor pollutant levels are allowed in US/EU compared with world
health organisation targets.

One of the reasons I think clean burning is important is that in UK a
flue often proves more expensive than a wood burner. Couple that with
the fact that venting the gases via a chimney may make the user
willing to accept poorer combustion but a crowded neigbourhood may
suffer if the atmosphere doesn't carry the smoke away, it looks like
you will always have to consider all the consequences of any changes.

AJH