…in the fields of chimney-sweeping and firewood sales.
Some of this is just because people enjoy having and using a fireplace, which is good…much of it, though, is apparently because people can’t afford to heat their houses due to increasing energy prices, which is not so good.
I wrote about similar phenomena in Germany, here.
These careers are foreclosed in the USA, however. The EPA has outlawed 80% of existing wood burning stoves.
Yep. They’ll have to pry mine from my frozen dead hands though….
:)
Oakland California residents can only use their wood burning fireplaces on days designated as “allowable burn days” by their local government. My Brother tells me first time violators of this law are fined $100 and second time violators fined $500.
I will have to ask Mom what the policy is in North County (San Diego). Dad designed their retirement home to be passive solar, with a couple of wood stoves to add that extra kick on cold days. (There is a propane-powered central heat unit now.) This is going to get … interesting, if the EPA ruling is strictly applied.
Once the EPA classifies CO2 as a pollutant, being alive will be tantamount to crime. Ah, to live free in the USA! Of course, the political class ignores the law whenever it suits their purpose, so I guess the rest of us can too.
Out here firewood is very expensive.
Joe – like your comment :-)
Maybe Buffalo Chiips could be our new big export.
Wait.
We need buffalo.
But I think that is what the Plains settlers used.
Probably the Indians, too (as there were few trees).
Wonder what the EPA says about the burning of buffalo chips.
In Telluride, Colorado you cannot have a wood-burning fireplace or stove without a permit, which the city stopped issuing years ago. There’s a market for the permits, which can be transferred. Several years ago I saw an ad in the local paper there that offered one for sale for $125,000. I thought this was a joke, but was soon disabused of that idea by some local people. I have no idea what the price is today.
I had no idea on these wood burning fireplace restrictions. I built a house last yearhere in the wilds of Wisconsin and had one installed no questions asked. No restrictions on burning. We make a lot of fires and very much enjoy them in winter.
Bill,
My firewood is very cheap, just the cost of gasoline for my chainsaw. Most of it is ash that the Chinese beetles have killed off. I don’t know if Illinois has any restrictions on wood stoves, C(r)ook County might. I know certain Colorado cities have them, and these were imported by the California refugees that infest that poor state. probably the same for the entire left coast.
The wood burning fireplace restrictions tend to be in densely populated places susceptible to winter inversions. There was one in Missoula Montana over 20 years ago. Apparently the place could look like the Wheeling of my childhood when conditions were right. I know Oakland can also. We used to have a house in the hills that was frequently above the fog. When there was an inversion we could see that it was a ring around the Bay day. But never Wheeling quality.
Having heated for many years with wood, here on Vancouver Island, I can tell you a couple of things.
A good wood stove will heat your house well. A fireplace will actually cool your house, although some ‘heatilator’ types can break even.
My neighbor in New Hampshire not only heated his house with his wood stove but he heated the water with it. He had a coil of copper tubing behind the wood stove which stood on the first floor with a large atrium above it. It heated a two story house in a climate where Thanksgiving morning 1994 it was 24 below. Fortunately, global warming occurred after that.