Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 8

ni in 1 8 Reno Evening Gazette Consumer concern: Woodburning stoves By COLLEEN COMBES The popularity of woodburning stoves has increased dramatically during the 1970s; rising fuel costs and Increased awareness about energy conservation are cited as the primary reasons for surging demands by ruN' 1 im lp- V' Ideal for scrap Norm Sease discusses one woodburning stove he the heaters represent an ideal way for compan-designed to heat industrial buildings. He says ies to utilize their combustible scrap. be made Is a stove as elegant as the old type parlor stove. This is a non-airtight stove that is still very popular, but It does have Its share of problems and headaches. Not the least being that It Is made out of cast Iron.

Accord-, ing to Sease, cast iron Is liable to crack or shatter If heated or cooled too rapidly. Most cast iron stoves today, he said, are made of extremely thin cast iron which Intensifies the problem. He advises the consumer to beware of the inexpensive parlor stove sold In hardware and general stores. These stoves are usuallv made In a foreign country such as Taiwan and have some kind of brass mixed In with the iron. Also, the foreign made stoves usually have no guarantee of any kind making it difficult and expensive to replace a defective part.

Bruce, listing the problems he had with his non-airtight stove said, "We had a Franklin stove in our brand new house In Oregon and In two winters the snowy while ceilings were all grey, and I mean very grey. They're either smoking or sucking all the warm air out of the room. On the top of that, you'd have to jump up every 15 minutes to stoke the fire to keep it going." Other complaints about the non-airtight stoves is that they don't heat the house evenly and because they don't burn the wood as completely as an airtight stove there is a great deal more ash to clean out. Plus they only burn a load of wood four to six hours, said Bruce. Whereas an airtight stove can burn a load of wood up to 16 hours.

This longer burning time is attributed to the fact that the only air entering the airtight stoves is the air to be burnt, sucked in through the dampers that are manually or, as In the Ashley and Earth Stove, thermostatically controlled which also allows you to control the heating of your house. The gasses are trapped in the main combustion chamber by secondary chambers, baffles or fan systems so that maximum combustion of gasses and wood is obtained. The hot air is either blown onto the floor of the house as in the fan system Nordic stove or radiated out as in the brick-lined Fisher, Earth Stove or Buffalo stove. Most of the stoves today are made of steel instead of cast iron because, said Bruce, steel Is simply better than cast iron. It's easier to weld and shape in production and the worst that can happen to it is that it could warp under intense heat.

The length of burning time for one load of wood has much to do with the wood itself. The best types of wood to burn are the hard woods such as fir, oak, tamarack, walnut, and so on. These woods are not so porous as the soft pulp woods as pine or cottonwood. According to Sease, the loose-knit fibers in soft pulp wood allows an excess of resin and moisture to be stored inside the wood. This will cause a creosote build-up inside the stove and pipe that can cause hazardous chimney fires.

There are a couple of ways to prevent chimney fires. One is to burn the creosote out once a month or so with a chemical available in local stores selling stove and fireplace supplies. The other is to burn a minimum of soft pulp and green wood. If you do obtain green wood try to let it age over a summer. Or as many people do, burn part green and part dry wood.

The green wood burns slower but not as 1 hot as dry wood. This mixture creates a longer burning fire but one that still burns hot. When you're buying wood, you'll find that seasoned, hard wood is the most expensive. A cord of wood in this area can cost around $20 to $100 depending upon the type of wood used. If you are able to cut your own wood in the nearby forests, your costs are practically nil.

A cutting permit in the Toiyabe National Forest costs $6 for two cords. Sease estimates he saved $80 a month on his natural gas bill by relying on wood heating last year. Bruce relied completely on wood heating for two years when living at Lake Tahoe and claimed he only burned eight cords in two years while maintaining a constant temperature of 75 to 85 degrees inside the house. Heating is not necessarily all there is to a wood stove. They can provide you with the basic pleasure of a fireplace or can be used as a cooking stove.

The Buffalo stove even has a built-in oven. The Earth Stove is designed so that it can be used as a woodburning water heater when hooked up to your present water heater. Costs vary somewhat according to the size and type of stove, but prices for the average models will run from $300 to $500. Installation should always be done with the maximum safety allowances in mind. Always check with the retailer or manufacturer for installation instructions.

Most stoves have to be a minimum of 12 inches from a non-combustible wall, but some stoves can be placed as close as three inches and freestanding stoves and fireplaces should be placed on a hearth. Professional installation, if they provide all materials including pipe and hearth material, could cost from $300 to $450. But whether you're getting a stove for money saving or purely aesthetic value, there is a stove for you. Said Harding, "The manufacturers used to say you can't have efficiency and style, now they're coming out with both." "The Western United States has not been educated to the savings of woodburning stoves. They're still looking at the fires in their fireplaces and watching all their heat going up the chimney.

The fireplace is the greatest heat loss In the home today," said Ray F. Bruce, owner of Buffalo Stove Works in Reno. Manufacturers and retailers of woodburning stoves all tend to agree that the popularity of the woodburning stove began its dramatic increase with the energy crisis and has been on the rise since. "Fisher started this," says Bruce. "He got in when the energy crisis began in 1973.

1 got Involved with woodburning stoves about April 1974; that was with Fisher." Fisher was the pioneer of the modern day airtight stove and is still considered by many to be one of the best built airtight stoves. Norm Sease, designer and part-owner of the Nordic stove manufacturing company In Lovelock, says Fisher has 250 copies because he was such a marketing success. "Bob Fisher hired a good marketing team and they made the success out of him," said Sease. Sease's interest In woodburning stoves began in Oregon 15 years ago hile working in a hardware store. "Most of us relied on wood heat in Oregon.

This is why 90 percent of your most successful stoves come out of Oregon and back East," said Sease. Both Sease and Bruce are marketing 75 percent or more of their stoves in the East and Midwest. Bruce said marketing In the East is easiest to get into now. "They seem to be scrambling more for stoves back there. There are stories of people buying stoves and storing them in their garages in crates.

Letting them set just in case," he added. Bruce applies the rising popularity of wood-burning stoves in the West to rising fuel prices as well as energy conservation. "Now this is the so-help-me-to-God's truth," said Bruce. "A man from Truckee came into my store and bought a stove because he could no longer afford to heat his house with propane. And when he was in my shop, I said, 'I have people in your area that claim they are saving $400 a month in He says, 'You better believe them, they're my I asked what he meant and he said 'I'm the Cal-Gas Bruce added that people in Truckee, as In many other areas, don't have natural gas.

They either have to heat their house with electricity or propane. According to Sher Hardin, co-owner of the Cinder Box, a woodburning stove and fireplace store in Reno, it's mostly younger people who are buying woodburning stoves. People who cut their own wood and an increasing number of people living in mobile homes are also buying woodburning stoves. Apartments are about the only dwelling that can not accomodate a wood stove easily. But woodburning stoves are still primarily sold to people living in rural areas.

There is no reason why people living in cities cannot have a wood-burning stove. "I think people in cities are more aware of their costs than we in the rural areas are," said Sease. There is more fuel available to people in cities than they realize, he claimed. "It's around all the time. Especially around light Industry of any kind.

They have enough scraps that they could heat the homes of the people working in these plants for a whole year, if only the people would take it home and burn it. Even people who don't work in plants could go down and talk to an industry that makes anything, I don't care if it's nuts and bolts or automobiles, they have scrap crates and wooden pallets that they'd dearly love to have someone haul off. They pay thousands of dollars a year to have this stuff hauled off to the dump themselves," said Sease. You can burn just about any kind of scrap, Sease except plastic. "A good wood stove would burn all the combustibles insides.

You shouldn't see smoke, just the heat waves," he added. An airtight stove such as a Fisher, Earth Stove, Buffalo or Nordic is quoted by the manufacturers as being 70 to 80 percent efficient in burning the wood and heating as compared to an approximate efficiency of three to eight percent for most freestanding and builting fireplaces or 30 to 60 efficiency for non-airtight stoves. It is generally concluded among manufacturers that the main choice in stoves is between aesthetics and efficiency. "I've sold numerous double door stoves because the lady of the house says 'I want to watch the said Bruce. "These same peole have come back and those that are honest say they've watched the fire once maybe two times.

When you're warm you don't think about watching the fire." Bruce claims women primarily are partial to the double door. "If it wasn't for these women I wouldn't even manufacture the double door stove," he said. However Inefficient, most stoves include the option of doors that open for easy viewing of the fire or, as in the Fireview stove and in one model of the Nordic stove, plate glass has been inserted in the door itself for the pleasure of the fire watchers. The looks of the airtight stoves are also being improved away from the old, boxtype design. However, yet to Lifestyle Pamela Galloway Fay, editor buy permits as it is about making sure that the appliances are safely installed in the home.

He said the department has free literature describing proper installation procedures. These brochures will be sent to anyone requesting the information, and no questions will be asked concerning whether or not they have a permit. If the person decides to get a permit, the cost is usually from $5 to $7 and at the most $10, depending on the size of the device, and the permit includes an inspection. Herrington said the department encourages purchasers to buy units that have been approved by the ICBO (International Conference of Building Officials) because in doing so, at least some standards are followed. The following checklist for safety has been compiled by Richard, based on recommendations from three sources the National Fire Protection Association, routine fire prevention guidelines and experience in dealing with such fires: Install the stove or fireplace (heater) at least 36 inches away from combustible materials walls.

Make sure the flooring beneath the heater is protected where ashes may fall or where radiant heat may ignite the flooring. Use the proper lined flue for the chimney and protect the ceiling, the roof or the walls where the flue goes through. Check the chimney and the flue connection where they go through the attic to make sure there are no cracks or broken parts. Don't build too big a fire by piling too much wood at bedtime or anytime. Keep heaters away from doorways and out of the hall.

Keep furniture, curtains and the wood supply at a safe distance. Check the chimney for heavy build up of soot and have it removed if it's too heavy. Proper installation essential to safety with wood burners By STACY ENDRES Nothing could be more attractive or warming in a home on a winter's night than an antique potbellied stove or a fashionable manufactured fireplace. About this time of year, according to Reno fire marshal Martin Richard, woodburning "heaters" such as the Franklin stove and free-standing fireplaces become very popular. But when the woodburning devices are put in by novice installers who don't follow guidelines, fires sometimes occur.

What most people don't know, said Richard, Is that these stoves and fireplaces can be real fire hazards when they are installed improperly. People often don't know about heavy soot build up, either, and this problem can be another cause of fires. In 1977, a total of 26 fires in the Reno area resulted from improper installation, neglect or incorrect use, said Richard. So far this year, 24 such fires, have occured. "What we're concerned with is that people install them properly and use safeguards," he said.

Most people apparently aren't aware that building permits are required for installing the stoves or fireplaces. Phil Herrington, director of building and safety for the Reno Building Department, estimates that the majority about 70 percent of the people who buy the woodburning items don't have permits. But, stressed Herrington, the department is not so much concerned with having people Consider differences when selecting home insulation By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) It's insula tion shopping season again and the National Bureau of Standards notes that understanding what's available can be Encyclopedia for home buyers offered tor example, you may want to your basement into another bed room or family room. If its floor Is far below ground level.

a big help. There are three basic types of insulation which you are likely to be offered for home use: Cellulose Is basically shredded paper which is chemically treated to resist fire and vermin and so that it will not corrode metals in the building. It usually comes as loose fill and can be poured from bags, although the bureau says It is probably best when blown In to place with special equipment. Mineral wool Includes both rock wool and glass fiber and comes either as loose fill or as batts or blankets. Batts are pre-cut pieces while blankets are long rolls of the material.

Cellular plastic foams include polystyrene, polyurethane and urea formaldehyde and these also have to be chemically treated to resist fire. Both polystyrene and polyurethane come as boards, while urea formaldehyde Is installed as a wet foam by contractors. Standards, experts say, in choosing the best insulation for your home is very much an Individual decision and some insulation is its ability to resist the flow of heat from one place to another. The National Bureau of Standards says this number is the single most important indicator of the effectiveness of the insulation and should be used in deciding what to buy. The higher the R-value of an insulation, the more effective it will be in doing the job regardless of thickness.

This number tells you how much insulating effectiveness you are getting for your money. Here are some typical R-values for various kinds of insulation, according to the Bureau of Standards. The value is per inch of Insulating material. '-Rock wool batts and blankets: 3.1 to 3.6. Rock wool loose fill: 2.7 to 3.2.

-Glass fiber batts and blankets: 2.7 to 3.7. Glass fiber loose fill: 2.1 to 2.4. Cellulose loose fill: 3.1 to 3.7. Urea formaldehyde: 4.1 Polystyrene (expanded): 4.0 to 5.26. Polyurethane: 6.25 types are better for certain uses than others.

fill may be the best for hard-to-reach places, particularly when it can be blown or pushed by hand around an obstruction. On the other hand, it could be a real mess trying to put into a ceiling. Batts and blankets, while excellent for attics and ceilings, should be used In walls only if they fit snugly, the bureau says. And while urea formaldehyde is fine for walls, it should not be used In attics or other open areas because high temperatures and humidity can cause it to deteriorate. Supply may also be a factor, the agency cautions.

With the large demand for insulation In recent years there may be shortages of some types. WHAT IS THE VALUE When you shop for insulation you'll hear the term "R-value" a lot, it can be confusing or a big help depending on whether you know what it means. Simply put, the R-value of a piece of WASHINGTON (AP) Thinking about adding a new room or other home improvements? Perhaps you'd like a new house, but the prices seem outrageous. You can save some money by finishing a new home yourself or by doing much of the work on an addition or improvement. And a new 223-page book on wood frame houses issued by the Department of Agrlulture can help.

It's an encyclopedia of house construction techniques and terms with detailed instructions and illustrations on everything from foundations to roofs. Home buyers will find it handy In making repairs or evaluating workmanship in a new purchase. There are also sections on fire protection, painting, termites and other main-. tenance problems. you'll need to insulate against moisture and heat loss and step-by-sep instructions are included.

Or perhaps you want a new sidewalk? The book says to plan on four inches of concrete over undisturbed soil never over fill and place contraction joints every four feet. For home buyers, the book tells what to look for in an Inspection, such as cracks in the foundation, defective moisture barriers or termite damage. With a penknife you can check for decayed structural wood. Copies of "Wood-Frame House Construction" cost $3.40 from the Consumer Information Center, Dept. 061F, Pueblo, 81009..