Wood-Burning Fireplaces

Ace Hardware & Hearth and Ace Home & Leisure offer wood-burning fireplaces from Enerzone, Hampton, Heat & Glo, Heatilator, Jotul, Kozy Heat, Quadra-Fire and Regency. Visit any of our 3 locations to see working fireplaces.

Heating with Wood

When oil, gas, and coal are burned, the carbon they contain is oxidized to carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas. In effect, the combustion of fossil fuels releases ancient carbon (carbon that has been buried within the earth for thousands of years), thereby increasing the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2). In comparison, wood combustion can be considered almost CO2 neutral because trees absorb CO2 as they grow. By heating with wood you do not contribute to the greenhouse effect as you would by heating with one of the fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal.

Although carbon makes up about half the weight of firewood and is released as carbon dioxide when the wood is burned, it is part of a natural cycle. A tree absorbs carbon dioxide from the air as it grows and uses this carbon to build its structure. When trees mature, die, fall in the forest and decompose, the same amount of CO2 is emitted as would be released if they were burned for heat. This cycle can be repeated forever without increasing atmospheric carbon. A healthy forest is not a museum, but a living community of plants and animals.

When trees are used for energy, a part of the forest’s carbon bank is diverted from the natural decay and forest fire cycle into our homes to heat them. When we heat with wood, we are simply tapping into the natural carbon cycle in which CO2 flows from the atmosphere to the forest and back. In other words, decomposition is a slow form of oxidation whereas combustion in a wood stove or fireplace is faster oxidation, with heat as a by-product. The key to ecologically sound and sustainable wood energy use is to ensure that the forest remains healthy, maintains a stable level of variously aged trees and provides a good habitat for a diversity of other species, both plants and animals. Therefore, when wood is burned as a substitute energy source for fossil fuels, a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions results. Heating with wood, therefore, does not contribute to the greenhouse effect and constitutes a clean and renewable alternative energy source.

Wood-heating enables millions of North Americans to heat their homes at a reasonable cost. It represents a reliable source of energy, independent of electricity, which reduces our dependence on fossil fuels such as oil and gas, and the result is a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: Enerzone