- Wood burning stoves with catalytic combustors are more efficient than those without.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
The two kinds of wood burning stoves on the market are those with catalytic combustors and those that do not have them. Stoves with catalytic combustors are overall the cleanest burning. You can add a catalytic combustor to a stove that does not have one. Newer stoves without catalytic combustors burn more cleanly than older models, but they have some drawbacks. - If wood does not burn completely, much of it goes up the chimney as smoke and soot. The smoke is composed of numerous gases including carbon monoxide. Soot is carbon. Burning these gases and soot completely requires temperatures as high as 1,200 degrees F. A catalytic combustor made of ceramic and covered with platinum or palladium will give you long, slow, controlled combustion as low as 500 degrees F. to burn your wood more completely. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assigns catalytic stoves a default rating of 72 percent burning efficiency.
- Noncatalytic stoves reduce emissions by recirculating smoke through baffles to burn it more completely. Recent models of noncatalytic stoves are designed to burn cleaner at a lower rate of heat, but this means their fireboxes are smaller so that you have to add fuel more often. The EPA assigns noncatalytic stoves a default rating of 63 percent burning efficiency. If you choose a noncatalytic stove, you should have access to dry wood. Hearth reports that burning wet wood in a noncatalytic stove can yield three times as much emissions as using dry wood.
- The EPA requires that stoves built after 1988 burn cleanly. New stoves must have a temporary label that gives the amount of particulates or pollutants that the stove yields. A permanent label lists the model number, serial number, the date the stove was manufactured and the inspection and maintenance needs of a catalytic converter if it has one. If you buy a stove, ensure it has this label.
The best way to compare the burning efficiency models is to check the EPA's list of certified stoves. This list contains the manufacturer's name, model name, emission rate, heat output, default efficiency rate and whether or not the stove is catalytic or noncatalytic. The EPA updates this list every year. To find the latest list, ask your browser for "List of EPA certified wood stoves."
