is burning wood considered an ecologically sound way to hear your home?

Answer 1

it's certainly much sounder than burning oil, for example?

why? because the oil has to be transported, generally over huge distances. whereas the wood would tend to come from nearby forests.

as a nice side effect, forests are not a scarce resource, and they're not in the hands of mostly dictatorial governments often involved in nasty wars, and no people are being oppressed / tortured / killed because of wood.

Answer 2

It is considered an ecologically sound way to heat your home by many with politically correct leanings. However, it is a very dirty and generally inefficient way to heat a home. From a "dirty" standpoint you are generating greenhouse gases and polluting the air with carcinogens (wood smoke contains lots). Then you've got the wood ash, which when wet, is so alkaline that it can burn your skin.

Burning wood requires a lot of oxygen, which has to be pulled into the house from the outside. So, fireplaces are really inefficient because a lot of air not used in combustion goes up the chimney. Wood stoves and more efficient because their air draw is mostly for combustion.

There used to be a bumper sticker that said "split wood, not atoms". The sticker used to appear on a lot of old VW minivans. The idea was that it was more "friendly" to burn wood for heat than use electricity made in nuclear power reactors. Assuming that the nuclear waste is properly managed the bumper sticker was totally backwards. Nuclear power plants do not produce greenhouse gases. Except for hydroelectric all other ways of making electricity (except nuclear) produce greenhouse gases.

Answer 3

Also the burning of the fossil fuels are recycled by nature and the big bad CO2 that is produced is not bad at all sense plants converts it to oxygen through a process of photosynthesis. How did the oil,gas ,and coal get there in the first place. The plants recycle our air and our fossil fuels.

Answer 4

Insulation is way better. Use triple glass. Add some solar panels and a wind turbine, and you're set to be free from power companies.

Answer 5

It isn't that bad, as long as you use a high efficiency wood stove and replanting is done to replace the trees for fuel