Wood Heat Saves Lives

In an ice storm or other emergency, your best friend just might be a wood stove

Some lessons have already shaken loose from the massive ice storm that devastated eastern Canada in early 1998.There are several worth mentioning, but the most obvious now - although unexpected before - is that the trusty wood stove is the technology of choice when the power goes out in winter.

Thousands of households were caught in the icy blackout, and most responded with rising anxiety as the temperature in their homes fell steadily in the freezing weather.After a few days many abandoned their cold houses, escaping to emergency shelters.

But in other households, folks just lit some candles and put another log on the fire.That is how stark was the difference in the ice-encrusted regions between those houses with and those without a wood stove or heating fireplace.

Without electrical power most heating systems can't function.Included among the powerless was electric heating, of course, but also most gas and oil furnaces and water heaters.In rural areas the well pumps quit so water had to be trucked in.

Toughing it out for days in a cold house was a shattering experience, judging from the bleak look on the faces of those entering shelters.The TV news crews had captured their anguish for the daily disaster update.At least they weren't among those who died in their homes from cold-induced hypothermia.

The news crews also visited families who had quickly learned to center their lives around wood stoves.Pots of ice were melted for washing and toilet flushing.Water was boiled for coffee, oatmeal was cooked up, and hearty stew simmered.But most of all, the stoves radiated a steady warmth that kept everyone cozy and safe.Many of these fortunate families took in relatives and neighbors whose own houses lacked protection against the storm."Once you are warm and comfortable," said one survivor, "everything else can be managed."

There is irony in the triumph of the wood stove as the technological hero of the disaster.Since its heyday during the energy crisis twenty years ago, when people turned to wood heat because the alternatives were scarce or too expensive, the wood stove has had an image problem.

Concerns were voiced about wood stove safety, so codes were written and all stoves were tested and certified as safe.Wood stove installers went to school to learn the safety rules.

Some said wood stoves looked too plain to occupy living spaces, so stay-clear glass doors, and fancy shapes and colors were added to make wood stoves more attractive.Advanced fireplaces with duct systems were developed that are capable of heating entire homes.

The Environmental Protection Agency said that wood stoves smoked too much, so the stove engineers designed internals that cut smoke emissions by up to 90 per cent and boosted efficiency to as much as 75 percent.

But in the past few years, just when its make over was complete, the bottom fell out of the wood stove market.The seductive convenience of the gas fireplace lured buyers away from wood burning.Too much work, they said.

Things look much different now, though.Inconvenience is a matter of perspective, and it never looked so good.A wood stove store owner posed the right question: "Is cooking Sunday dinner, tending your garden, or caring for a family pet inconvenient?", he asked.Home heating choices are not usually seen as part of a person's value system, but kindling a fire to keep your family warm is now revealed as a meaningful gift.

Tragically, the storm destroyed countless acres of trees, their trunks and branches snapped by tons of clinging ice.What is to be done with the millions of downed trees?A look at the options might serve as another lesson from the ice storm.Left in the bush, these trees will rot, a process that releases (as carbon dioxide to the atmosphere) the carbon that makes up about half their dry weight.Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas, the same one emitted when fossil fuels like gas, oil and coal are burned.

Now, if instead of being allowed to rot in the forest, those same trees were processed into firewood and used to heat houses, a big drop in the consumption of other fuels would result.The idea is to take advantage of the natural carbon cycle of the forest to help reduce dependence on non-renewable fossil fuels.The devastation of the forest may yield the largest harvest of firewood in history, supplying fuel that can be used to cut greenhouse gas emissions.Surely this is one of the only positive outcomes of the ice storm of '98.

Another thing learned during the ice storm was that centralized energy supply systems are surprisingly frail.The image of steel power line towers crushed to the ground will haunt us for some time to come.Big engineered systems look secure but often fail, it seems.We have learned that when large-scale technologies fail, the results are dramatic and damage is widespread.In contrast, small-scale energy systems, like wood stoves, are more reliable and less likely to harm people or the environment.Maybe we shouldn't be so quick in the future to dismiss small systems as being impractical or uneconomic.

Although the wood stove has not had the respect it deserves in recent years, its stock rose sharply in the aftermath of the ice storm.The comfort and security enjoyed by those who heated with wood during the storm has been a lesson to people whose houses went cold.The survivors have picked up the pieces of their lives now, and many of them are planning to get a wood stove so they will never again be at the mercy of the weather and centralized energy supply.

Maybe the most intriguing lesson from Ice Storm '98 is that the original heating fuel, the one used since we humans wore animal skins and lived in caves, is still the most secure when the chips - and the power lines - are down.After the lights went out and the modern systems fell silent, the trusty wood stove came through as a secure source of heat for comfort and cooking.Householders all around the storm zone have learned this lesson well - the rush to wood stove and fireplace showrooms has already begun.

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