Ellis
PS. In Australia we are convinced that wood burning is not detrimental to the environment. Something to do with captured carbon. I cannot wholly agree!
there is nothing wrong with burning wood , it is a great way to
heat your home and your water and turn a steam powered generator to produce electricity if you have a boiler.
its true that burning wood releases CO2 but if allowed to rot
then the wood will release methane.
methane is 20 times more potent as a greenhouse gas.
http://www.epa.gov/methane/ we have a lot of landfills that capture methane from the rotting debri in the landfill , and the methane is burned in engines to produce electricity , this type of burning is safe and better for reversing the total of GW gasses in the atmosphere.
burning gasoline and oil on the other hand only adds CO2 to the atmosphere.
P.S.
about the wood heater your grandparents had , that is the type
of thing that you remember , I remember my mother telling me about how she would have to get up and go outside in the middle of the night during the winter to get another log for the pot belly stove they had.
I bet it really felt good laying down in a warm room as you went to sleep.
she said the cold would wake her up.
some people these days are using solar collectors to pre heat water that is fed into a steam powered generator boiler.
the sun raises the water temperature to apx 180 degrees then the boiler raises the water to boiling temperature.
much less wood is needed durring a sunny day.
