Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What does it mean to be green?

A: Being green can mean many different things to different people including:

Caring about our future existence and quality of life.
Recycling.
Favoring renewable and sustainable products.
Emphasizing efficiency over size.
Driving hybrids, bio-diesels and smaller vehicles.
Consuming organic foods.
Heating your home with clean burning, carbon neutral hearth appliances.
Being carbon neutral and reducing your carbon footprint.
Making sure your new home meets the US Green Building Council LEED program for new homes.

Q: Why are woodstoves green? Doesn’t the fact that they pollute the air make them bad for the environment?

A: Older wood stoves and traditional fireplaces do emit unacceptable levels of particulate matter, while newer technology, certified clean burning stoves, fireplaces, masonry heaters and pellet stoves emit very small amounts of invisible particulates. The emission of small amounts of invisible particulates from these new technology heaters is not the biggest threat to the earth's environment. By far the biggest threat is global warming. The remarkable advantage of new technology, clean burning wood and pellet stoves and fireplaces is that they do not contribute to global warming because their wood heating is " carbon neutral" and it also is a renewable and sustainable resource. (For additional information see: Biomass Hearth Appliances page)

Q: I understand that LEED certified green homes include the installation of gas fueled fireplaces and stoves? Don't they burn fossil fuels which contributes to global warming?

A: Many gas(natural gas and propane) fireplaces and stoves are considered green, even though they do burn fossil fuel. These particular models are designed to be high performance, high efficiency appliances that use direct vent technology and burn fossil fuels with very high overall efficiency. These green appliances eliminate the problems of indoor air quality, excess chimney smoke and low heat output associated with old technology fireplaces and stoves. They also compare very favorably to central heating system's overall efficiency. This is because they do not have ducting losses, plus being area heaters, they don't waste heat in rooms not being used.

Q: Is My Woodstove Green?

A: That depends on how old it is and how you use your stove. While modern, EPA certified woodstoves are extremely efficient and emit very little particulates into the atmosphere, older uncertified woodstoves (pre 1991) are inefficient and emit an excessive amount of particulate matter. The Heat Green Council encourages consumers to change out their uncertified woodstove with a certified one and to practice smart burning methods, like using only properly dried wood and never burning garbage.

Q: I’ve heard of carbon footprints. What are they?

A: A carbon footprint is the measurement of CO₂ emission resulting from human activity where fossil fuels are used, whether it’s an individual, a household or any production activity. Carbon footprints are usually expressed as tons of CO₂ per year.

Q: What is global warming?

A: Global warming refers to an average increase in the Earth's temperature, which in turn causes changes in climate. A warmer Earth may lead to changes in rainfall patterns, a rise in sea level, and a wide range of impacts on plants, wildlife, and humans. Greenhouse gases like CO₂ make the Earth warmer by trapping energy inside the atmosphere. Global warming is also influenced by the 1,500 year solar cycles.

Q: Did Heat Green Council evaluate site built, open masonry fireplaces?

A: Site built, open, wood burning masonry fireplaces are not ‘appliances’ because they are not factory built like other hearth appliances, and have no performance or emissions data available, so they were not evaluated. The design of each factory built, open fireplace is pre-engineered, safety tested and manufactured the same whereas site built masonry fireplaces are not. The efficiency and particulate emissions of site built, open, masonry fireplaces are estimated to be similar to factory built fireplaces and neither are considered green.

Q: How did the Council determine if a hearth appliance is ‘green’?

A: The Council developed an extensive list of green criteria for use in evaluating various hearth appliance types. Most wood, pellet and natural gas hearth appliance types were evaluated. Evaluation results are based on best available data. See the section on "Rating System" for more information.

Q: Why are some hearth appliances more ‘green’ than others?

A: Different types of hearth appliances have different shades of green characteristics. Various hearth appliances were evaluated based on many different criteria, resulting in some appliances being greener than others. Some that are not being considered green at this time may be reevaluated in the future as more data becomes available.

Q: What is Biomass energy?

A: Biomass energy refers to the chemical energy in living and recently dead biological material which can be used as fuel or for industrial production.

Q: Why is the burning of residential, biomass fuels considered a renewable energy?

A: Most biomass fuels are taken from sawmill waste, or dead trees. Tree photosynthesis and sunlight removes CO ₂ from the atmosphere and trees store the carbon as fuel. When the wood decomposes or is burned in forest fires, controlled burns or in certified clean burning hearth appliances, energy is released and CO₂ is returned to the atmosphere to be removed again and again by trees.

Q: Aren’t you speeding up the carbon cycle by burning wood for heat instead of letting them decay naturally?

A: 99+% of stored wood energy that could be used for biomass heating is wasted in forest fires and controlled burns as you read this. Diverting more of these ongoing forest processes for wood heating is simply providing an alternate and greener way of removing wasted energy from the forests. At some point when wood heating consumes more wood annually than wild fires, slash burning, controlled burning and wood decomposition, the carbon cycle could be accelerated by the planting of trees specifically for wood heating.

Q: Did the Heat Green Council rate traditional HVAC systems or water heaters?

A: The Heat Green Council has limited its scope to hearth ‘appliances’, which include wood, pellet and gas stoves, fireplaces and inserts, and masonry heaters. There are many other organizations that rate HVAC systems, including Energy Star, LEED, and other green building organizations. However, none evaluate hearth appliances.

Q: I thought all electric heat was green, is that not true?

A: The majority of electricity in the US is produced by the burning of coal. Coal is not a renewable and is not a carbon neutral energy source. Burning coal does emit excess amounts of sulfur, mercury and undesirable particulate matter. However the major reason that electric heat is not green is that the electric generation and transmission losses are so great. This is part of the reason why electric energy is expensive.

According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, fossil fuel power plants are only 40% efficient, transmission losses average 25% and an additional 33% is lost from poor grounding. This results in only 20% of the available fossil fuel energy being available to homeowners as electricity. This needlessly produces massive amounts atmospheric CO₂ causing unnecessary global warming and wastes massive amounts of our energy resources.

As a comparison, a natural gas hearth appliance that is a certified room heater provides 70+% of the energy available in natural gas as net heat into the living space. Other green hearth appliances like pellet stoves and certified clean burning wood stoves or fireplaces have similar efficiencies and are carbon neutral, so they do not contribute to global warming.

Q: Do green fireplaces and stoves really lower your bad cholesterol level?

A: No. there are no studies that show this to be true. But, most everyone will say that relaxing in front of the warm, flickering flames of a green fireplace or stove on a cold evening will certainly reduce your stress level.

For further information on electrical system energy losses see:

US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission: http://www.ferc.gov/EventCalendar/Files/20070216090203-2-14-07MediaB.pdf