Key Residential Wood Combustion Survey Contents
A successfully designed survey will return results that provide the necessary information to calculate an emissions inventory. The needed information is: types of appliance at each residence, how many appliances each residence has, how much fuel is burned in each appliance and residence demographics for extrapolating survey results to the entire area's population should that be necessary. This section of the report will discus each of these topics in detail. Historically there have been some common problems with RWC surveys. These common problems include not distinguishing wood use in the different appliance types, which is important because they have different emission factors, over estimating wood use, confusion over the term "insert" and not properly addressing homes that do not have or do not use their wood burning appliance. It is hoped that the following discussion will help avoid or to mitigate these difficulties in future surveys.
Type of Appliance
Conventional (non-certified) woodstove, certified non-catalytic woodstove, certified catalytic woodstove, masonry fireplace, factory-built fireplace, advanced technology (EPA) fireplace, masonry heater, fireplace insert, pellet stove, wood burning furnace/boiler and cook stoves are the main wood burning appliance types in use in the U.S. The numerous types of appliances and subtle differences between types cause confusion in RWC surveys. Many homeowners, and some surveyors, cannot always tell the difference. If a survey questionnaire is to be mailed, drawings and a description will help homeowners know what type of appliance they have. If a survey is to be done by interview, the interviewer should understand the appliance types and be able to communicate the differences to the respondent.
