MID-ATLANTIC REGIONAL AIR MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION
Emissions Inventory Improvement Program (EIIP)
Residential Wood Combustion Coordination Project
Woodstoves are freestanding wood burning space heaters. Determining the type of woodstove (conventional woodstove, certified non-catalytic woodstove or certified catalytic woodstove) is not always straightforward as the EPA emission certification rules were phased in over several years. Care should also be taken when determining the woodstove type as most people in the air quality field use the term certified to denote a stove is EPA certified for low emissions, but homeowners may think certified means it was installed by a certified installer, was certified as installed correctly by the city or certified for safety by an accredited safety laboratory. Conventional woodstoves have no emissions control and have not been EPA certified for low emissions, generally these stoves were built before 1990. Catalytic woodstoves have a built in catalyst to reduce emissions and are EPA certified as low emissions. Certified non-catalytic woodstoves use design technology to lower emissions and are EPA certified as low emissions.
Conventional fireplaces, both factory built (zero-clearance) and masonry (site-built), are normally built into a wall but a small percent will be freestanding. Fireplaces are mostly for decorative use, or at most supplemental heat, they may have no doors, screen doors or non-sealing glass doors (no gasket) and they may have "heatilator" tubes or other tubular grates to aid in heating the room.
Advanced technology fireplaces (sometimes referred to as EPA fireplaces) are uncommon as few have been sold. They are actually certified woodstoves built into a wall to look like a fireplace and they are air tight with gasketed doors.
