Newsflash!
Are Old Woodstoves
Going To Be Outlawed?

Dateline: 30 September 2013

A Vermont Castings Vigilant wood stove (photo link)

I have heated my home for some 25 years with a wood stove just like the one pictured above. I bought it used way back then for a couple hundred dollars. Mine doesn't look as spiffy as the one above, and I'm sure there are better quality woodstoves on the market, but it has been, and continues to be, a reliable heat source (and my only heat source). 

So you can imagine my feelings this morning when I read EPA Takes An Axe To Self Sufficiency: Most Woodburning Stoves Will Soon Be Illegal

If this article is to be believed, the government, through the EPA, will require that all new woodstoves be EPA approved. Old woodstoves will have to be scrapped (the law will not allow old woodstoves to be sold). And the enforcement of this new measure will most likely be effected through home insurance companies. 

The writer of the article states that "The EPA is just another tool of subjugation." That pretty much sums it up.

I'm breaking with my "clothespin break" to blog this because I want to spread the word. If you were ever thinking of getting an old wood stove, better do it soon.

18 comments:

Sunnybrook Farm said...

They are micromanaging everything you can think of. A government like that is doomed to failure as it is impossible to control every aspect of life like they are trying to do. I look forward to the new government.

kathyinozarks said...

I saw this too yesterday and just could not believe it-the government has no right to rule our lives like this-I won't be getting rid of my 25 year old plus wood stoves thats for sure-our only source of heat as well

Tanya Murray said...

They have brought about changes here too in wood stoves. Once upon a time they could be banked down and simmered away over night and then when you opened the damper in the morning they fired up again. Too much smoke apparently. There was a big push and a "buy back scheme" and a lot of people ripped them out in favour of electric heating but I kept mine and I'm really glad I did. The cynical side of me wonders if it was more to do with trying to convert the majority over to electricity as it is State owned and was falling into the red big time. We have hydro electric scheme here in Tasmania. Anyway, can you believe that there are actually council workers whose job it is to go around the neighbourhood policing the amount of smoke coming from the flue and you get a citation if you are not burning your wood dry and fast.

Anonymous said...

yes, 'they' can micromanage each one of us and that is their goal.
remember in
china that the 'granny police' rode the commuter buses looking for women whose stomachs were expanding. they reported anyone they thought was pregnant and the babies were murdered. even if you were just putting on few pounds you were still subjected to invasion.
the report about the EPA is to be believed, because i read it in a news magazine recently.
of course, many of those in power will go to hell but we will do the suffering in the meanwhile.
congress said that no smoke may have more than 12 ppm of something [i can't remember what] but woodsmoke always has at least 15 ppm, so it is a law purposed to exclude self-sufficient heating.
the anti-christ is hard at it and he will never give up.
it is written.
it is now possible, with satellite surveillance and drones and listening devices and probably other things we haven't heard of to oversee almost all of us and also all of our goods and chattels.
from a satellite it is possible to see how many tomatoes are on each plant pretty accurately.he will have us all by the throat.

i once heard a theologian explain that humans may be punished in the after-life but nations are punished here in time, because nations will not exist in eternity, at least not as we know them.
each nation brings punishment on itself.
i just saw a spread in our Sonday paper about a tv show in which it is all sex.
full, front page of that section all about it!!

that is the tip of the iceberg. i saw yesterday where some people are engaging in coitus on tv. so pornography no longer must be sought out. it is being beamed at each of us.
now babes are being murdered, legally, in this nation while they are emerging from the birth canal.
punishment is immanent and we deserve it.
pray, pray, pray.
God is always our only true hope, but we must seek Him in tears NOW.

people who want sin cannot rest until they force the rest of us either to sin, also, or force us to turn a blind eye.
all the food supply and gun supply and self-sufficiency cannot save us from the anti-christ although it does behoove us to do whatever is possible to provide properly for our families and for each other.
i stopped writing to congressmen some while ago, although we do vote--trying to figure out which candidate may be the least harmful.
to write to them may only put you on the blacklist with the church-goers and homeschoolers.
sorry to go so long, but i see the tentacles of the cancer everywhere and i can see no way out.

we just buried a young man dead of heroin. he has two young kids and it was an evil day.
with all the drug enforcement -millions of dollars--why is heroin everywhere? it does not add up.
but they can find a kid with a 'joint' in a flash.
something is wrong with this picture.
'look up, for our redemption draweth nigh.'
Glory to God!!

signed, a religious nut, deb harvey









Gorges Smythe said...

Hmmmm,....since the insurance companies have priced me out of the market and the Obamaconomy has deleted my job, I can longer afford home-owners insurance. I guess that means the EPA can't currently do anything about any woodstoves I may have.

c w swanson said...

It's time for massive civil disobedience. Simply refuse to comply. Let them catch you if they can. At the same time, vote for whoever will put an end to this sort of bureaucratic tyranny. The ballot box is the best defense.

Sixbears said...

There might be a loophole with wood cookstoves. I know they currently don't need EPA approval.

My house is heated with one.

Anonymous said...

Here in Nova Scotia our woodstoves have had to be EPA approved to have house insurance. I renovated our old home and installed a brand new wood cook stove, new chimney, new stove, WETT certified contractor. And I was still treated like I had committed a crime when I informed my Insurance company. I had to take pictures from different angles, provide certification numbers from the stove, the chimney, and a signed letter from the contractor. Countless forms. Had I failed any of the criteria I would have lost my insurance, and then my mortgage. So don't feel alone in your frustration. Here you have to have NO home insurance to do what you want with your stoves, which sadly most people do out of financial need. Fight back if you can!!
John Lilly

Kev Alviti said...

Mental! For hundreds of years it's been ok and now they're telling you it's not!
In the UK it's meant to be fitted by a hetas engineer even though people have been fitting them safely for decades. It makes you mad!

Anonymous said...

This is nothing new, its been going on for over 20 years. In 96 I got a new stove that met the EPA with an airtight reburner converter, worked great kept over 2000 sf nice and warn. I'm sorry I don't have it now, moved. There is more smoke in the air here from people burning trash and leaves than from wood stoves. Mike

Anonymous said...

Just did a triple-take on that photo. Thanks for the reference. Did you use a Vigilant for that whole time, Herrick? I think mine was barely used and would love to know that I've got a 25 year fire burning life ahead of me with this stove.

Robert

Herrick Kimball said...

Well, this post has brought a lot of strong feelings, and I'm glad to see it. Tyranny is coming faster and faster. If it came down to getting rid of my woodstove or losing my homeowner's insurance, the insurance would go.

Robert,
I did a Google photo search, and your picture came up, and it was the best one. I figured you would probably see it. Yes, you can certainly get 25 years of heating out of the stove. Hopefully a lot more than that. It has it's quirks but we've learned to live with them and appreciate what the stove does for us. I take it that you have not yet hooked it up. Perhaps, if you have not done so already, you would want to lay in a few lengths of stove pipe. That might be in short supply if/when the country goes back to an agrarian culture.... in a very short period of time.

Anonymous said...

I installed a new Vermont Castings Wood stove "after" I bought my house. My house is mortgage free, but I never contacted my insurance Co. about the installation because I dreaded the interrogation. Have I committed a crime? What should I tell them when I do get the guts to fess up? I just keep making my insurance payments. Am I throwing my money down the drain as they will probably drop me now? Keeping up with all these regulations everywhere is just too much. I was trying to educate the kids I work with (25 yr olds)and was trying to explain Obammercare yesterday - and they did not know they could be fined if they did not purchase it. The looks on their faces was priceless - and we work in a lab in a rural hospital.

Herrick Kimball said...

Anonymous,

I wouldn't tell the insurance company unless they asked, and I wouldn't worry about it. But that's just me.

Anonymous said...

Makes you wonder just how far they can go with so many such illegal "laws"!

Regards,
David Smith

Anonymous said...

To C W Swanson... If you do some fairly easy research you will find out that elections(at least at the federal level) are not sacred and are fraudulent. You can find proof of this fairly easy, so no, the best solution is not the ballot box, they have that fixed also with the voting machines. Sorry for the bad news. Please wake up people.

Anonymous said...

On selling it, why would one in the first place? And, at least as of now, there is no law against a sale of scrap metal configured as pictured...

In this country, buying a new approved woodstove marks you. Purchase, installation, tax credits - you are know to have a degree of self sufficiency not acceptable to those who would rule - as with food, water, milk, medicine - an entry Has Been Made In Your Permanent Record.

Insurance - it has come to my notice that insurance is largely a self induced scam, preying on those (me too) who own more than they could easily replace. You are not likely to use insurance. One could reduce voluntarily their own holdings to such a level as to negate any perceived value assigned to insurance. In other words, indemnify yourself. My goal, not yet reached.

Insurance is a third world scam elevated to first world status.

Anonymous said...

Herrick,

Our brief correspondence via the above comments prompted me to create a follow up post: http://hisandhershomesteading.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/installing-your-woodstove/

Thanks,
Robert