Burn Bans

[brokencookie]

In my area the air quality control board issues burn bans. The gist is that you use wood heat unless the fireplace is your only source of heat. This happens about 15 to 20 times a year.
Has anyone run into this using a pizza oven ? They can be quite sticky about this with fines etc if someone complains. Maybe I could claim the oven is my only source of pizza and is therefore essential to survival.

[dmun]

Re: Burn Bans

Not an issue here: thankfully our prevailing winds head out to the Atlantic. I know that in someplaces, like Colorodo ski towns, that the town actually requires sensors in your chimney so they can enforce wood fire bans.

[Guerito]

Re: Burn Bans

BrknCookie,

We have burn controlled days in the winter here in California’s Central Valley. I understand the way around the ban is that the fire is not for heat, but for cooking food. I’m just in the design stages, but I’m sure that I’ll be testing that next fall when my oven is completed.

Guerito

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Burn Bans

We have burn bans in Coloarado too, known as "red pollution days". These only occur during the winter, so not a huge issue overall. Out of curiosity I called to see if I was allowed to use it on Red days and they said no.

So no pizza parites on pollution ban days.

Drake

[Richard]

Re: Burn Bans

Hopefully there is something more illegal going on in Colorado to occupy the 'wfo fire police"

If they come to put your fire out, offer them a slice

[gjbingham]

Re: Burn Bans

It was my understanding that the bans in WA state are for burning rubbish etc, due to forest fire dangers in the summer. Outdoor fires in fire pits or fireplaces was still OK. I'll check with my retired neighborhood fireman.
G

[james]

Re: Burn Bans

We received a city approval for an oven in Healdsburg, CA, where there is a ban on wood fireplaces, and they said their concern was wood as a heating source, which is very inefficient and dirty, and runs all winter -- not wood ovens, which are for food. We got the OK.
James

[gjbingham]

Re: Burn Bans

here's the link to bans in WA.

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/air/outdoor_woodsmoke/ 2007Burn_Ban_FAQ.htm

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: Burn Bans

This is an interesting topic.

The same folks I called here in Colorado said that my oven was legal overall even though they do not allow the installation new of wood burning fireplaces anymore. A wood burning cooking appliance is an exception.

The burn bans in Denver are for pollution reduction. Here in Denver we get some kind of weird inversion on certain days and it traps all of the pollutants and we get a bit of a "brown cloud". So while I doubt that I would ever get caught buring on a "red" day, I would do my best to avoid it....good of the many and all that...

Drake

[gjbingham]

Re: Burn Bans

I think our smoke/pollution ends up in your backyard.

Denver occasionally has horrible pollution. I can't imagine that you can't put a regular fireplace in your house anymore though. I guess that is the direction of the future. Perhaps we sould be installing gas fired ovens, or a combination thereof.

[brokencookie]

Re: Burn Bans

Ran accross this interesting picture on the MHA site. Looks like they are harnessing the oven exhaust and generating energy ? I think the biggest problem with wood burning is the particulate matter. In oil refineries they remove the particulate from the heat exhaust by bubbling it up through a water bath.
Now I am starting to wonder if you could do the same with the pompei oven ? You might even be able to heat water for tea while your cooking.
Does anyone actually know what the apparatus on top of this oven is ?

[Puy de Dome]

Re: Burn Bans

What is the 'MHA' site, please?

[dmun]

Re: Burn Bans

Masonry Heater Association

[james]

Re: Burn Bans

A couple of Italian companies sell that sort of thing for wood-fired pizzerias. I will do a little research and see what I find.
James