[Stoves] Top lit updraft combustors

Norbert Senf norbert.senf at gmail.com
Thu Dec 14 09:36:18 CST 2017


On Thu, Dec 14, 2017 at 9:38 AM, Ronal W. Larson <rongretlarson at comcast.net>
wrote:*(snip)*
>
>
> * So all that to say I like your “beneficial to all” approach.   What do
> you recommend as a first “harmonizing" fix we could start talking about?*
>

Very good question.
Comparing even commercial heating stoves on emissions and efficiency
between North America and Europe is very difficult:

- Europe uses LHV, whereas we use HHV to define efficiency, roughly a 9%
difference. Quite common to see European numbers of "90% efficient" thrown
around loosely and even advertised here. Using HHV, you can have efficiency
higher than 100%.

- PM comparisons are next to impossible between different test methods.
Until recently, Europe has been regulating on CO, which is much easier to
measure. Their PM measurements are normally done with a hot filter, and
therefore capture only "dust" and not condensible organic semi-volatiles.

- There is no escape here (North America) from having to compare with the
defacto standard of  "The EPA Number".
This is expressed as grams per hour of PM, defined as the number you get
when you follow the procedures in EPA Method 28 and EPA Method 5G ( a
prescribed fueling and firing cycle and a dilution tunnel PM method that is
impossible to conduct in the field). When you get into the weeds of "what
is the repeatability of your laboratory method", the answer is "we don't
know", and the next best answer is "plus or minus 40%, based on limited
data".
For a heat storing appliance such as a masonry heater, PM in g/h (emissions
rate) makes no sense, since it is zero for 90% of the heating cycle.
Countries like Australia and New Zealand, with a similar dilution tunnel PM
method, use g/kg (emissions factor). European PM numbers are often reported
in mg/m3 of normalized exhaust gas.

The Condar has been very interesting for us. As a very tiny industry of
enthusiasts, it is an affordable way to get our own reasonably equivalent
data. We now have direct comparison data running it against EPA Method 5G
on a regular stove, pellet stoves and masonry heaters at several
EPA-accredited labs as well as a national laboratory.

If I were looking at a TLUD, for example, I'd want to know "what is the
emission number, expresses as grams of PM per kilogram of fuel, using a
dilution method ?". This is usually the number of interest for public
health authorities, because it is thought to be the best way to model
particulate emissions into the atmosphere. So perhaps this might serve as a
proposal for a harmonizing measure?

-- 
Norbert Senf
Masonry Stove Builders
25 Brouse Road, RR 5
Shawville Québec J0X 2Y0
819.647.5092
www.heatkit.com
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