Wood Stove Regulations?

[virginia boy]

I have seen many discussions on wood stove vs. diesel vs. propane etc. but couldn't find any info on regulations concerning solid fuel stoves. I'm really drawn to the romance of a "little Cod" wood stove. Does anyone know:

Are there federal laws governing this?
What about state laws?
What about Marina rules restricting or prohibiting use?
Other countries have problem with them?

[virginia boy]

Wood you freak out if I were in the slip next to you burning wood?

[michaelmrc]

we have a couple of liveaboards here in my marina that run wood stoves dont think anyone here has ever complained. many of the on the hook liveaboards here run wood stoves as well.

[cburger]

I know the origional question is regarding regulations and I am not trying to highjack the thread, but just my 2 cents . I have heated homes with wood in the past. In the days when the technology didn't exist, wood or coal was usually the only option for heat. I would bet that quite a few vessels burned as a result. My concerns with wood heat for my vessel is what happens when the door is open to stoke the fireplace and you get one of these nice big pops and the stove spews hot ashes onto the cabin sole cushions etc? No matter how careful you are, this will eventually happen. Many diesel fired heaters have a fireplace type window that will give the view of the combustion flame and a nice ambience to the cabin. No wood to procure, no soot, a lot less to clean, much less potential fire hazard.

[cchesley]

The biggest issue for me if you were in the slip next to me is really that typically wood smoke burns less clean (i.e. more smoky) and the plume blowing into my cockpit might be annoying. Additionally, there is a high likelihood of ash blowing onto me if I'm downwind. For a marina dweller, wood isn't as 'neighbor friendly'. (sometimes, neither is diesel) Otherwise, while 'out' cruising on on the hook, wood is fine provided that fetching and stowing complications are within your comfort area.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by virginia boy

Wood you freak out if I were in the slip next to you burning wood?

...I'd prefer not to have a boat with a fireplace upwind of my slip. As long as there's no soot falling on my deck, I'm cool, so to speak.

[klem]

Wood stoves used to be aboard all commercial sail vessels although most have switched to diesel or something like that at this point. If you look at the 12 vessels in the Maine Windjammer Association, 10 of them still use wood stoves.

The coast guard does not like solid fuel stoves but there are no regulations banning them. They were successfully used aboard the Gloucester fishing schooners and there were extremely few fires in that time. I spent 9 years aboard a vessel with one and while I do not see them as unsafe, they are extremely inconvenient.

The stoves go through a lot of wood. For cooking purposes, the boat that I worked on went through ~15 milk crates of wood a week but the stove ran from 4am-6pm. Because they burn so much wood, they put out a lot of heat and can make the galley area unbearably hot. In addition, they take a very long time to get up to temperature so the instant gratification isn't there. Not to mention, how well the stove burns is a function of wind spead, tack, and humidity.

Soot is a problem but not too much of one. The best way to deal with it is to keep the stove pipe very clean. Most of the soot will come out right as you light it. In my opinion, a bigger problem is the corrosiveness of the smoke which will damage sails and awnings.

I am assuming that you are looking at this for cooking. If you want it to heat, the Newport stoves are very popular and do work extremely well. Generally either wood pellets or charcoal are burned in them.

[David M]

Space is at a premium onboard most vessels and wood has a very poor energy content per amount of volume compared to other fuels. If the harbormaster does not mind a stack of wood sitting on his dock then I don't see any problem.

I think you also need to take in to consideration your neighbors who may not appreciate the smoke and the soot landing on their boats. If nobody is downwind of you then I do not see a problem either.

[Islandmike]

I used a wood stove all last winter, however, we used charcoal mostly. It gave out a nice even heat. Sometimes we would throw in a handful of wood pellets, however, they give off a tremendous amount of heat, the stove can get too hot. At night it gives out a nice glow, maybe not quite as nice as a flame, but safer, and more consistent heat..

[klem]

I did forget to mention the number of times that people will think that there is a fire. I would get woken up at least once a year by someone who was convinced the boat was on fire but in truth it was the stove being lit in the galley. Sometimes people came over from nearby boats to make sure.

[sailvayu]

From the US CFR' s (code of federal regulations)
25.45-1 (d)
Heating systems using wood or coal installed after august 9, 1989, shall be installed in accordance with guidelines in chapter 6 of NFPA 302

and sorry I do not have my copy of NFPA 302 with me

Gordy?

Fair Winds

[GordMay]

Can't help /w NFPA.

NFPA 302 is the “Fire Protection Standard for Pleasure and Commercial Motor Craft”.
And
ABYC A–3 is the “Recommended Practices and Standards Covering Galley Stoves”
A–7, Covers “...Boat Heating Systems”

[GordMay]

Excerpted from ABYC A-3 “Galley Stoves”
➥ http://www.abycinc.org/committees/A-03.pdf

“A-3.6 SOLID FUELLED STOVES
A-3.6.1 Solid fuel burning stoves shall not be installed in gasoline powered boats.
A-3.6.2 Permanently installed solid fuel burning stoves shall be equipped with a smoke pipe or stack that shall terminate above
deck with smoke heads designed to minimize water entry, spark emission, and back draft.

[Rex Delay]

For what it is worth, a neighbor of mine and a liveaboard had a wood stove in her previous boat. All was well except battles with downwind neighbors due to smoke issues and soot until one night. Sometime in the wee hours she heard a loud bang, got up to investigate and found nothing, no person on the docks. Went back to sleep and later was awaken by her smoke detector. Her 1928 wood cruiser was on fire. Problem dealt with. Next morning found a dead bird on deck - a duck, perhaps a seagull (don't remember which) had flown into her chimney in the middle of the night and died in the process. Problem being that upon impact, the chimney parted company at the deck joint and the deck caught fire as a result. Wood heat is not a good idea on a boat.

[seandepagnier]

I wanna dry my poo in the sun.

Did you know it has roughly the same energy density as coal? I am thinking I can put it in with some ethanol and drop a match. Both intake and exhaust would be from the outside, and I might put a variable speed electric fan on the intake if needed.

Any suggestions on this would be great.