Blog

Wood Pellets vs. Wood

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:45:00 -0500

As the OWB industry continues to promote their products one thing that is certain is that they are being very confused with Wood Pellet burners and Wood Pellet technology. Below is an example of "wood pellets" at a coal burning plant which is converting to using pellets. Next to that is a picture of chopped wood. Notice any difference?

As the untrained eye can see there is a significant difference in the two. And if any of the readers of this site are ever told that they are the same all you have to do is show them the proof and the truth. However, with the corruption the OWB industry has used with elected officials they still will be heard more than us the victims of being forced to breathe smoke without choice. The only thing "green" about Outdoor Wood Boiler Companies and Sellers is the green printed, not the green that grows in our environment.

Great Program

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 06:39:00 -0400

Well while conducting research this past week we came across the City of Denver's Outdoor Air Quality Page:

We really think this is a great way of addressing the issues of Air Quality. Sure not everything is perfect about the program but it is definately light years ahead of other city's mentality on wood smoke and air pollution.

I find that this is very interesting being Denver is a very "winterlike" environment.

This will be added to the links page.

http://www.denvergov.org/HomePage/OutdoorAirQuality/tabid/424908/Default.aspx

For some reason the link does not load. To access it go to www.denvergov.org and type in "Outdoor Air" in the search menu and the first result will be the page.

Links Have Been Updated

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 04:51:00 -0400

With the burning season on the brink we made sure the "links page" is current and up to date. We added a few very important websites which each have a wealth of information regarding OWBs.

If you know of a website we are overlooking or you have a website please contact us and we will make sure it is added ASAP.

Also to note the OWB Resources page is somewhat outdated but a lot of the information and websites are very useful.

We will plan on cleaning the page up a little bit in the future to make it a little more user friendly.

Updates coming soon

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:38:00 -0400

We plan on updating the FAQs section of our website for this upcoming year shortly. The last update was May 2008 so a few updates need to be made.

One in particular is the new crack that OWBs try to fall into by claiming to be like wood chip burning heaters.

Many people are just plain confused with what an OWB is compared to a wood-chip furnace or from an indoor furnace.

The OWB industry is now trying to be sly and act like OWBs are like wood chip boilers. We all know that is bogus.

Please read this article

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:05:00 -0400

During the weekly update of the website in the news section I came across this news story.

If you have the time to read one article please take the time to do so:

http://7dvt.com/2009outdoor-wood-boilers-appropriate-technology-or-deadly-device

This article is exactly what we have been talking about for years. Is it really going to take someone's death to make people aware of how deadly Outdoor Wood Boilers are?

We were fortunate enough that we were able to "remove" ourselves from our situation. Unfortunately in the case in the article above how does a woman who works to support her family ever afford to go give up her home? Simple, she doesn't and now she is fighting.

Ms. Paris if you ever see this, we want to whole heartedly tell you that we admire you, please continue to tell your story and fight for what was once yours............ Your clean air.

A few points as the OWB industry continues to lie

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:44:00 -0400

We cannot post who or what brand of OWBs claim the following, only because we will not give credit nor in anyway publicize the OWB products they sell. But here are a few points to ponder:

The new OWBs on the market that claim their products are " EPA Phase 2 qualified" are supposedly so wonderful and claim to have 85% efficiency.

We all know from the research posted on this website that generally OWBs at best only have about 30% efficiency. But not the new biggest best and wonderful models. RIGHT

As we have stated before would you buy anything that is 30% effecient? An example:

The computer you're using right now to read our page. If your computer only worked 30% of the time would you consider your computer an investment?

Your car you drive only working 30% of the time? Not a real reliable way for transportation.

But enough about unrelated items of efficient let's talk heating. A typical normal average gas or propane furnace is 90-100% efficient.

So now the " EPA Phase 2 qualified" furnaces are claimed to be 85% effecient.

One ponders what modern marvel of technology has improved OWBs so much? Simple as quoted from one of the manufacturer's pages:

"Backup Dual Fuel System - (Dual Fuel model only) Can automatically provide heat with a gas backup burner if the operator does not refuel the furnace with wood."

Now you are seeing where we are going with this. The only 85% effecient models that PASS phase 2 USE gas to heat!

Now how about the argument from all the OWB owners out there saying that the reason you bought an OWB was to cut down on your gas bill? Gee buy the efficient model and have a gas bill. I am sure many people are lining up for this option on their OWB. This is like getting the undercoat at a car dealership, no one will pay for it if the cheaper alternative is there.

BOTTOM LINE: OWB Phase 2 models use GAS to lower their emissions. This allows the OWB industry to say a "clean model" is available but they really do not market this to sell. Instead you can buy the cheaper "dirtier, inefficient" model for much less. But the EPA looks the other way because there actually is a model that burns less because it is fueled by GAS!

Why will our governments not actually enforce the sale of the so called cleaner model and prohibit the sale of the inefficient models? Simple the claws of the HPBA have gotten into Washington and lobbied enough to have politicians look the other way.

This is what could be next door to you, if this continues

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:55:00 -0400

While researching for updates this week for news articles we stumbled across this picture:

This is an old van converted into an Outdoor Wood Boiler. Once again the point being made is, without any limitations on OWBs who is stopping your neighbor from putting this in their yard next to your home?

Can we join forces?

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 02:41:00 -0400

We want to share with you a question that was sent to us via our MySpace Page:
www.myspace.com/freedomofair

"Do you think it would be possible to find enough individuals with owb problems to interest an environmental attorney to bring a class action law suite against owb manufacturer, since it is their product causing all these health issues?"

We have been asked the question a few times over the past year or so and we want to specifically address it to you the readers of this site.

We know that many people visit this site on a regular basis, some right here in Illinois where we live. Some of you choose to remain anonymous in your problems with your OWB issues, which is fine.

At the end of this month it will conclude our third year consecutively dealing with this issue. We have spent a vast amount of time and money trying to tell our story only to be shunned away by many organizations and governmental entities who have the power to do something about this issue.

The frustrating thing we have found dealing with this is a lot of people want to be the lone ranger when it comes to dealing with their specific issue. Personally we have contacted many people across this country trying to help only that when we tell them they have to do some work they disappear and we never hear from them again.

Personally we want to ask those who visit this site to do just as the person who messaged us with the question above wrote. COMBINE OUR EFFORTS INTO ONE.

We have already spent thousands of dollars on legal fees for our individual case. But we would not hesitate for a second to give money to an attorney for a class action case if others were willing to burden the load also. If forty families who have been devastated by an Outdoor Wood Boiler could front $1000 each that would be $40,000 we as a group could use to hire an attorney.

We reach out to you the people who value this website for all of the hard work and effort we put into this site to consider this notion.

Please feel free to sign our guestbook or send an email at freedomofair@yahoo.com if you're interested.

We personally nor you in your individual case can stop the the Outdoor Wood Boiler industry alone. We must all work together.

All news stories are now archived

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 05:47:00 -0400

We have been really busy trying to make improvements to the website. We decided to improve the "News" sections of the website by archiving all of the existing news articles from 2006 to present.

At this time the articles are all still available on this website, but are also backed up in the archives of the website as well. This measure was taken to only ensure the security of the website, to make sure if someone maliciously attacked the site all of the hard work and data would be backed up.

The sickening discovery that was made during this process was the increasing number of news stories regarding individuals being victimized by Outdoor Wood Boilers. Here is a rundown of our statistics from the news we collected since starting the website in January 2008:

2006 = 11 Articles
2007 = 25 Articles
2008 = 281 Articles
2009 = 73 Articles as of April 1, 2009

Please take in consideration we were not keeping track of OWB articles until 2008, resulting in the low totals for 2006-2007. At the current rate we estimate 292 articles will be written regarding OWBs and the problems they create whether it is for the owners of OWBs or the people who are neighbors to OWBs.

Animal Lovers this is the reality of OWBs

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:33:00 -0500

I came across this video of a friend of mine showing the troubles he is going through fighting his battle with OWBs.

If only animals could tell us what they think:

Videos

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 10:08:00 -0500

We have now added the videos onto this page. Click on the "Videos of the OWB" page and enjoy.

We hope to eventually add videos of other victims to our page in the near future, so check back often.

YouTube video

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:41:00 -0500

I stumbled across this youtube video while searching the web. I also was able to find a website this person developed. It has a direct link to our page on it as well. Check out their website here: http://sites.google.com/site/cleanairlaporte/

Updates

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:35:00 -0500

Well another year behind us, and another long year ahead of us.

If you noticed all of the adds on the site are now gone.

We started on updating the 2009 news page. So once again we hope that this helps anyone out there if they are being smoke out of their homes.

In February we are planning to "archive" all of the the news stories from 2006-2008. We will be re-routing the news stories from those years to another location, but they will still be accessible through this site. The reason for this is we are hoping to free up some space on this website, to add more content.

We plan on getting more videos and content added to the page as we continue to help this page grow.

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:44:00 -0500

I hope to handle the add problem on this website. I currently am working on getting the adds removed from the site promoting OWBs. It has bothered me for a while that adds promoting OWBs have infiltrated this site. Now I have had enough and they will be gone shortly.

I am hoping to have all news stories updated for 2008. If we missed one let us know.

I am also going to be probably archiving all of the old news pages. Meaning all of the news prior to 2009 will now be archived in another location. They still will be accessible from this page, just the setup will be a little different than the current news page.

Bear with us on this, it takes lots of time to do all this.

Bear with us

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 23:50:56 -0500

As of January 1, we will be marking the one year anniversary of us creating this web news resource website. Although it has been a roller coaster this past year the fight will continue for us until we do solve this problem.

The website will be making a few minor upgrades in the next few weeks, so bear with us as we make these changes. Hopefully they will be for the better to make your visiting to this site more fluent.

Credit where credit is due

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:49:00 -0500

Over the past few months I have talked to a lot of people who also were inspired by their tragedy (neighbor's nuisance) to create their own websites. When I get the time I will post their websites on my "links" page as well as MySpace page. But in the meantime below are some really good websites that if you're fighting this fight you should be aware of:

A Canadian Site
http://woodburnersmoke.net/

A Family's OWB Site from Minnesota
http://www.freeinside.net/

A Family's OWB Site from Madison, Wisconsin
http://woodgasification.spaces.live.com/

If you have a website or know of someone who does, please let me know and I'll be glad to add it.

Is Wood a Cheaper Alternative?

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:57:00 -0500

While traveling to see family for Thanksgiving, we stumbled upon this advertisement at a gas station in southern Illinois. Remember the biggest argument from Outdoor Wood Boiler owners and the sales ploy by Outdoor Wood Boilers manufacturers?

Wood is a renewable energy and is so CHEAP, I save so much more money buying wood than I do using oil, natural gas, or propane.

Prices of oil has dropped rapidly in the last few months, but guess what wood prices haven't dropped at all, they have actually almost doubled in the last few years.

Well by doing a quick google search I found few examples of prices on cords of wood and how much they cost

Example 1:

FIREWOOD FOR SALE Green $200/cord. Season $300/cord. 16"-24" length.

*remember aren't we not supposed to NOT use "green" wood?

Example 2:

For the 2008 heating season I have approximately 20 cords of mixed hard woods for sale. The tree species include apple,cherry, elm, honey locus, maples, oak and a small amount of cedar. 2008 Fall & Winter prices by the 1/2 cord ($150), full cord ($250)or multiple cords ($220).

Example 3:

$350, Seasoned Cord wood / Firewood Cut Split Hardwood-

New England Hardwood... Seasoned Firewood for Residential and Commercial use. 24mths , Cut, split, 16? .
Cord Wood
Fire Wood
Seasoned
Split
Delivery Extra Depending on Location

The gas station was charging $3.99 for about four pieces of wood. Yes FOUR pieces of wood.

That will last a whole 5 hours in the burner.

So let's have a quick math lesson here kiddies:

If a cord of wood costs at minimum $250 dollars (as you can see prices vary) and an Outdoor Wood Boiler uses 6-8 cords of wood a year in a heating season(this of course varies due to location) how much money is spent in wood alone?

*SEE PICS BELOW FOR A STANDARD CORD OF WOOD

$250(low total) X 7 = $1,750

So I can almost bet you can heat your house for that much in a heating season, I know I certainly can.

So once again as I mentioned in the previous blog entry, don't believe the propaganda that OWB manufacturers and owners sell to you. It is all bogus.

Catching Up

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:32:00 -0500

It has been a while since we last posted on the blog. We have had the unique opportunity to meet others around the country who are fighting this battle. The frustration is however some of my colleagues have been successful in their battles and yet we still have not.

At least 3 families whom started the fight back in 2006 when we did WERE successful in shutting down their neighbors nuisance OWB.

We want to state to whoever may stumble across this blog, please don't lose hope because you will prevail. OWB manufacturers right now are freaking out because their light at the end of tunnel is becoming a lot dimmer.

So don't believe the propaganda machine they created, mostly if not all of it is lies.

As I stated to many of my colleagues and friends it is as simple as this:

wood + fire = SMOKE

Smoke is not healthy for anyone's health under any circumstance whether it is breathed in voluntarily or involuntarily. How many studies have to be written stating this?

A kindergartner can comprehend the difference between right and wrong why can't adults?

Welcome to our Blog

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:11:00 -0400

We have just added this blog to our page, we plan on doing a lot with this feature as time permits. Until then please view our page and enjoy. If you haven't already visited our myspace page please do http://www.myspace.com/freedomofair.

Also please check out the non-profit organization we volunteer for here: http://burningissues.org

We look forwarding to hearing from you, if you have any questions or comments please contact us at: freedomofair@yahoo.com