With no natural gas in Lions Bay, wood combustion is a significant heat source for many residences. Residential wood smoke is one of the most significant sources of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Metro Vancouver, with significant impacts on human health. Burning smarter will help you have a more enjoyable experience, make cleanup easier and help reduce smoke and pollutants for both you and your neighbors.
Wood should be split, stacked and covered for six months or more before burning. Cedar makes good kindling and fir, alder, hemlock and maple make good fires.
Don't burn green wood: it creates a lot of smoke and burns inefficiently. Wood is ready to burn at 20% moisture content (firewood moisture meters are available online, and at hardware and fireplace specialty stores).
Small hot fires facilitate complete combustion that decreases the amount of pollution generated. Fires left to smoulder can produce large amounts of unhealthy smoke.
Never burn garbage, plastic, or pressure treated wood, which can produce harmful chemicals when burned. Ocean driftwood contains salt which corrodes metal fixtures when burned.
Regularly clean your flue to remove creosote buildup that can cause a chimney fire.
Consider a modern EPA-approved wood-burning appliance, which burns cleaner and produces lore heat and less smoke for a given volume of wood.
Depending on outside air temperature and the size of the fire, wood burning that draws combustion air through the house might be net cooling! Airtight woodstoves draw air from outside, and are always net heating.
Despite Lions Bay land use designation change under the MVRD Regional Growth Strategy from General Urban to Rural, and move out of the Urban Containment Boundary (UCB), the prohibition on wood burning from May 15 to September 15 applies to all residents of Metro, and all persons burning wood during the year must declarare compliance with best burning practices (see Residential Indoor Wood Burning System).
