Woodstove exchange open for East Kootenay residents
Kootenay News Advertiser
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Page 1
By Kerstin Renner
With oil and natural gas prices constantly on the rise, home owners might be thinking about switching to wood burning appliances as their main source of heat if they are not already utilizing it. But is it really a good idea to fire up that old belcher that has been sitting in the basement for years? The East Kootenay Woodstove Exchange is now offering the opportunity to exchange that old stove with a new EPA or CSA certified heater while at the same time collecting a very nice rebate.
The program runs between January 1 and August 31 of this year and is a partnership between the Ministry of Environment, the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) and Wildsight. Program coordinator Erna Jensen-Shill says there are 200 rebates available throughout the region on a first-come, first-served basis and they are allocated by communities and electoral areas according to population. "We were trying to be as equitable as we could with this chunk of provincial funding," she explains.
The B.C. government is funding the program with $50,000, which works out to a rebate of $250 per exchanged wood stove. On top of that, most municipalities and electoral areas have topped up the rebates with $100 per stove for a total savings to the resident of $350. Exceptions are Electoral Area E where the rebate remains at $250 and the District of Invermere where council has chosen to match the province's contribution for a total of $500.
The process of the program itself, Jensen-Shill emphasizes, is simple. "You need to have an old wood stove or wood burning heating appliance," she describes the first step. This old stove has to be taken to an RDEK waste transfer station where staff will verify that it has been properly disposed of. When residents go to a participating retailer to purchase their new CSA or EPA certified appliance - whether it be a wood, pellet or gas stove - they receive their rebate number.
So far, Jensen-Shill says, there have been ten completed rebates with all five available spots in Electoral Area E having been scooped up already. The other communities, she adds, still have plenty of spots available. Jensen-Shill sees the reason for the program being this popular in that particular part of the region as a consequence to the close proximity to
This city ran a pilot project of the program last year and had great success. In the months of March and April there were 25 spots available for woodstove exchanges and Jensen-Shill recalls all of them were filled within the first six weeks. She adds the feedback from all the participants, from the municipal level to individual residents and retailers was overwhelmingly positive. One home owner liked the fact that he had to burn less wood for the same amount of heat while his wife enjoyed a more attractive stove and they were pleasing their neighbours by having less smoke come from their chimney.
Old wood burning appliances, Jensen-Shill points out, can emit 60 grams or more of particulate matter per hour into the air. The new efficient and certified models emit less than 7.5 grams per hour and some even as little as 1 to 2 grams. This makes a big difference, Jensen-Shill argues, especially on days where communities are affected by inversions. "When that smoke is coming out of your chimney, it's staying right where people are breathing it in," she says.
The program is working closely with the Ministry of Environment to get air quality monitoring tools in place to measure the results of the exchanges. Jensen-Shill says at this point the ministry estimates that changing one old, uncertified wood burning stove to an efficient and certified model saves about 63 kilograms of particulate matter every season. This means that if 50 stoves are changed out in
The woodstove exchange program will also be accompanied by an awareness campaign as to what and how people should burn to be as efficient and environmentally responsible as possible. Jensen-Shill will travel the various communities in the
Participating retailers
Advanced Wood Burning Stoves Ltd.
C & M Fireplace
Diamond Heating and Spas Ltd.
Invermere – 250.342.7100
Fernie Home Hardware
Fernie – 250.423.4496
The Fireplace
Invermere Home Hardware
Invermere – 250.342.6908
Old Tyme Spa & Flame Ltd.
Cranbrook – 250.426.7093
Rebates by community
City of Cranbrook
50 stoves, $350 rebate
City of Kimberley
20 stoves, $350 rebate
City of Fernie
20 stoves, $350 rebate
District of Sparwood
15 stoves, $350 rebate
District of Elkford
10 stoves, $350 rebate
District of Invermere
20 stoves, $500 rebate
Radium Hot Springs
10 stoves, $350 rebate
Village of Canal Flats
5 stoves, $350 rebate
Electoral Area A
6 stoves, $350 rebate
Electoral Area B
6 stoves, $350 rebate
Electoral Area C
18 stoves, $350 rebate
Electoral Area E
5 stoves, $250 rebate
Electoral Area F
10 stoves, $350 rebate
Electoral Area G
5 stoves, $350 rebate
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