All his heating fuel costs him is some elbow grease, gas for his pickup and a little chainsaw oil. For the past five years, the rural Carson resident has heated his house entirely with wood, using a woodstove on each of his home's two levels. He and his wife cut their firewood by culling dead trees around the area. That's not the only way his woodstoves are paying off. North Dakota is part of a 12-state voluntary program in which Midwestern woodstove dealers and manufacturers are providing discounts for trading in old stoves.
Rebates are also available for buying fireplace inserts.
The program is sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in an effort to reduce emissions of possible cancer-causing pollutants from older woodstoves. Operating an efficient-burning woodstove or fireplace is easier on your lungs as well as your wallet, says a local retailer. And you'll have less buildup of creosote in your chimney and haul less ash. Burning Desires, along with Coronado Products in Mandan, are the two Bismarck-Mandan area fireplace retailers participating in the program. Dealers receiving the old woodstoves turn them over to salvage yards for destruction, and submit paperwork to the Hearth Products Association, a trade association coordinating the effort.