wood stove in foyer?

[Betsy]

I want to install a little wood stove in my foyer. I can't find out if it is legal in Maryland to do so.

Any ideas?

[default]

Ask at your town hall.

[Joel M. Eichen]

Exactly!

Building code!

Each county/town may differ .......

VENTING is the issue .....

[v]

Seems like an odd place to put it (usually they are located more towards the middle of the house for beter heat utilization) but why would it not be legal?

A single family residential property is not subject to the stringent egress passage widths of a place of public assembly. You WILL have enough room to get past it, right???

-v.

[Fogbank]

first thing you should do is call the fore dept. and ask for the regional fire inspector or call your insurance company who would have all the safety / installation codes for your town - thats what i did. Be sure that you have the make / model of your stove

[Don K]

Exactly. As long as all specifications are met, such as minimum clearances, venting, etc., no one cares what you choose to call the room where you put your stove.

Don

[Roger]

You should think hard about where to put a wood stove. I should be located where the heat rises, then, rising, spreads to rooms you want to heat. You also need to compare heated area vs btu output of the stove. Before you check with local codes for legality, you should get expert advice on best place, quite aside from aesthetic considerations, as in, "where would it look best". Also, with woodstoves, I find the newsgroup alt.energy.homepower very helpful, as they handle thousands of woodstove queries.

[Anthony Matonak]

...

As long as it's never used to actually burn wood, you can place it anywhere you like. You could guarantee this by having the door welded shut, for instance.

Anthony

[George E. Cawthon]

Why wouldn't it be legal? Because the emit smoke. Some places specify a use of stoves with only a certain level of efficiency. Some places just plain make it illegal to use wood stoves and fireplaces and the thus the building department will not allow installation. All depends on where you live.

[Bill Bonde ( ``Soli Deo Gloria]

Really sensible to outlaw the use of biomass heating. Probably the same people who complain about fossil fuel dependency.

[Bob Morrison]

Bill:

Actually in some instances it does make sense. In the Puget Sound Basin it is not unusual to get "stagnant air" days when all pollutants are trapped against the ground. People are asked to only use a woodstove if it is one's sole source of heat. No matter how good a wood stove you might have, it still doesn't burn as clean as fuel oil or natural gas.

BTW, I heat with wood whenever possible, but I use my furnace on those "stagnant air" days.

[Bill Bonde ( ``Soli Deo Gloria]

The Tarm gasifier is supposed to get the amount of smoke down to that of a cigarrete. It can run on alternative fuels like natural gas or fuel oil on days when smoke is that much of a problem.

[v]

Uhh, did you miss something in the original post?

The Q was, if it was legal to install the stove in THE FOYER, specifically. NOT if it was illegal to have a wood stove anywhere in the house in their town.

Why would emissions laws be different for stoves in the foyer as compared to in say the living room? That was the Q.

-v.