Can you have a wood burning fireplace along the Front range? (Denver: apartment, house)

[3 in Fl]

I thought I read a post about this a while back? Does anyone use wood or is it mostly gas? Thanks,

[Mikieo415]

I have a wood fireplace in my apartment. In fact, a lot of people have wood fireplaces. I don't know of any restrictions apart from maybe a red air quality alert. They say no burning when there is a red air alert. I'm not sure if that includes fireplaces or not. I still use mine anyway.

[torrential]

EPA certified catalytic wood stoves and fireplace inserts are exempt from Red day burn bans. Burning wood in anything else is not allowed on those days.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by Mikieo415

I have a wood fireplace in my apartment. In fact, a lot of people have wood fireplaces. I don't know of any restrictions apart from maybe a red air quality alert. They say no burning when there is a red air alert. I'm not sure if that includes fireplaces or not. I still use mine anyway.

Yes, it includes fireplaces. You may get a ticket for burning wood on a red day. That includes about 50% of the days between Nov. 1 and April 30. You are supposed to call the air-quality phone number or watch the news for the air quality status for a given day. It changes at 4 PM daily. Most new construction has gas fireplaces, which are not subject to the restrictions.

[Charles]

I've never heard of a red day. Is that a Colorado thing? Certain counties? Certain region? I live in extreme northern El Paso County and our house doesn't have one and I really wanted one. The gas fireplaces don't provide the crackling fire affect but the one really great thing about gas is you don't have to clean them. We also have a blower which blows the heat into the house so we don't really waste as much heat. I never smell fireplaces around here either.

[Katarina Witt]

It's possible El Paso Co. isn't included in the "Clean Air Colorado" area. It is advertised on the local TV stations in Denver. I have "Gestapo" programmed into my cell phone so I can call them, rather than bothering with the news. Our house is older, came with a wood-burning fireplace. Many of our neighbors have converted. The wood burning ban doesn't apply to wood stoves with catalytic converters. Some of my neighbors have installed those.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

I think it is a Front Range thing due to the temperature inversions. They will tell you every day on the news if it is a red day or a blue day. If you don't care about adding paticulates to that ugly brown cloud that hangs over the city in the winter, then go ahead and use your wood-burning fireplace. But like PittNurse says, you can get a ticket for having a wood fire on a red day.

The reason that we have no-burn days is because the population in the Denver-Boulder area has gotten so big that the air just can't handle all of the pollution. Probably not an issue, Charles, where you live in El Paso County.

[suzco]

Air Pollution Advisory

The High Pollution Advisory Program is coordinated by the Air Pollution Control Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
Air quality advisories are issued daily from October 31 through March 31 at 4 p.m.
RED advisories indicate that either current air quality is poor or conditions are expected to worsen later in the day or the next day. Red advisories trigger mandatory residential burning restrictions and voluntary driving reductions in the seven-county Denver-Boulder metropolitan area only (see residential burning below).
BLUE advisories indicate that air quality is good or moderate and no restrictions are in place while the advisory is in effect.
The VISIBILITY STANDARD INDEX reports the air's visual quality in the seven-county Denver-Boulder metropolitan area. The visibility standard is 0.076 per kilometer of atmospheric extinction, which means that 7.6 percent of the light in a kilometer of air is blocked. The level must exceed the standard based on a four-hour average for a violation to occur. On the Visibility Standard Index Scale, a value of 101 equates to the 0.076/km standard. Values between 0-50 are good, 51-100 moderate, 101-200 poor and 201-plus extremely poor.
The AIR QUALITY INDEX reports the daily level of air pollution on an hourly basis. The index reports the highest level of either carbon monoxide, fine particulates or ozone depending on which pollutant has the greatest hourly concentration. Values greater than 100 for carbon monoxide, fine particulates and ozone indicate exceedances of the pollutant's state and federal standards. Air Quality Index values between 0-50 are good, 51-100 moderate, 101-150 unhealthy for sensitive groups, 151-200 unhealthy, 201-300 very unhealthy, and over 300 hazardous.
RESIDENTIAL BURNING: During red advisories, mandatory residential burning restrictions generally apply to everyone in the entire seven-county Denver-Boulder metropolitan area below 7,000 feet. The restrictions will be enforced through local ordinances or a state regulation.
The state regulation applies to any community in the seven-county Denver-Boulder metropolitan area that did not have its own mandatory residential burning ordinance in effect on January 1, 1990. Under this regulation, the only exceptions to the residential burning restrictions are for residences above 7,000 feet in the seven-county Denver-Boulder metropolitan area; and those who use Colorado Phase III (Phase II EPA) (broken link) certified woodburning stoves, Colorado approved pellet stoves, approved masonry heaters or those whose stoves or fireplaces are their primary source of heat. For more information on residential burning restrictions, call the Air Pollution Control Division at (303) 692-3100.

[2bindenver]

Gas burning fireplaces have been installed in the metro Denver area since 1985. Some older wood burning fireplaces have been converted.

Denver metro is included in the Front Range.

[Katarina Witt]

The air was actually worse when we came here in 1980. I think the program is working. Plus, cars are burning cleaner and diesel cars are not so popular any more.