Agenda - Environmental Policy Board - 08/18/2025

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EPA's Air Rules for Residential Wood Heaters Sul !!i IIY iil ul III ul ul a IIP' )1 w) "1 III I.: al ul I III Ilr III it ul r III" °VI III ':m t w..) IIP li4.1 w..)(1 t III III u( (1 Ill )1(1 III w) III"1i1 III IT III w III w III " µ°m SUMMARY OF ACTION On February 3, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated its clean air standards for residential wood heaters to make new heaters significantly cleaner and improve air quality in communities where people burn wood for heat. The updates, which are based on improved wood heater technology, strengthen the emissions standards for new woodstoves, while establishing the first -ever federal air standards for previously unregulated new wood heaters, including outdoor and indoor wood -fired boilers (also known as hydronic heaters), indoor wood -fired forced air furnaces, and single burn -rate woodstoves. The final rule, known as New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), will phase in emission limits over a five-year period, beginning this year. The standards apply only to new wood heaters and will not affect wood heaters already in use in homes. ABOUT HYDRONIC HEATERS • Wood -burning hydronic heaters (also called outdoor wood boilers) are usually located outside the buildings they heat, in small sheds with short smokestacks. These units typically burn wood to heat liquid (water or a combination of water and antifreeze) that is circulated through pipes to provide heat and hot water to buildings such as homes, barns and greenhouses. Hydronic heaters sometimes are located indoors, and sometimes, they use other biomass as fuel (such as corn or wood pellets). EPA estimates that nearly 14,000 wood -fired hydronic heaters will be sold this year. • Hydronic heaters previously were not covered by EPA's air emissions standards. Use of these heaters has increased in some areas of the country in recent years, leading to concerns about the health effects of the smoke they produce. In 2007, EPA launched a voluntary program to encourage manufacturers to make hydronic heaters cleaner. • Through the voluntary Hydronic Heater Program, manufacturers have redesigned some models to make new units available to consumers that are 90 percent cleaner on average than unqualified models, based on laboratory testing. REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW, CLEANER HYDRONIC HEATERS • Today's final rule builds on the voluntary program to ensure that all new wood -fired hydronic heaters will be cleaner, establishing particle pollution emissions limits for these heaters in two steps. Particle pollution (also called particulate matter or PM) is a major constituent of wood smoke.