AQ Advisory for Vanderhoof
Monday, December 21, 2015 @ 9:17 AM
Vanderhoof, B.C. – An Air Quality Advisory has been issued for Vanderhoof because of high concentrations of fine particulates.
As of 8 this morning, the 24 hour rolling average for PM 2.5 was 36 µg/m3 , well above the provincial target of 25 µg/m3 .
The high concentrations are being blamed on stagnant air in the Vanderhoof area.
Sources of PM2.5 contributing to this episode include residential home heating wood smoke (from wood stoves) as well as emissions from transportation sources such as automobiles, trucks and rail traffic.
The conditions may persist for the next 36 to 48 hours.
Comments
And 3 Sawmills in the West of Vanderhoof and the Wind only blows towards Town, nice Sunshine and clean Air out on the Lake!
`Quote: Sources of PM2.5 contributing to this episode include residential home heating wood smoke (from wood stoves)…
I have been assured many times that wood smoke from wood stoves is natural and harmless.
Princegeorge don’t you find it strange that most homes , businesses , farms , hospitals , civic centres , and many others , all burn natgas but never get even an honourable mention ?
What I find strange is that my neighbours (who are all on natural gas and hydro) are utterly unconcerned about the wood smoke belching out of their roof stacks and the breathing problems they are inflicting on others next door! Even during air advisories, typically as soon as it gets dark! BTW, trying to justifying one kind of air pollution by comparing it to another one makes no sense.
Funny how people can ignore the elephant in the room no matter how big it is . Specially when they are part of the elephant .
Ataloss, a little research will show you burning natural gas does not contribute much to PM 2.5 in the airshed so it doesn’t deserve much of an honourable mention as it might total a hair or less on an elephant. To even be measurable it has to be a large industrial user.
just love my wood heat in the winter time……..burn …baby…burn!
Show us your research slinky . They blame transportation and wood stoves . I’m a afraid cars sit in the drive way 90 % of the time but the old house needs heating all day/night long burning gas . And there are are not many burning wood in comparison .
natural gas
natural wood
natural oil
natural hydro
natural wind
natural atoms
The word natural makes it all good… :-)
PM2.5 = 0.016mg/MJ for Natural Gas
versus PM2.5 = 25.0mg/MJ for Wood Pellett
That is a factor of over 1,500 greater for wood pellet over natural gas per unit of heat energy created.
There are something around 30,000 housing units in PG. Assuming they are all SF houses, which they aren’t, and they needed the same amount of energy to heat their houses, it would take just 20 houses burning wood pellets to put out the same PM2.5 as all the rest of the houses together.
Source = Evaluation of Gas, Oil and Wood Pellet Fueled Residential Heating System Emissions Characteristics by Roger McDonald December 2009
Energy Sciences and Technology Department/Energy Resources Division
Brookhaven National laboratory
Google be your friend Ataloss. PM 2.5 is the measurement of concern here.
Natural gas furnace/boiler .011-.016 mg/MJ where wood pellets ran about 25 mg/MJ of Pm 2.5 or about 1,800 times as much weight in pm 2.5 for the same amount of energy output. For reference there are a million mg or micrograms in a gram of weight.
PG has approximately 28,000 households. All those homes fired on natural gas furnaces will produce the same weight of PM 2.5 particulates as 15 pellet stoves over the same timeframe. You can do the research on the wood fireplaces and automobiles on your own.
gopg2015 – .016 is for natural gas boiler, .011 is for natural gas furnace. I am not going to erase what I wrote above as it is pretty much the same as yours
Happens to me too slinky …. the two are close enough …. the order of magnitude is phenomenal…. Even with more recent technology that might be there, there is no guarantee what standard the pellet heating unit meets.
I just moved from a 60% or so efficient old gas furnace to a new 97% efficient furnace. So, increase the amount of housing by about 40% more than we now have, they will not increase the amount of energy used given similar designs and heating demands.
The latest research on fracking gas indicates that it releases heavy metals into the gas that makes its way to our air shed contributing to all sorts of human health problems far worse than particulate counts. I’d take wood pellet particulate any day over heavy metal contamination. Germans are smart and that’s the direction they choose.
Vanderhoof has particulate issues because they have a pellet plant that processes 1500 tons a day in their downtown.
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