March 31 Deadline Oil Furnace Checks

[AndyF]

Just got a letter from our fuel oil supplier notifying us that as of Mar 31, I will need a furnace inspection before they will deliver oil. The letter claims that the Technical Standards Safety Authority has regulations including wood as a fuel. The oil I can see, the wood doesn't make sense.

Double checked TSSA site and that's full of baloney. The new reg 093-06 only covers hydrocarbons, so I figure the mentioning of wood was a scare tactic to drum up oil sales. They just lost me as a customer.

But that raises a valid concern. Trying to regulate wood as a fuel will bring on the war crys from everyone. If they're really serious about wood stoves, they will need to go house to house with a search warrant, as catching the wood users at the source when they buy cordwood is only the tip of the iceberg. It will discriminate against these people as that will be the only area that regulation is possible. It won't catch the woodlot owners such has farmers. Plus many such as myself will head to Quebec to get it.

Wood was our last resort after discovering the government does nothing to help us handle our winter oil heating bills. It's playing with fire if it trys to regulate wood. Black market industry will have a field day, and a lot of public lands will see a few more tree stumps that it would normally, and chainsaws will be heard in wee hours of the morning. I'm going to heat my house somehow, the government be damned.

Hope I'm wrong.

AndyF

 

[tamarin]

Regulations. Regulations. I've met all the Ontario standards required for our oil heat here. But I did take out the wood stove a few years ago after their interminable panels on standards shifted the same again. I pity my father-in-law. A wood burner, he no longer carries fire insurance because he couldn't afford to remodel to spec to accommodate the ongoing creativity of government standards officials and their dutiful insurance mugs. So he heats with wood and hopes.
Some regulations make sense but Canada and Ontario are in the business of regulation. They see themselves as if they're Coke: gotta have a new flavour out every year.

 

[AndyF]

tamarin:

It's called bending to the lobby groups. What your seeing is industry advancing their own cause and in this case we have fuel suppliers sending out fliers recommending "for our safety" that we should conform, and "it just so happens" they can help us on that one.

There's no such thing as statistical study any more and they feel it is no need to send us the stats along with their notices. I would be willing to bet there as been no major increase in fuel related fires and injuries in years. Definitions of acceptable norms are non existant and there is no practical acceptance of a percentage of failures. The regulation members ideal is striving for zero tolerance in fires or injuries, but the reality is someone with zero sense will always screw things up for others, and they know it. So the legacy to us as tax payers is to sink millions into regulations,salaries,researches to address a minority that will always exist in spite of what we do. These cases are are simply a statistic.

Even wood stove regulations are probably based on pre-1910 stats. Wood stoves have become more efficient and safer, and cool to the touch insulated chimneys can hardly be recognized as chimneys in function. What really has changed for the better is that people are more educated and more safety wise. Most people are college educated and have had some exposure due to more access to media and literature covering fuel burning safety. Here again the stats don't bare out the
hype.

If regulations are called for we should have a regulation that it is unlawful to send out notice of regulations unless accompanied by a stat sheet from a study group that doesn't have an interest in the outcome.

AndyF

 

[temperance]

Wait till you see the new laws coming in June ,it will cost you 10 times the amount to pay for Reno's ,installing wood stoves

kinda like being punished for trying to save

solar power is next to be taxed

all about my money --im going to start keeping it

 

[AndyF]

Wait till you see the new laws coming in June ,it will cost you 10 times the amount to pay for Reno's ,installing wood stoves

kinda like being punished for trying to save

solar power is next to be taxed

all about my money --im going to start keeping it

Already started.

Apparently I heard you can't do your own renovations and you can't submit your own drawing plans, you need to hire a architect to ger a blueprint and the people doing your work will be contractors.

Time to speak up now.

AndyF