WOOD STOVE CLEARANCES ARE CRITICAL
aThe acronym WETT stands for Wood Energy Technology Transfer. WETT was
established to train inspectors and installers to do their jobs properly
and to ultimately save lives in the process. Most wood stoves today are
EPA certified and have manufactures labels showing the minimum
installation clearances. It is critical that the stove or fireplace and
chimney maintain these clearances. The manufactures who design these
wood burning products must submit the finished product for testing in a
test laboratory. Once the stove is certified it can be sold to the
public. There are minimum distances to combustibles that must be met and
each unit is different depending upon how they preformed in the test
enclosure. The B365 code applies to wood burning appliances and written
in there are some other regulations that must be adhered to such as
rules for shielding and so on. The big thing to remember is to be sure
about the requirements before you attempt to install or use a wood
burning appliance. Most insurance companies today will not insure a wood
stove or fireplace unless it has been inspected by a WETT certified
inspector. SGI has a 25% surcharge on their homeowner policies if there
is a wood stove in the home. If the stove has been inspected by a WETT
certified contractor and it meets the current code requirements as well
as the manufactures requirements the surcharge is reduced to 10%, a
significant reduction in insurance costs year after year. I personally
hold a WETT TECHNICIAN CERTIFICATE which means I can go beyond the basic
visual inspection and make repairs etc. With over 300 installs I can
say there is a lot to learn and I am still learning, You can never be
too safe!
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