Indoor Air Quality and Heating with Wood
Beth Tréhu, MD, Health Officer for Mount Vernon and Vienna
Jan 26, 2026
Brrr, baby it’s cold outside, and nothing is as nice as the heat from a wood stove! If you heat your home with wood and especially if anyone in your home has asthma, lung disease, or heart disease, you may find these suggestions from Maine CDC helpful.
What You Can Do To Improve Air Quality For Breathing While Heating With Wood
- Weatherize your home, such as closing up areas that will let heat escape.
- Have your chimney, flue, and woodstove inspected and cleaned at least once per year.
- Use wood pellets. They burn 25-50% cleaner than cord wood.
- Replace an old woodstove, fireplace, or fireplace insert (built before the late 1980s) with a newer more efficient EPA-certified equipment that uses less wood and burns up to 90% cleaner.
- If using cord wood, burn hardwoods that are clean, dry, and seasoned (>6 months) because they burn cleaner and are less likely to pollute the air.
- Never burn garbage, trash, plastics, styrofoam, paints, painted wood, salt water wood, cleaning chemicals such as solvents, charcoal/coal, or treated woods (treated with varnishes, sealants, or pressure-treated). These substances can result in toxins being burned and released into the air.
- Burn small hot fires. They produce less smoke than those that are left to smolder.
- Split wood into 4-6 inch pieces. Fires burn cleaner with more surface area exposed to the flame.
- Keep your home tobacco smoke free.