“It would be illegal to use residential fireplaces on nights with poor air quality under a rule being considered by Bay Area air regulators. Over the next three weeks, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District will hold workshops to gauge public opinion on the proposal, which would follow similar bans in Sacramento County, the San Joaquin Valley, and such Bay Area cities as Mill Valley, where people who disobey the city’s wood-burning law are already subject to stiff fines.”
∙ Smog board wants to ban wood fires on bad-air nights in winter [SFGate]
I really wonder about the commonly held wisdom that a wood burning fireplace is valuable in SF homes. Most of the older homes in SF have a small corner fireplace which (1) lets in a ridiculous amount of cold air; (2) gets very little use; (3) takes up 50 square feet of the living room; (4) limits furniture placement around the fixed fireplace location; and (5) fills the house up with smoke and sets of the fire alarm when in use most of the time as these super small fireplaces are not big enough to properly vent. No one wants to tear them out because you can’t replace them, but really, who uses a real wood burning fireplace (not the gas flip on a switch variety) anymore?
when I lived in Russian Hill in an apartment with basically no heat or insulation we used the fire place nearly every day in the winter. It was great to sit by a fire and watch the fog roll in. I also love the smell in that neighborhood when all the wood burning fire places are going. I wouldn’t put one in a new place- we have gas now- but enjoyed it for a time.
That “smell in the neighborhood” is actually a health hazard to a lot of people.