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The Great Okanagan Wood Stove Change Out Program
 Old belching wood stoves create unhealthy air and smoke that cause health problems for people living in the Okanagan.
Instead, why not help out your neighbours and the environment by trading-in your old wood stove or insert for a new, clean-burn technology wood, pellet, electric or gas stove.
Not convinced? Take a look at these videos.
Exchange your wood stove during March or April and receive a minimum of $400 in rebates on your new unit.
To participate:
- Visit your local participating Hearth Product Retailers between March 1st and April 30th, 2010.
- Pick out a new, clean-burning, EPA certified wood, pellet, electric or gas burning hearth product (freestanding or fireplace insert).
- Recycle your old wood stove - your participating retailer will take care of the details.
- Receive a minimum $150 discount off the price of a new clean-burning Hearth Product at the point of purchase.
- Receive a $250 cash rebate in the mail from your local government (please note, annual funding is limited).
For more information on the Great Okanagan Woodstove Change Out Program and how wood smoke impacts our environment, go to bcairquality.ca .
The Wood Stove Change Out Program
Since 2001, the Change Out program has resulted in 1,040 old wood stoves traded in for new cleaner burning EPA emission-approved appliances. That's reduced smoke particulate in the kelowna area by approximately 50 tonnes per year.
It's estimated approximately 21% of Okanagan homes (21,654 residences) have an indoor burning appliance; 89% of them are inefficient conventional wood stoves or masonry fireplaces. Each year these old wood burning appliances release approximately 478 tonnes of smoke particulate into the Okanagan Valley airshed.
The Great Okanagan Wood Stove Change Out Program program allows consumers with older wood stoves an opportunity to replace them with new EPA/CSA emission approved wood, gas, pellet or electric appliances. A discount offered by participating manufacturers, distributors and retailers allows consumers to receive $150 off the suggested retail price, when purchasing a new stove. The purchaser must surrender their old stove, which must then be destroyed.
Additionally, a $250 cash rebate is available through the program; however, funding is limited for the cash rebate and will be distributed on a “first come - first serve basis”. You must be a resident within the Central, North or Okanagan Similkameen Regional Districts in order to receive the $250 cash rebate; however, anyone residing in B.C. is eligible for the $150 discount.
The incentives, offered by government, dealers and manufacturers together, are discounts and cash rebates off the purchase price of the new appliance, given at the point of sale. The discount in the Okanagan is a minimum of $150 off the price of a typical appliance, which is instantly given to you at the time of sale. The cash rebate is an additional $250, which will be mailed to you by local government while funds last (if funding is depleted the retailer will inform you of that before time of sale).
A "tracking form" is used to record the family's name, address and phone, as well as the type of stoves, which went in and came out of the house. Signatures on a form for the dealer and the junkyard person provide tracking right to the end, and finally, an emission inventory impact analysis is done based on the mix of replacements.
Program Goals
The goal of the Great Okanagan Wood Stove Change Out Program is to encourage homeowners, through incentives, to trade in uncertified, dirty-burning wood stoves and replace them with new, EPA and CSA certified, clean burning appliances. The changed out stoves are recycled, not resold.
A wood stove change out program has been identified by air quality and health officials in the Okanagan Valley as a way to get cleaner and more fuel-efficient stoves into homes fast. The goal of local government and health officials is to reduce wood smoke pollution by achieving two objectives:
- to raise awareness of and educate the wood burning public about the importance of efficient, safe, smoke-free wood burning, and
- to encourage wood burners to take action to improve their ability to burn wood smoke-free, efficiently and safely by offering information and financial incentives for positive change.
Contact
For more information on the wood stove change out program, please contact:
Nicole Marzinzik
Regional Services
250 469-8408
nmarzinzik@kelowna.ca
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