The best holiday gifts are the ones that keep giving. ORCAA offers homeowners a chance to give themselves a gift that will give back to their families and to their neighbors for years to come.
Wood stoves, while popular sources of home heating, do have drawbacks. They require you to cut (or buy) loads of firewood that must be stored in a dry location. Toting that wood into your home brings in lots of dirt, debris, and crawly things all winter. And the older the stove, the more wood you’ll burn and the more smoke you’ll generate.
Fortunately, ORCAA has secured funding to make it easier for residents to replace their old wood stoves with something cleaner and more efficient. The Washington Department of Ecology provided ORCAA with a Wood Smoke Reduction grant to help reduce particulate matter (PM) pollution in all six counties within our jurisdiction.
General requirements
Applicants who burn at least 1 cord of wood per year must remove and destroy one or more of the following:
- A wood stove that is NOT compliant with the 2020 New Source Performance Standards.
- A fireplace insert that is NOT compliant with the 2020 New Source Performance Standards.
Program participation is limited to available funds.
The grant is available in two forms.
Replacement Award
Residents may opt for the Replacement Award in Clallam, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, Mason, and Thurston Counties.
Residents who burn at least 1 cord of wood per year and who are installing a new gas, pellet, or electric appliance may qualify. The program requires professional installation of new devices, and ORCAA’s retailer partners handle the paperwork and billing.
Contact your local hearth products dealer or HVAC dealer for more details. The current rate for changing out an uncertified wood stove to natural gas or propane is $750. Replacing an old wood stove with an electric fireplace or pellet stove is $1,000. Homeowners wanting to change to an electric heat pump system could qualify for $2,200.
Recycle Award
Residents who meet the same requirements listed above, but who simply want to remove and destroy an old, uncertified wood appliance without installing a new qualified appliance, may apply for a Wood Stove Recycling Award. This Wood Stove Recycling Award is available for residents of all six counties within ORCAA’s jurisdiction.
Residents who qualify for the above — who, again, burn at least 1 cord of wood per year — and who simply want to remove and destroy an old, uncertified wood appliance without installing a new appliance may qualify for a $500 Recycling Award.
To participate, download the forms and complete them exactly as explained in the instructions on the form available online at Wood Smoke Reduction Program – ORCAA.