Image Credit: Regional District Central Okanagan
January 24, 2016 - 12:09 PM
A $250 rebate is a great incentive for anyone planning to replace their old wood burning appliance with a new cleaner burning unit.
The Regional District of Central Okanagan Air Quality Wood Stove Exchange program is once again offering rebates thanks to a grant from the B.C. government in partnership with the BC Lung Association. The $250 rebate is available while funds last for those people purchasing a new, cleaner burning EPA/CSA certified appliance (wood, pellet, electric or gas burning hearth product) and recycling their old, polluting wood burning appliance. Participating Central Okanagan retailers will take care of recycling your old stove and provide all the necessary paperwork for the rebates.
Air Quality Coordinator Nancy Mora Castro says, “Through the program over the last five years, we’ve exchanged 244 old, inefficient, smoke-belching wood stoves in the Central Okanagan. That’s resulted in 61 fewer tons of particulate matter (PM) and more than 88 tons of carbon monoxide (CO) from polluting our air each year.”
She adds, “Smoke from residential wood burning produces particulate matter that affects the health of our residents and contributes to poor local air quality. Those particulates are small enough to get into our lungs leading to respiratory diseases such as asthma, bronchitis and emphysema and to various forms of heart disease. Many valley homes are still equipped with inefficient conventional wood stoves or heat their homes with open hearth fireplaces. Replacing those with a natural gas unit will be ideal, but if they have to burn wood then a newer, cleaner-burning certified technology is the right choice,” she says “homeowners could burn a third less wood while cutting smoke emissions by up to 90%. That’ll help us all breathe a little easier.”
In addition to the $250 rebate, during March and April participating retailers may offer an additional rebates of $150 or more off the suggested retail price of new wood burning appliances. Some retailers may extend the additional rebates for the entire year, so be sure to check with your local retailer for more information. To take part in the program, visit one of the participating retailers in the Regional District of Central Okanagan, or contact the Regional Air Quality Program for more information.
A list of participating retailers can be found at regionaldistrict.com/airquality.
News from © iNFOnews, 2016