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Keeping the Home Fires Burning Clean San Francisco Examiner

All of the Wood, Less of the Guilt- Mid-Peninsula Home & Garden

Richard Smith: Keeping the Home Fires Burning- Palo Alto Weekly

What's Hot - Clean Fires - Tahoe Quarterly

Winter Is Around The Corner -
Keeping The Home Fires Burning - Palo Alto Weekly

Other Documents

Excerpt from the San Francisco Bay Area Air Quality Management Districts' Wood Burning Ordinance-" ... In addition to this overall direction for public education, the committee also decided to recommend that the public education program encourage the use of any available retrofit devices that are determined to reduce fireplace emissions. There is, for example, a device currently on the market that directs combustion air to a fire using a blower to force air out of small holes in steel tubes that form a grate on which logs rest. Some test data indicates that such devices may produce emission reductions from existing fireplaces. "

Model Ordinance for the SF Bay Area Air Quality Management District

Reprinted from Mid-Peninsula Home & Garden                    Wednesday April 7, 1999

   All of the wood,   less of the guilt

Palo Altan's invention claims to cut pollution in wood-burning fireplaces by 60 percent

Wood-burning stoves in the Midpeninsula seem to be going the way of the dinosaurs. But it’s not ice that’s killing them; instead, it’s environmental awareness.

But for those who enjoy a cozy evening in front of a real fire—which excites the senses with the smoky outdoor smell, the sound of crackling wood, the dancing flames—fires fueled by natural gas, the most common alternative to wood, just don’t measure up.

Palo Alto resident Richard Smith has invented a solution for those who don’t want to give up burning wood. His EcoFire Super-Grate gives the enjoyment of a wood-burning fireplace without the guilt of smoky emissions.

The device, which sells for $480 on Andiron Technologies’ Web site, claims to give the consumer a wood-burning fire with 60 percent less pollution.

Patented 10 years ago by engineer Smith, the EcoFire Super-Grate is made of a 304 series stainless steel, a special alloy that can withstand the heat of the fire. The grate uses air jets and a reflective shield to raise the temperature of the fire, causing the wood to burn more quickly and creating less pollution. This concept relies on the formula for combustion, explained by Smith as the three Ts, "time, turbulence, temperature…and enough oxygen."

Instead of using standing air in the room to ignite the fire, the device uses built-in air jets, which give the fire more oxygen.

The EcoFire Super-Grate also is designed to allow less of the warm air in the house to escape through the chimney.

The grate has a silver reflecting shield that raises the radiant heat of the fire 193 percent, which not only warms a house more efficiently, but causes the wood to burn quickly enough to decrease pollution.

This device comes at a time people are becoming especially aware of the environmental issues that come with wood-burning stoves and fireplaces. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is recommending that cities pass an ordinance to regulate new installations of wood-burning appliances.  The district has written a sample ordinance that would bar the construction of new fireplaces, through it would not affect existing fireplaces.

Loel McPhee—president of Andiron Technologies Inc., which markets the new device—is worried about the ordinance.  McPhee said that the BAAQMD has a clause in its ordinance that makes exceptions for wood-burning fireplaces certified by the Environmental Protection Agency, but the EPA has not certified any open-flame fireplaces and does not intend to.

"It is unfortunate that the EPA has opted not to get involved with the open fireplace issue," said McPhee in a letter to consumers. "It apparently feels that the issue of wood smoke and fireplaces is too hot of a topic and an emotional issue that should be left to, and dealt with, on the local level."

The EcoFire Super-Grate is designed to retrofit existing fireplaces that are at least 17 inches wide. McPhee said the device was noted as a promising new product by the state Office of Environmental Technology.

"Applying this cleaner-burning technology to existing fireplaces would reduce wood-smoke pollution many more times than the limiting of fireplaces in new construction and remodels," said McPhee. ■

Richard Smith:  Keeping the home fires burning

Local inventor's creation can protect the environment from wood smoke pollutants

"I like to create things to help the environment or help other people to do that."

That is Palo Alto inventor and engineer Richard Smith’s personal mission. His latest invention is a device for fireplaces that reduces pollution by 60%.

Smith received a patent in December for his EcoFire Super-Grate, a fireplace mechanism designed to replace the wrought-iron fireplace grates that hold the logs.

The stainless-steel grate causes the fire to reach a higher temperature, about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to the 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit of a conventional fireplace.

"These extra degrees makes the pollutants burn faster before they are carried out the chimney and into the air," Smith said.

Smith’s interest in combustion began with an interest in aviation. He was born and raised an only child in Perth Amboy, N.J. His dream was to become a fighter pilot.

"I have always been interested in aviation, but I soon realized that I could never be a pilot since I had to wear glasses."

Changing the direction of his dream to rocket science, Smith studied engineering at Rutgers University. He received his bachelor’s degree in 1951 and then studied at Purdue University, where he received both a master’s degree and, in 1955, a doctorate in mechanical engineering.

Smith then joined the U.S. Air Force as a first lieutenant, working at a power-plant laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

In 1959, he moved to San Francisco, where he went to work for United Technology in a major rocket program. In 1965, Smith and his family—his wife, Patricia, and daughter, Jeannine—moved to Palo Alto, where he started a new company, Combustion Power.

"I wanted to use the knowledge that I had and the same advanced technology to do something more directly toward people," said Smith.

Combustion Power built large combustion devices to cleanly burn industrial waste, such as wood and other low-grade fuels. The company did well and had contracts for over $13 million with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department.

Smith sold Combustion Power to a company in Seattle, and since then he has formed three other companies, including a consulting business for the aerospace industry and one that made devices to read fingerprints.

Smith started to work on the EcoFire Super-Grate 10 years ago. At first, he built 100 of them and tried to sell them through mail orders.

"A lot of technology that was used in Combustion Power is now in the EcoFire product," Smith said.

Smith soon realized that he needed a talent to market the EcoFire, "more talent than a engineer had," he said. That talent Smith found in an unexpected place: a club for fellow Ferrari owners, were he met Loel McPhee, who had a background in marketing.

"I had never heard of anything like the EcoFire Super-Grate. Richard sent me one, and as soon as I tried it, I thought that it had to get out on the market," said McPhee.

In 1996, McPhee and Smith started Andiron Technologies Inc. of Woodside to market the fire grate. Since then, press coverage of their product, coinciding with a push by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to reduce wood burning in fireplaces, has boosted the company’s profile.

Smith said he and McPhee are now planning to launch a Web site for EcoFire and show the product at local trade shows.

"It has been a hard battle, because it is hard to get a product out there that people don’t understand. Every time you get a new product out on the market, you have a great deal of education to do," he said. ■

-Fredrica Syren

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