The Provincial Wood Stove Exchange is a program designed to encourage British Columbians to change out their older, smoky wood stoves for low emission appliances, including new CSA/EPA-certified clean burning wood stoves.
Offered at the community level, the program provides funding to promote the exchange and offer incentives to replace old wood stoves. It also delivers education to help people operate their wood-burning appliances efficiently.
The program is managed by the Wood Stove Exchange Steering Committee, which has representation from the following parties:
In addition to contributing to the program development and management, the HPBA and SBC Firemaster Energy Options have agreed to offer in-store discounts off their appliances for the period of March 1st to April 30th each year (discount details for 2012 to be determined). This period is an opportune time to implement and promote the program, although the program and its rebates can be run at any time of the year.
Groups interested in implementing or extending an exchange program starting in January 2012 are invited to put together a proposal: see Project Proposal Content (PDF: 40 KB/3 pages). The proposal should then be submitted to the Wood Stove Exchange Steering Committee. The deadline for proposals is October 14, 2011.
The committee will evaluate the proposals and work with successful proponents to get a program in place. Communities are encouraged to offer the program over multiple years in order to build momentum and encourage lasting change.
A list of selection criteria and how projects will be evaluated is in Appendix A: Community Criteria for Pursuing Local Wood Stove Exchange Programs (PDF: 27 KB/1 page).
Please note that higher competition for grants in this round means that not every proposal may be selected. Preference will be given to proponents with complete proposals, demonstrated leveraging of funds at the local level, and demonstrated need. Programs that have previously been supported must clearly demonstrate plans for improving on program delivery. Proponents are welcome to submit their proposals for review prior to formally submitting them.
The provincial wood stove exchange program has been a key factor in helping to improve air quality in many communities across the province where emissions from wood smoke are a problem. Success to date has been achieved by encouraging British Columbians to change out their older smoky wood stoves for low emission appliances that are CSA/EPA-certified. However, despite the adoption of this cleaner technology, wood smoke from inefficient burning practices continues to be a problem in many communities. Educating the public about clean wood burning techniques has been identified as a pressing need by many of the wood stove exchange community coordinators.
There may be an opportunity for one community to pilot a community-based social marketing strategy to promote clean wood burning. It is hoped that results from the pilot campaign will be used to inform a future province-wide strategy. If you wish to be considered to pilot such a program, please indicate this in your Project Proposal for the 2012 wood stove exchange program. Communities applying for an extension and/or those that have run a wood stove exchange program in the past are eligible to apply.
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