Indoor air pollution caused by wood-burning in Brazilian and Danish dwellings

Residential wood-burning is considered by the scientific community as the 4th major cause of deaths in the developing countries due to the indoor air contamination and a cause of regional air pollution in the northern countries. In the first case, wood is being used by low income people that still rely on it for cooking purposes and in the second case is commonly used as an economical heating fuel for creating a cozy atmosphere. In both cases, wood-burning stoves cause the exposure of the building occupants to overheating and indoor pollution, in the equatorial regions in naturally ventilated households and in northern Europe in low energy houses. This article aims to compare the level of both indoor particles and temperature in two different types of buildings in two extremely different world regions. The field research was conducted under the same operating conditions of wood-burning stoves in two different contexts from South to North, through two indoor climate campaigns in single family households. In Brazil the field work was carried out in 5 traditional houses and in Denmark in 5 energy efficient households. This comparative study reveled that temperature over 35ºC can be achieved in Brazilian households due to even when using the efficient masonry stove and in the case of Danish modern households temperature can reach 30ºC during the use of Nordic labeled cast-iron stoves. Moreover, even the wood combustion in efficient stoves resulted in PM10 concentrations levels over 1000 µg/m3 and when using Danish heating stoves in modern dwellings that concentrations were higher than 150 µg/m3. This study shows that even the most efficient stoves used in both developing and developed countries cause indoor climate issues. Thus, there is a need for a better integration of wood-burning stoves taking into account the building envelope energy performance and user´s practices, fitting the right innovations to the built environment.