Webinars
Upcoming Webinars
The Franklin Stove: The Drivers of Stove Innovation in the 1700s
May 15, 2025
12:00 - 1:30 PM (EST)
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Description: Benjamin Franklin is often considered the grandfather of US wood stove innovation in the United States. After nearly 300 years, stoves carrying his name are still commonplace on the second hard market. Yet his innovation remains controversial, and scholars still debate how Franklin influenced home heating in the US and Europe. The issues he spent much of his lifetime working on – wood stove efficiency and smoke leakage – are still as relevant as ever.
Ironically, Franklin’s most famous design was an improved fireplace, not a stove. The front of the fireplace remained open, assuring that smoke leakage and low efficiency would persist. Yet, fully enclosed, six-sided steel stoves and efficient masonry stoves already existed and were known to Franklin.
In this webinar, three scholars will discuss their research and theories about what Franklin really achieved and why it took so long for Americans to abandon their fireplaces and adopt enclosed wood stoves.
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Speakers
Joyce Chaplin, Professor of American History at Harvard University
Howell Harris, Professor of Modern American History at Durham University
Sean Adams, Professor of History and Interim Associate Dean at the University of Florida
Past Webinars
​Causes and Solutions to Indoor Air Smoke from Wood and Pellet Stoves
January 14, 2025
Link to Recording: Click Here
Link to Webinar Slides: Click Here
Link to Unanswered Questions: Click Here
Description: This webinar looked at the most common reasons that smoke comes from wood and pellet stoves, how to diagnose it, and the best ways to fix it. There is little data about what percent of homes with wood or pellet stoves have problems with indoor wood smoke. And, it is often hard for consumers to know whether the installation, the chimney pipe, the stove, or the operator is the main cause of the problem. This webinar was designed for homeowners who have experienced smoke leaking from their stove, firewood banks and tribes who help wood heated homes, and for agencies trying to reduce indoor and outdoor wood smoke.
This webinar is part of a series of webinars about responsible wood and pellet heating. This one is funded in part by a grant from the USDA Forest Service.
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Speakers
Mansel Nelson, Northern Arizona University
Bob Ferrari, National Chimney Sweep Guild
Aileen Gagney, Tribal Healthy Homes Network
Ken Davis, Wood Heater Designer
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Common Problems – and Solutions – for Self-Installed Wood Stoves
October 17, 2024
Link to Recording: Click Here
Link to Webinar Slides: Click Here
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Description: Wood stoves can be a very affordable and practical way to heat and they are also very effective at reducing fossil fuels. But dangerous stove installations are common in America and are usually the result of homeowners doing their own installation. A panel of experts explored this problem, and what issues and trends they are currently seeing. They discussed what issues homeowners can typically fix themselves and when they should call a professional. We also looked at how Canada and European countries avoid some of the problems that exist in the US.
This webinar is part of a series of webinars about responsible wood and pellet heating. This one is funded in part by a grant from the USDA Forest Service.
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Speakers
Byron Schramm, Midtown Chimney Sweeps Franchising
Bamm Brewer and Dale Pine, One Spirit
Yvette Aube, AIM Chimney
Mark Humphrey, National Fireplace Institute
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AGH + Northern Forest Center Webinar: The Carbon Account of Modern Wood Heat
January 17, 2024
Link to Recording: Click Here
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Description: This webinar features three researchers in a discussion on the climate impacts of modern wood heat, from the forest to the flame.
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Speakers
Dr. Alexandra Kosiba, Extension Assistant Professor of Forestry, University of Vermont
Dr. Robert Malmsheimer, Distinguished Teaching Professor of Forest Policy and Law, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Dr. Thomas Buchholz, Senior Scientist, Spatial Informatics Group
Starting a Firewood Bank?
October 5, 2023
Link to Recording: Click Here
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Description: This webinar on October 5, 2023 featured Dr. Jessica Leahy of the University of Maine School of Forest Resources describing her research along with student Sabrina Vivian into firewood banks and the various considerations necessary to start one. John Ackerly and Darian Dyer of Alliance for Green Heat describe the application process for the federal wood bank financial assistance grants that will fund existing and start-up firewood banks.
AGH Webinar: State Clean Heat Standards and Pellet/Chip Heating
November 9, 2023
Link to Recording: Click Here
Description: Most states now have standards designed to gradually grow the amount of renewable electricity on their grids. Now, states are looking to do the same for heat, through clean heat standards (CHS). A CHS is a performance standard, requiring heat providers to deliver a gradually-increasing percentage of low-emission heating services to customers. Vermont was the first state in the nation to adopt one, and now Massachusetts is working on one. These experts will discuss how they work, how wood, pellet and chip heating systems may best fit in, and unique equity challenges CHS pose for lower income households.
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Speakers
Jared Duval, Executive Director of Energy Action Network
Chris Egan, Executive Director of Massachusetts Forest Alliance
Lilith Guzman, Fellow at Alliance for Green Heat
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Pellet Heating in the Age of Heat Pumps
September 14, 2023
Link to Recording: Click Here
Description: The electrification of home heating is now a major goal of scores of agencies and institutions as the best and most affordable way to decarbonize heating. Pellet heating is also a low-carbon pathway and affordable to many homes that heat with propane, oil or electric resistance heat.
This webinar explored how various experts think the heat pump boom will impact pellet heating, taking into account the potential price of electricity, the need and benefits of non-electric heat, consumer preferences, etc. and what major factors we should be considering.
Speakers:
Frank Kvietok, Senior Director of Innovation at Lignetics
Scott Williamson, Head of Technical Support, Stove and Grill Parts.com
Adam Sherman, Senior Consultant, VEIC
Darian Dyer, Policy Analyst, Alliance for Green Heat (replacement for Christiane Egger, Deputy Manager, OÖ Energiesparverband)
Karen Harman-Smeltz, Director of Channel Marketing for Forge & Flame, Hearth & Home Technologies.
