Scott Bradley, president of Mainline Heating and Supply, Inc. with an outdoor wood furnace at company headquarters in Ashford, Conn.

The Providence Journal / Gretchen Ertl

ASHFORD, Conn. — Scott Bradley proudly boasts that he is so opposed to dependence on foreign oil that he hasn’t bought a drop of heating oil in 12 years. Yet he keeps his house and his Mainline Heating and Supply store in the 70s every winter. He stays warm by burning native wood in hefty fireboxes called outdoor wood furnaces.

Bradley has become one of the top sellers of the country’s leading brand of such furnaces, Central Boiler, from his store in this wooded community about 20 miles from the Rhode Island line. He figures he has sold more than 1,300 in the last 12 years, including 400 to 500 to Rhode Islanders.

The furnaces pump heated water underground through insulated pipes to nearby buildings. Bradley says they are efficient and clean if operated properly. By his rough calculation, the stoves he has sold save about a million gallons of heating oil every year.

Unfortunately, he concedes, some are misused, just as some people drive cars improperly.

And as the stoves become more popular, more people are complaining that sooty smoke is invading their houses, making their lives miserable.

Two self-proclaimed victims of one of those stoves testified before the Rhode Island House Environment and Natural Resources Committee recently. Steve and Susan Charette, of Foster, said they haven’t been able to take their toddlers outdoors since last summer, when a neighbor fired up his outdoor boiler. They demanded state regulations to control emissions from such stoves.

North Smithfield and Woonsocket passed ordinances last year. Smithfield, North Kingstown and Narragansett are considering their own this year. Connecticut and Massachusetts have enacted regulations. Now, the Rhode Island House says it plans to act with its own legislation.

It may be come as a surprise to some that Central Boiler doesn’t have a problem with that.

Former Attorney General Dennis J. Roberts II represented the company at the hearing in Rhode Island and said his client would support state regulations, with some amendments.

“This company is the largest manufacturer of this product,” said Roberts. “My client is very amenable to [Department of Environmental Management] regulations.”

DEM Director W. Michael Sullivan told the committee that if it wants the state to regulate the boilers, it will have to pass a law. Sullivan said his legal advisers don’t believe DEM is empowered to regulate residential boilers.

Sullivan said such a law should address boiler operations and the fact that many of the ones causing problems were installed without local permits and without guidance from licensed professionals.

Considering the time it takes to write regulations based on new state laws, he urged the legislators to act quickly so the DEM can be prepared to regulate the stoves by next fall.

Charette provided a video of the smoke billowing from his neighbor’s boiler.

“It’s not just a nuisance, it’s terrorism,” said Charette. He said he has taken his neighbor to court.

He said the General Assembly should declare a moratorium on boiler sales until it develops truly tough emission standards.

Charette said Europeans have developed the technology to clean up emissions from the stoves, but boiler makers have resisted that in the United States.

Susan Charette tearfully told the committee she is concerned about her twin toddlers.

“I can’t go outside with my kids. I can’t do anything with them,” she said. “I don’t know if you can imagine what that’s like.”

Molly Clark, of the American Lung Association, said the boilers not only cause asthma, they emit particles that cause other health problems for those who breathe them.

“The lung association isn’t opposed to wood burning as such, but it is against wood burning that is not properly controlled,” Clark said.

Representatives Raymond E. Gallison and Douglas W. Gablinske, both Bristol Democrats, are the lead sponsors of legislation to regulate the boilers. A different version failed last year. Gallison said at the hearing that he wants minimum stack heights and setbacks for the stoves. And he wants them installed only by licensed plumbers and electricians. He also wants to ensure compliance with federal emissions standards.

“In my opinion, it’s deplorable and we need to regulate it and regulate it now,” Gallison said.

Gablinske added: “We have a great interest in getting this passed before it explodes. It is a huge problem, and it will explode.”

Committee chairman Jan Malik agreed. “This is a big issue and we need to nip it in the bud.”

The only dissenting speaker was Al Bettencourt, of the Rhode Island Farm Bureau. He’s not opposed to some regulation, he said, but he’s concerned that the bill goes too far. What’s more, he asserted some boilers give off steam that people might mistake for smoke.

To Bradley, the wood boilers are practically a way of life — a way to rid the country of its dependence on foreign oil. He figures he saves 500 gallons of oil a month just with the boiler at his store.

The boilers are so big, you can feed them entire logs, rather than more expensive split wood.

When heating oil prices soared past $4 a gallon, he said, he got lots of new customers desperate to find another fuel.

“You wouldn’t believe how many customers we have and how much they love their boilers,” said Bradley.

“People are the problem — if they don’t burn responsibly,” he said. “It’s like people have the right to bear arms, but not to shoot people.”

“Wood smoke is dangerous,” said Bradley. “But so is cigarette smoke. Or fumes from your car.”

Despite the drawbacks of burning wood, Bradley insists they pale in comparison with the environmental costs of drilling for oil, transporting it, refining it and then burning it. And look at the costs of oil spills. You don’t get wood spills, he noted.

“Oil drove our country to its knees,” Bradley said.

Using the boilers on small lots is unthinkable, Bradley agreed. So is using a short smoke stack, or burning anything other than clean wood. Also, they should not be operated in the summer.

Bradley said he is concerned about having to comply with a variety of town regulations or outright bans. But moves by some states to require more efficient boilers don’t worry him. His company makes them too, although they cost more.

To see the boiler bill, go to: www.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText09/HouseText09/H5218.pdf.

plord@projo.com