A friend with a pellet grill came by and asked me if I thought he should postpone his scheduled cook due to bad air quality here in SoCal from the widlfires. I said with so much acreage burning, I don't see how his lone pellet grill would make that big a difference. But it got me thinking....
Some background: I have a COS which I've enhanced and it cooks pretty good. I start a pile of charcoal in a Weber starter chimney over my deep fryer burner. It gets going pretty quickly, but will sometimes smoke heavily for a couple minutes. Sometimes I throw in some hardwood chunks which will make it smoke more until it's all lit. Once it's transferred to the offset smoker, it smokes only minimally. The smoke goes between houses until it's a block away, but my neighbors from two blocks away comment on how much they like the smell.
I'm planning to relocate to the Boise, ID metro area and did some checking on their DEQ (Dept. of Environmental Quality) page and also the fire dept page of Meridian, where we'll likely settle. They have several restrictions on outdoor burning involving published air quality and windspeed. The FD flyer also say the smoke should go straight up, which I have no control over, but would seem to limit my cooks to low-wind days. It also contains this text, which I quote: "Residential backyard or outdoor burning is a form of open burning, which is defined as any burning outdoors that does not pass through a stack, duct, or chimney." I think that means my smoker and chimney fire starter are not considered open burning, but I'm not sure about the deep fryer propane burner. Can anyone in the Boise area provide some local info?
I may consider getting a KBQ (cleaner burning) and ditch my COS, but IDK if it will really make a difference. I will not get a pellet smoker, as I enjoy tending the cook. I'd really appreciate any thoughts you may have on air quality in general and the Boise area specifically.
Some background: I have a COS which I've enhanced and it cooks pretty good. I start a pile of charcoal in a Weber starter chimney over my deep fryer burner. It gets going pretty quickly, but will sometimes smoke heavily for a couple minutes. Sometimes I throw in some hardwood chunks which will make it smoke more until it's all lit. Once it's transferred to the offset smoker, it smokes only minimally. The smoke goes between houses until it's a block away, but my neighbors from two blocks away comment on how much they like the smell.
I'm planning to relocate to the Boise, ID metro area and did some checking on their DEQ (Dept. of Environmental Quality) page and also the fire dept page of Meridian, where we'll likely settle. They have several restrictions on outdoor burning involving published air quality and windspeed. The FD flyer also say the smoke should go straight up, which I have no control over, but would seem to limit my cooks to low-wind days. It also contains this text, which I quote: "Residential backyard or outdoor burning is a form of open burning, which is defined as any burning outdoors that does not pass through a stack, duct, or chimney." I think that means my smoker and chimney fire starter are not considered open burning, but I'm not sure about the deep fryer propane burner. Can anyone in the Boise area provide some local info?
I may consider getting a KBQ (cleaner burning) and ditch my COS, but IDK if it will really make a difference. I will not get a pellet smoker, as I enjoy tending the cook. I'd really appreciate any thoughts you may have on air quality in general and the Boise area specifically.
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