I can understand the reasoning, but the implementation my not be so desirable, however, someone who is being "smoked out" would disagree.
There is widespread use of wood boilers here too, dealers seem to have plenty of them on hand too, every one I see that sells them, seems to have a dozen on hand or more, for those, new and immediate regulations hit hard.
I live on a hill, and for years, I have been smoked out by neighbors, often times it reeks of smoldering garbage, or something thereof, un seasoned wood or what have you. I don't care what apparatus a person may use, you need to know how to manage or operate your firebox, both fuel and combustion, because the result coming out your stack, is directly effected by it. This smoke, whenever present, forces one to close their windows and prevents you from being outside, it's really obtrusive. More and more, people are just incoherent, no common sense, no ability, no thought process, no attention to detail, always in a hurry, 30 second gratification, society is full of it, with that mentality, you're going to have people cutting trees and tossing same directly into a wood boiler, regardless of what will be produced as a result of the combustion of same.
I know nothing of wood boilers, and I do not know how or why they differ in the fact that many people fuel them with wood that is not suitable for a stove, green, wet or what have you. If someone can get away with something they will, so if this practices creates heat/hot water etc. without splitting, drying and or preparing the wood fuel to burn cleanly and efficiently, they're gonna do it every time, creating the smoke problem, which leads to regulation.
Does it take all that much knowledge, experience to understand that your wood needs to be dry, your fire managed, so that it burns clean ? Now with wind conditions and lack there of where the smoke will linger, do you just ignore that, to heck with others who may be nearby ? I think the chimney height is reasonable, even then smoke can just settle, or be pushed back down, all depends on the weather.
In my experience, this house has 2 large fireplaces, and a wood stove in the cellar, 24" x 24" flues, 8"x12" flues, wood stove and oil furnace, large masonry chimneys and I am on a hill. I burn wood to heat the basement, and under the 1st floor, as much as possible,the fireplaces are enclosed with combustion air intake from outside, both have heat-o-lators (lower fans/vents) though I have not used them in years, they do consume quite a bit of wood. I source my would from either of our farms or where ever its easy to obtain. Being alone, it is not easy to get it done, often times its in log length, bucked, and handsplit, dried further near the stove, then used. Some years I have enough dry, others I don't. I have mixed various moisture content wood, some totally dry, with say higher moisture content, which controls the fire, my old Ashley is like a blast furnace, it will turn the smoke pipe red hot if you load it up with dry wood, so you take care in its use, an air tight may be or would obviously be better, but it works for me, the heat it produces is overwhelming or can be, it is instant too. The only time I get excessive smoke is when starting a new fire, cold flue etc., once going, you add the dry wood and top off with say some black cherry, or something that has been cut but not split, you may get a little sizzle, add more dry if needed, check the stack and see whats what, flue temp etc., properly done or monitored, the smoke is minimal and most times non existent,(clear) when real cold, looks like steam, or similar to the furnace flue, no creosote build up worth mentioning, flue cleanings produce a small quantity, like 1/3 of a small bucket. I keep that flue temperature up and burn various states of seasoned wood, or as dry as you can get, I've tried all kinds of mixtures, if all dry/seasoned, you just can't load er up, she burns it faster, and hotter, so its why I do like putting a big chunk of hardwood on top, even if not completely seasoned, black cherry is nice for this the flue does not lie. I do not like smoking out my neighbors, and sometimes the the start up will do that. Ideally I would prefer all wood to be seasoned 100%, a better stove and or control the oxygen, then again I like my ole Ashley I know I'll get some flack here for this but working with what you have on hand, using care and having consideration for others, I try like heck to keep my fire burning clean, my flue is probably 20+ feet up, nice to see when coming up my road, knowing a fire is burning and little or no visible smoke.
Burn barrels, same way, people have ruined it for others because they do not use them efficiently for things that would be suitable to burn in them, dry wood, small increments of paper not all at once, cardboard etc. ( paper and cardboard, does send up lots of ash sparks, smoldering paper etc.) vs garbage, plastic, or whatever they feel like burning, often times smoldering away and creating a real problem for others, happens here often or it did, til Rensselaer county banned it, I still use mine regardless, but in a way that does not create excess smoke and when it will carry away, not linger, more so when cold so people do not have windows open, just common sense, it's what people do not seem to possess these days !
