When it comes to wood boiler efficiency, too many are “high efficiency” boilers. How could practically all wood boilers be considered highly efficient? Is the term meaningless? Even informed buyers must find the landscape very confusing. One might think a government website could help solve the confusion. However, even the EPA site listing certified wood… Read More »
Tucked away in basements and utility rooms, boilers and furnaces quietly emit about 75% of household carbon dioxide emissions. Making large reductions in household carbon footprints requires de-fossilizing home heating systems. Homeowners are in luck because new wood pellet boilers and furnaces, aka modern wood heat and cold climate air-source heat pumps (ASHPs), can eliminate… Read More »
Using wood for heating is not only smart carbon policy, but should also become an essential component of pro-forestation land management. Some believe the countdown timer on a 10 year planetary climate time bomb has begun. They believe we have ten years to figure out how to clip the carbon “wires” or human-induced carbon emissions… Read More »
Storing renewable energy is one of the great challenges of the current age. Until renewable energy can be stored reliably and in massive quantities, we are not able to relinquish our use of fossil and nuclear fuels. There is no single energy storage method that can solve all of our needs, though electric batteries hold… Read More »
What is a “Modern Wood Boiler”? Modern wood boilers use sensors, such as oxygen sensors like those found in modern automobile engines, to provide real-time combustion adjustment with separate primary and secondary air controls. Sometimes these boilers are called “lambda controlled wood boilers”. Modern wood boilers almost always use induced draft fans rather than forced… Read More »
Israel River Campground in Jefferson, NH has been burning over 12 cords of wood and 1,400 gallons of oil per season for 10 years in an HS-Tarm Excel multi-fuel wood gasification boiler. The almost 7,000 square foot main building, which houses the camp store, bathrooms, laundry facilities, recreation room, and owner’s living quarters is a… Read More »
Wood burning is carbon neutral. For thousands of years, wood burning has been carbon neutral. Now that we face a climate crisis, some people have concluded that wood burning is no longer carbon neutral. What changed? Here’s what hasn’t changed: People believe the science they want to believe. Some think all forestry is unsustainable. Other’s… Read More »
