Lignetics

Letter to Editor written to a Philadelphia area newspaper:
Your Jan. 3 front-page story on the record high prices for gasoline is to be applauded. This type of news will become more common in the months and years to come as demand for liquid fuel begins to outstrip global supply. We need this news.
The record price of home heating oil also deserves attention. Many of us live in parts of the county that depend on oil heat. A quick check on those prices locally indicates a range from $3.45 to $4.14 a gallon. The Marcellus and Barnett bonanza doesn't help those of us who, like me, don’t have access to gas lines.

As a member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, I’ve been studying this issue for over a decade, and I’ve been preparing. The word on the petroleum street is that these record prices are not going down. Yet, rather than taking the gas pipe over this reality, I have found strategies to keep my costs in balance with my meager budget.
In 2005, I bought my wife a hybrid car for her 55-mile commute. In 2006, I bought a wood pellet stove and heated our house, including hot water, for $450 in my first full winter with it. The following year when our summer-winter oil burner died, we found that the pellet stove heated our 1,200-square-foot house just fine. Putting our new hot-water heater on a timer, our energy costs dropped again, with no loss of comfort or convenience. We planted evergreens to shield the windy side of the house.
I also began to seal air leaks and improve the half-century-old insulation in the house. And last year, I got a better used, hybrid car for my wife. Now, we both have hybrids. I’ve registered with the EnergyWorks program and will soon be able to get some serious work done on the house. We’ll pay off the 0.99 percent loan out of the energy savings.
I mention this in spite of my fixed retirement income and the downturn in my wife’s business. I was taught that being a doer is more productive than being a complainer. I took the Sustainable Building Advisor course at the community college to help me understand energy efficiency and conservation. I volunteer on a number of agencies like my township’s Environmental Advisory Council and the Delaware Valley Green Building Council. I share my experiences there and learn a lot in the process. And the bottom line: It pays off.
I also mention this to highlight the fact that we can choose to not be victims of the new energy reality. There is much we can do if we’re willing to do it.
Larry Menkes
Warminster Township

Alliance for Green Heat

Biomass Thermal Energy Council

FutureMetrics

Hearth and Home Technologies

Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association

Pellet Fuels Institute

Alliance for Green Heat, December 1, 2012 - Wood and pellet stoves are a secondary fuel of choice for many of us who primarily heat with oil, propane or electricity. But when it comes to cost savings, gas furnaces provide the cheapest form of fossil fuel heat. Choosing a reliable brand of furnace is still important, and the December 2012 issue of Consumer Reports advised consumers to think twice about York furnaces which broke down about twice as often as other brands.

Bryant, Trane and American Standard furnaces needed repairs the least often, according to the Consumer Report survey of 32,251 appliances bought by subscribers of the magazine. Many other brands, including Carrier, Rheen, Ruud and Lennox, held up nearly as well. Consumer Reports also has excellent general advice about purchasing a gas furnace.

Consumer Reports has never done a large survey of wood or pellet stove reliability, although they did test and review 6 pellet stoves in February 2011. The magazine gave highest rating to the Harman P68, which, at $3,900, was also the most expensive of all the pellet stoves they reviewed. A close second to the Harman was the Napoleon NPS40 which cost only $2,350, and rated higher than 3 other more expensive models from Lopi, Enviro and Quadrafire. At the bottom of the list was Summers Heat 55-SHP10L, made by Englander, but that model only cost $1,300 and is often considered a good value.

Consumers Reports has never tested wood stoves, so don't subscribe thinking you will find any ratings or recommendations. Both wood and pellet stoves deserve far more attention from consumer organizations as there is little reliable third party testing and reliability surveys. The testing that Consumer Reports did of pellet stoves in 2010 did not include reliability, noise levels for pellet stoves or how much electricity the stove drew.

Wood stoves are inherently more reliable and often need little repair, other than cleaning the chimney annually and replacing the gaskets every few years. However, the durability of many wood stoves, while a selling point, can also be a drawback because many people keep their old, inefficient and polluting stoves for too long, not realizing that newer ones can save them up to 50% on fuel cost and be far better for their health.

By Luke Geiver | January 04, 2013

The Pellet Fuels Institute held a December 2012 fly-in trip to Washington, D.C., to fight for a biomass heating tax incentive, and those efforts have paid off. Included in the fiscal cliff tax deal was the stove tax credit, which provides a tax credit of 10 percent up to $300 for the purchase of any biomass burning appliance, including pellet stoves. The credit lasts through 2013 and is retroactive through 2012.

Jennifer Hedrick, executive director of the PFI, said that although it may be difficult to judge a single incentive such as this one, PFI thinks that it will have a positive impact on fuel and stove sales.

“When the credit was included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009, we were in the midst of a recession, and we did not see the spike in stove shipments that we anticipated. However,” she said, “with the economic rebound, as well as the high heating costs that many Americans continue to be faced with, we’re hopeful that this credit will provide further incentive for homeowners to switch to a biomass heating appliance.”

Although PFI was successful in its efforts to push the stove tax credit, Hedrick said her team will now be focusing on new areas. In addition to attempts to help the current Farm Bill’s Energy Title receive full funding, PFI will also continue to focus on tax policy, including, she said, incentives for the conversion of biomass for use in thermal applications. “And, like all industries, we will be following the anticipated tax reform debate with a watchful eye and will seek opportunities to weigh in there.”

PFI is also working with other trade groups, the Biomass Thermal Energy Council, the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association and other companies within the industry to encourage the Energy Information Administration to expand coverage of residential biomass usage in their energy reports.

EIA Administrator Sieminski says wood pellets represent a "significant opportunity" for consumers to save money
Bryant, Trane and American Standard furnaces needed repairs the least often, according to the Consumer Report survey of 32,251 appliances bought by subscribers of the magazine. Many other brands, including Carrier, Rheen, Ruud and Lennox, held up nearly as well. Consumer Reports also has excellent general advice about purchasing a gas furnace.

October 10, 2012- The U.S. government released its annual assessment of prices and availability of heating fuels today and for the first time it included information on pellets and firewood. After gas and electricity, wood is the third most common heating fuel in America, but the annual Winter Fuels Outlook had never discussed it prior to the 2012-13 heating season.

The Winter Fuels Outlook is put out by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), an independent statistical and analytical agency within the Department of Energy. Reports published by the agency are the premier source of energy information in the country and are used to guide economic policy and educate the public.

During today's press conference, EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski mentioned the "significant opportunity" for consumers to supplement their oil heat with wood pellets, as well as with electricity.

The inclusion of wood and pellets in the Winter Fuels Outlook came after over a year of discussions and meetings between the EIA and a coalition of wood and pellet groups. Senator Shaheen (D-NH) also raised the importance of pellets as an alternative to oil in New England with Administrator Sieminski.

According to the EIA, wood and pellets now produce more residential heat in the US than propane and nearly as much as oil. Wood produces 0.5 quadrillion Btu (quads) per year, propane 0.49 quads and oil 0.6.

EIA projects that average household expenditures for heating oil and natural gas will increase by 19 percent and 15 percent respectively over last heating season. The agency expects the country will experience colder temperatures compared to last year's mild winter, with oil and gas prices remaining virtually the same.

In terms of wood and pellets, the report said:
Wood consumption in homes has risen over the past 10 years, reversing a trend seen in the last two decades of the 20th century. In 2009, U.S. households consumed about 0.5 quadrillion Btu (quads) of wood. Household fuel oil consumption, by comparison, was only slightly higher at 0.6 quads. In homes across the United States, wood is most commonly used as a secondary source of heat and is second only to electricity as a supplemental heating fuel. Twenty percent of New England homes (1.1 million) used wood for space heating, water heating, or cooking in 2009 (EIA, Residential Energy Consumption Survey, 2009). This is nearly twice the national rate. Almost half of all rural households used wood in this area of the country. In contrast, only 12 percent of urban New England households used the fuel.
According to data previously published by the EIA, the average American household heating with wood consumes two cords of wood per year. This number includes homes that use wood or pellets as a primary, secondary or occasional heat source. The EIA also documents that consumption in rural areas is more than twice that of urban areas. The EIA estimates that 91% of homes that heat with wood use firewood, 8% use wood scrap and 6% use pellets.

Wood use also trends strongly with income level, according to EIA survey data, with households making $20,000 or less using more than twice the amount of wood as households making $120,000 or more. 

"The EIA's focus on wood and pellets is an important and timely step in the right direction," said John Ackerly, President of the Alliance for Green Heat, a non-profit consumer organization based in the DC area. "The next step is for states to start including the price of pellets in their monthly fuel price reports," Ackerly added.
 
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The Alliance for Green Heat promotes wood and pellet heat as a low-carbon, sustainable and affordable energy solution. The Alliance is a 510c3 non-profit organization based in Maryland.