The Year in TreeHugger: Hot Stuff
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 12.28.06
After cars, the next most popular group of posts was on alternative forms of heating. Corn Stoves and Pellet Stoves were hot, as was the market for pellets. Most were cutesie-pie country style, but there were a few that had some design appeal, like the Austrian Rika and the Japanese Shimotani, of course both of which are not available in North America. Fortunately North Americans can get heat, high efficiency and good design at the same time if you burn wood, with the Topolino, the non-ugly versions of the Tulikivi, and the always elegant Rais. In the comments, readers always questioned whether the price we pay in air pollution is too high.
the links to the last three stoves aren't working for me they come up with page not found errors from treehugger.
LA: thanks for the tip. I have fixed it.
If you have the room, one of these would probably be better
Central Boiler
LA: Not if you believe this article in the New York Times
Not if you believe this.
http://www.centralboiler.com/emissions.html
Also I don't remember if it came up before in other pellet topics, but how much energy is used in creating them? And is it just made from by-products? Or are they becoming so popular that trees and other things are just being used for pellet production?
As I vote, I'm sitting next to a cob masonry oven that in the dead of winter (if D.C. ever sees such a winter again) radiates heat through this entire house.
A quote from http://www.woodheat.org/changeout/pellet.htm
"The environment gains in a couple of ways when wood pellets are used for heating. First, pellets are made from sawdust that would otherwise end up as waste in a landfill where it would decompose and emit carbon dioxide and methane, the two most important greenhouse gases. Rising amounts of the greenhouse gases create the problem of global warming and may also be responsible for the climate changes that have produced extreme weather events in recent years. Although carbon dioxide is also a byproduct of pellet burning, at least homes are heated in the process instead of just letting the sawdust rot in a landfill."
"The second environmental benefit is that home heating with pellets almost always displaces the use of fossil fuels like oil and gas. Burning fossil fuels increases greenhouse gases because the million-year-old carbon they are made of is converted to carbon dioxide and sent on a one-way trip into the atmosphere. In contrast, the carbon dioxide from wood pellet combustion is re-absorbed by young trees as they grow, so it is a renewable cycle."
My idea is to combine a wood pellet stove with a Stirling engine and generate the home's electricity as well as heat. Similar in concept to the WhisperGen. The WhisperGen runs on liquid or gaseous fossil fuels.
The forests here in Southern California are a time bomb waiting to happen due to the success of fire suppression over the past several decades. The problem is the undergrowth. Fires are more likely and when they occur they are so intense that they kill the trees. I say, clear the undergrowth and convert it to pellets. The sale of the pellets would subsidize the cost.
Forest fires create huge amounts of carbon dioxide without the benefit of heating homes. Heat homes, don't burn them down.
'The problem is the undergrowth...when (fires) occur they are so intense that they kill the trees. I say, clear the undergrowth and convert it to pellets. The sale of the pellets would subsidize the cost. Forest fires create huge amounts of carbon dioxide without the benefit of heating homes. Heat homes, don't burn them down.'
I live in the countryside in cental Spain in a relatively forested area and have seen what too much dried-out dense undergrowth can do to trees when a fire starts. It causes furious, fast spreading fires that kill trees. The public municipal forest 4 km away is kept clean of practically all undergrowth to prevent fire damage to trees and to make it easier to control and stop a fire when it starts. This should be done in all areas prone to numerous and intense fires. I try to keep my three hectares clear of undergrowth. Another thing done often here, which I am doing with my trees, is to cut away the bottom branches so that any sweeping fires only affect the bottom of the tree trunk. All the wood from the cleaning I use to heat my house. And the grasses that I clean away I throw into compost bins to make fertilizer. However, I do not think that a public agency could displace the costs of the labor required to clear underbrush with its sale, but at least it would cover part of it.