Green Heat News
A monthly news service for everyone
interested in renewable wood & pellet heating
June 2021
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Featured Stories
The Attorney Generals of nine states sent a letter to Chet Wayland, the EPA’s Director of Air Quality Planning and Standards, urging him to reevaluate the ASTM E3053, and revoke it if the EPA reevaluation confirms the findings in a recent NESCAUM report.
Tom Morrissey, owner of Woodstock Soapstone, a wood stove manufacturer, has written a blistering critique of a report that claimed the EPA wood stove certification process is “dysfunctional.” While not denying the host of problems at the EPA in managing certification, he shows how the NESCAUM critique is almost as dysfunctional.
In early April, a whistleblower who had worked at US Stove provided detailed evidence that supports their allegations of substantial fraud to the EPA. It may be the most flagrant violation of the NSPS by a manufacturer and to date, there is no evidence that the EPA has is doing anything about it. No one from the EPA or the Justice Department has contacted the whistleblower. The non-compliant US Stove model 1269E is still being sold by resellers (May 26, 2021 screenshot). The EPA’s inaction may discourage any further whistleblowers from the wood heating industry.
St. Croix stove manufacturer forgot to extend their 5 year certificates and have had to pull their line of pellet stoves off the market. Last week, they sent emails to all of their retailers that sales and advertising must cease. These emails, required by the EPA, do not appear to have led to major retailers stop advertise these stoves. In addition, there are also lots of advertisements for their "exempt" multi-fuel stove, which are still on the market, to use pellets, corn, etc. If a multi-fuel stove advertises that it can use wood pellets, it must be certified.
We are trying to get to know our readers a little bit better through a quick survey! Your responses are greatly appreciated and will help us improve our newsletter and our services as a non-profit. And you will also have the chance to win a free Biolite electricity-generating wood grill.
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IRS: The IRS invites the public to submit recommendations for which topics they need to issue guidance on. Officials at the IRS are aware of the need to issue guidance on the definition of 75% efficient but cannot guarantee that it will be included in the Priority Guidance Plan. The initial deadline for recommendations was May 28, but taxpayers may submit input at any time during the year.
Forest Service: Congrats to all the wood heat projects that got funded this year from the Forest Service. These include grants to Oregon's bulk pellet market, a Lignetics demonstration project to decarbonize heating pellets and numerous grants to update boilers.
EPA: The Chimney Sweep News was an important publication for many years thanks to Jim Gillam, a writer, editor and sweep in Oregon. And, it still has important articles, which are hard to find in Google searches. This one, from a time when the EPA had funding to do testing, is especially still relevant today. It shows that well-maintained stoves are cleaner. The average used certified stove emitted 11 grams per hour in 1998.
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AGH is asking all of its supporters and readers to contact us if you have had an energy audit recently. We are researching whether and how energy audit companies included or omitted inspections of wood stoves during their audit, and whether the DOE is following its own guidelines. We are especially interested in talking to energy auditors directly. Please contact caroline@forgreenheat.org if you have had an energy audit, or if you do energy audits. Wood and pellet stoves deserve to be treated as legitimate home heaters.
Welcome to our fabulous summer fellow, Caroline Solomon! She is a double major at the University of Georgia studying Environmental Economics and Russian. Two of her main projects are integrating wood and pellet stoves into energy audits and researching wood heating issues in Eastern Europe and Russia.
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The Business of Pellet Heating |
There are 8 sawmills in Montezuma County in southwest Colorado which create wood paneling, plywood, flooring, furniture, etc. The leftover sawdust and slash can profitably be made into heating pellets.
Modern wood heating involves automated boilers run by sensors and microprocessors. Today, 246 companies and institutions use pellets in modern wood heating systems to replace mostly oil heat in the Northeast. In the early 1990s there were no pellets plants in the northeast, and all of those 246 buildings used fossil fuel.
"Improving market efficiency is indispensable if access and affordability of sustainable wood pellets are to be secured in the long-run, thus making sure, that investments in pellet boilers and stoves, mills and infrastructure contribute to the successful substitution of fossil fuel based heating technologies as well as help to achieve the climate targets."
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This is a new, more affordable ESP from a Chilean company that is beginning to market in Europe, and maybe soon in the U.S. Cost is about $600. We reviewed their test data which appeared to show a 60% and 35% PM reduction on separate tests. Like the one AGH and MHA tested at the Wood Stove Design Challenge, it appears to get better reductions on cleaner burns, and may not work as well using unseasoned wood. We predict we will see more of these in coming years.
Becky Fairway makes Anevay wood stoves at Anevay Stoves in Redruth, England. She says that ever since she was a kid, she loved getting her hands dirty. Please let us know if you know of any women welders at any American stove manufacturer!
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This peer-reviewed article by physicians concludes that PM2.5 from fossil fuels correlates to death from heart disease, but wood smoke does not. Wood smoke contributes to acute respiratory issues but doesn’t correlate to heart disease. "Past studies are largely consistent with a finding that the PM2.5 association with mortality varies with its elemental composition." The result is "greater long-term cardiovascular toxicity of fossil fuel combustion particles versus... biomass."
Some research shows that logs or bricks made from waste from coffee and olives pollute more than traditional firewood. The new UK limit for smoke emissions is 5 grams per hour. An olive log was tested and shown to have a rating of 17 grams an hour. HETAS, the industry fuel approver said that these products will not carry the HETAS stamp of approval.
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Mike Fink, an energy data analyst for Efficiency Vermont, uses his home as his own lab: solar panels, a home battery, an EV, a heat pump and a wood stove. The cold climate heat pump only "handles about half of our heating load during the winter,” he notes. "The wood stove accounts for most of the rest."
If you use a wood stove for heat, your homeowners insurance may be higher than it would for a standard HVAC System. However, lowering insurance costs may be as simple as sending a picture to your insurer showing that your stove is properly installed and meets all requirements.
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COVID-19 Stove Relief Fund |
The Stove Repair Relief Fund helps families impacted by COVID-19. Air quality agencies, change out programs and low-income winterization programs can link to this fund to help their clients and residents. It provides up to a 50% reduction in the price of pellet stove parts for orders up to $500. Dozens of families can now keep their pellet stoves running safely.
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State News
New Hampshire: There is a smaller and smaller population in NH who heat their home with coal. Some consumers still choose coal for the same reason that it fueled the Industrial Revolution and heated a majority of American homes through World War II: It’s powerful stuff, packing more energy than almost anything this side of uranium.
Vermont: Transportation and heating combined now account for 70% of Vermont’s carbon emissions. Emissions from Vermont’s commercial and residential heating stayed level from 2016 to 2017 and then rose an estimated 8% by 2019. “It’s because we regulate the electric sector in a different way than we regulate the liquid fuels sector.”
International News
Ireland: Renewable Energy Ireland (REI) has published 40by30, a roadmap to generate 40% of Ireland's heat from renewable sources by 2030. “Bioenergy, including solid biomass and biogas/biomethane can deliver large emissions reductions across each heat sector in Ireland.”
Canada: "With mill by-products and forest biofibre, the government wants to generate more investment, encourage more innovation, create jobs and make Ontario's $17.6-billion forest sector more sustainable."
Canada: "One of the prime motivators for the project was the Kyoto Protocol" and carbon taxes upwards to $20 per tonne. For this university project, they brought in an Austrian team with a long and successful history in manufacturing cost-efficient and environmentally-friendly boiler combustion systems.
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Follow AGH on Twitter
AGH applauds EPA Administrator Michael Regan for supporting the Clean Cooking Alliance, which is akin to a massive, international change out program, working to get 3 billion households to switch from dirty, rudimentary solid fuel cook stoves, to cleaner options, which can include improved wood and pellet cook stoves, gas stoves, and other options. AGH highlights this and other important announcements on its Twitter @forgreenheat
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All events listed below are virtual except the European Pellet Conference, which has a virtual option, and the CSIA training academy and homecoming conference to be held in Plainfield, Indiana. |
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June - September, 2021
The webinar series facilitates the design of policies promoting the adoption of clean household energy. It will feature sessions on standards, data for decision making, interventions, and cross-cutting themes such as climate change and gender.
May 6 - June 10, 2021
This virtual event will feature six sessions on the state of the industry and latest federal policy developments from the US Congress, the Biden Administration and agencies.
June 2, 2021
Free online conference begins at 1 p.m. Atlantic time and continues for three hours.
June 9-10, 2021
A two day educational event for operating firewood businesses and startups + discussions by professionals on business topics.
Wels, Austria, June 22, 2021
The European Pellet Conference 2021 moves to the summer.
June 23-26, 2021
HBPA recently switched its in-person Expo to a virtual one.
Plainfield, Indiana, July 19-24, 2021
This six-day course combines classroom training at the CSIA Technology Center with real-world experience in the field.
Plainfield, Indiana, August 18-20, 2021
Technical training, business training, fellowship, fun, and fulfillment, all with CSIA CEUs.
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Misleading Advertisement of the Month
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Even while US Stove Company is under scrutiny for various alleged illegal sales, new, non-compliant wood boilers keep turning up on the second hand market around its factory in Tennessee. The EPA knows about this but they still apparently do not have the staffing or resources to do anything about it. See more on our Facebook page.
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Thank you to everyone who donated to AGH during 2020! Your support makes a huge difference and is very appreciated. The Alliance for Green Heat is an independent non-profit organization working to promote cleaner and more efficient biomass heating. Please consider making a generous contribution. The Alliance is a tax exempt 501 (c)(3) organization.
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