New England wanted to use all renewable energy… then it got cold

hotair.com ^ | 1/3/2018 | Jazz Shaw

[Psalm 73]

"I’m thinking of replacing with a wood pellet heater."

Used pellets for five years - great until the power goes out (auger and blower fan both use electrons).

[1Old Pro]

"I’m thinking of replacing with a wood pellet heater." Used pellets for five years - great until the power goes out (auger and blower fan both use electrons).

Nothing a small generator wouldn't fix.

[Psalm 73]

"A rather misleading oversimplification."

Nothing is as easy as it sounds.
I do burn oil, and supplement with wood - average 2.5 cords per winter.
One cord I buy split and delivered (supporting small businesses), and 1.5 I do myself (saves on health club/gym fees).

[chimera]

A small generator that burns...petroleum products?

[outofsalt]

Good link to a discussion of heating;
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/wood-pellets-vs-natural-gas-furance.62193/page-3

[Dandy]

I burn 3 cords of wood per year. I have 100 acres of forest where I get my wood. There are enough downed by storms etc. trees for me each year. I probably get it all from about 5 acres. It takes me a week of work. It is so worth it.

[AppyPappy]

Our experimental wind turbine was destroyed...by wind.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Bird blenders.

[AppyPappy]

I know someone who has a cabin in the land preserve. His only complaint was “When I get snowed in, I can’t get out and get water for my water tank”.
I reminded him that snow was made of water. Ding! Put a pot of snow on the wood stove and instant water.

[Kozak]

“Very stupid. Our industrial economy depends on the energy found in oil. There is NOTHING else that contains as much energy, in such concentration, at such a low cost.”

Nuclear.

[Celtic Conservative]

Can’t you buy battery packs for just that eventuality?

CC

[Hieronymus]

I’d think that you’d want to use figures for Vermont tree growth for Vermont. I bet trees grow a great deal better there than in Nebraska. The rule of thumb I recall being taught on the Oregon Coast was a 10 acre wood lot. Where I am in Ontario, I expect that it is between 10 and 20 acres per home. We heat with wood, but buy it—as you point out the time involved is considerable.

[PIF]

Bird blenders.

—

Bat mixers as well.

[Mr. Lucky]

I think you’ll find that, in the real world, cordwood is the by-product of timberstand improvement, ditch maintenance, fence cleaning, and the like.
Is it more correct to girdle a cull tree and let it stand than to fell it and split it for firewood?

[chimera]

Its probably the lowest energy density fuel in large-scale use right now. It averages about 16 MJ/kg. For comparison, coal is about 30 MJ/kg, gasoline about 47 MG/kg. Of course, these are all dwarfed by the elephant in the living room that nobody wants to acknowledge, much less talk about: uranium, with around 80,000,000 MJ/kg.

And for those who wring their hands about de-carbonization, firewood of various types spews out between 115 to 125 kg CO2 per MMBTU. This changes if you go to wood pellets with less than 10% moisture content, but the EROI for wood pellets is different. I know many here don't care about that kind thing, but for those who do, its worth a look.

[poconopundit]

I operated a pellet stove when I lived in the Poconos for a number of years. Here's my perpective:

• Save money and buy a used stove. I had an older generation Harman stove I bought for a little over $1,000.
• In late fall, I was burning one bag a day. In winter it was 2 bags a day, and on the coldest days 3 bags per day. And we're talking a 2,000 square foot house in the mountains.
• You need to enjoy lugging these bags. I kind of enjoyed it because it was an excuse to get some exercise. I would also have five pallets of bags delivered before the season and store them in my basement.
• Savings were 50% over propane heat and much, much more over electric heat.
• Don't buy a pellet stove thinking you will enjoy watching the fire. The ashes on the windows will quickly obscure the fire. You should spend 5 minutes each day scaping off the ashes inside the fire chamber. And you must also do a fuller deep cleaning at least 2 times each season to clear the flues of ash -- to keep efficiency up.
• Resign yourself to having a maintenance guy come around once a year and service the unit because a motor may die or some other mechanical failure -- maybe a $250 expense each year. Needless to say, it's good to have a backup source of heat such as a portable kerosene heater. If the electricity goes out, your pellet stove won't work because it requires electricity to run.

So there you go.

[Celtic Conservative]

Would be a little different for me. 900 sq. ft. house, no basement, no second floor. Converted cottage. if the house were bigger, or had multiple floors, it would be less attractive. but with everything on one level, it greatly simplifies the heating process.

CC

[kjam22]

We have wood burning stove at our ranch house too. Actually it is dual fuel. Wood and Coal. There is no better way to go for heat. And we have an endless supply of fuel for ours.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Used pellets for five years - great until the power goes out (auger and blower fan both use electrons).

They have a gravity fed pellet stove.

[Oldexpat]

Of course they still need to keep the generator and machinery warm so that requires power even when idle.