Burning wood

Myth #8:  I burn wood so I don’t need to worry.

Truth:   WRONG!  When the price of oil goes up all other sources of energy go up too!  Wood is a renewable resource but will be in short supply leading to higher prices when there is more demand.  Yes, its good exercise but, how long will your body hold up?  How long will you be able to stay in your home if you depend on wood?

Many wood stoves are inefficient and big polluters.  The best wood stoves available now (2015) are about 75% efficient.  Many older models are closer to 50% and much lower when you load it up and damp it down for the night.  The unused energy goes up your chimney as pollution such as creosote for chimney fires and particulates causing asthma.

Even if you own your own trees, like any other resource, wood should be used wisely.  Burning more than a cord (ton of wood pellets) per 1000 sq/ft of living area per year is too much.

Reduce your home’s energy needs with a Deep Energy Retrofit, use an efficient stove, and wood is a great way to heat and support your local economy.  Our Deep Energy Retrofit project gets 50% of its’ heat from wood and uses less than a cord!

Note:  Pellet stoves are more efficient (>80%) than wood stoves and can be fitted with a through wall pipe for sealed combustion with no chimney.  They require electricity and will not work with an outage.

Comments are closed.