Chestnut Hill Chimney & Hearth
(603) 755-4835
When discuss alternative energy sources much of the focus is on solar and wind power. However most homeowners can't afford this type of conversion. What is often overlooked are the renewable fuels: wood and pellets.
The Northeast United States uses most of the heating oil in this country. Although the Midwest and Northwest are also cold climates they use much more wood energy than we do.
Wood is a renewable resource with a neutral carbon footprint. Burning wood releases carbon dioxide, which is used by plant life as food. A modern high efficiency stove or insert captures much more of the heat for your home, is safe to use and doesn't release as many by products into the air. Oil (and gas) are non renewable and have a negative carbon footprint.
Wood pellets are made from the "leftovers" of wood processing. They use the parts of the tress that could not be made into lumber, and all the scraps and sawdust. Therefore they are taking all the waste of the industry and turning it into a positive energy source. In addition most of the wood pellets available to us are from the USA or Canada, not imported from overseas. Employing our workers and helping our economy.
What about deforestation and clear cutting? Actually most of the clear cutting done in this country is for building more buildings. Loggers rarely clear cut. And woodlands reseed themselves rapidly. The woods actually benefits from the taking of large trees, allowing smaller ones room to grow. And any of the harvesting of trees has less impact than environmental disasters, such as the current Gulf Oil Spillage.
Finally, until December 31st 2010, the government will give you a 30% tax credit for switching to a wood heat appliance, because the less we rely on imported oil, the better off we all are.
graphic provided by The Alliance For Green Heat
Mark (technical questions) chcs@metrocast.net
Laura (all other questions) chcsadmin@metrocast.net