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In Case You Missed it
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Top stories in past issues:
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AGH People
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Andrea Colnes, executive director of the Energy Action Network and AGH advisor, is creating a website designed to show Vermonters how shifting from fossil fuels and to cleaner energy is doable and affordable.
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Office Equipment Needed
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Have a printer, scanner or computer that is still relatively up to date and in good working order that you don't need? Donate it to the Alliance for Green Heat and get a tax credit. Contact: info@forgreenheat.org
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Wood Stove Design Challenge
 AGH - Six companies applied for their automated stoves to be part of the Collaborative Design Workshop at Brookhaven Lab this November. High stove emissions are a result of three interplaying components: the stove, the operator, and the fuel. The workshop will explore how automation can address all of three of these factors. Craig Issod & Mark Knaebe Join Organizing Committee of Collaborative Design Workshop  AGH - If Craig Issod's life were a company, it would be an excellent example of vertical integration. Craig ran a hearth shop, manufactured stoves, is an educator, etc. In founding Hearth.com, he did more than anyone to facilitate open, candid debate. We wanted to tap into that open, creative, forward-looking spirit. AGH- Mark Knaebe is an engineer at the USDA Forest Service Technology Marketing Unit, located at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin. Mark tests and evaluates wood gasification systems and he recently built a condensing residential wood boiler to maintain flue gasses below 212�F.
MIT Honors Wood Stove Creators for Innovation Washington Post - Team Mulciber from the Wood Stove Design Challenge is gaining national attention for an out-of-the box stove concept that impressed folks at MIT and elsewhere. |
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The Alliance for Green Heat Activities
 AGH- A Maryland program to give rebates for pellet stoves and EPA certified wood stoves has been an overwhelming success for pellet stoves. Of the 773 rebates given since the program started in 2012, 646 or 83% have been for pellet stoves. Wood and pellet stoves are now fully integrated into a residential incentive program that started with solar and geothermal.
AGH - We reviewed the most highly ranked heating fuel calculators and found most were biased in favor of the fuel or the technology of the company or association maintaining the calculator. Of the dozens of calculators we reviewed, we recommend two that stand out for accuracy and internal consistency.
AGH President, John Ackerly, addresses the partisan politics and unlikely alliances surrounding the EPA's proposed residential heater regulations, the NSPS. The Obama administration is taking a beating from many Republicans and even a few democrats over the NSPS, but are these long-term friends of renewable energy or wood heat? Or is this just another opportunity to criticize Obama and the EPA?
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Washington Watch
USDA Says Poverty Increasing in Rural America
Wood heat is vital to low-income rural families, giving them relief from the "heat or eat" dilemma. But increasing rural poverty leads to increased reliance on wood heating, often with old stoves. The economic crash of 2008 deepened rural poverty to its worst rate in decades, and by 2012 it doubled what it was in 2000.
Letter to Secretary Vilsack
The four partners to the Bioenergy MOU with USDA--PFI, BTEC, BPA and AGH--sent a letter to Secretary Vilsack asking for USDA to initiate a rule making to modify the Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels. Currently, wood pellets for heating receive a fraction of the payments compared to liquid biomass fuels.
EIA Outlook includes Renewable Heat Projections
EIA projects total renewables consumption for electricity and heat generation will grow by 2.9% in 2014. Conventional hydropower is projected to increase by 0.5%, while nonhydropower by 4.2%. In 2015, total renewables consumption for electric power and heat generation increases an additional 3.4%.
EPA Requests Input on New Stove Data for NSPS
The EPA just released a NODA - notice of Data Availability - and is asking for input. This NODA releases test data that industry has marked as CBI, confidential business information, since 2009. This includes individual burn categories for all burn rates for 106 stoves, and also serves to demonstrate the basis for EPA's eventual choice of emission limits.
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Focus on Incentive Programs
Largest Change Out Program in History Launched
 The American Lung Association launched the largest Wood Stove Changeout Program in the United States with $1.8 million for vouchers. The program will cover all of Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut, and southeastern Massachusetts.
Australian Firewood Group Scores Win for Wood Heat
A green building standard in Australia has assigned very low carbon values for wood and pellet heating, which will encourage builders and architects to specify wood heating, because it is now a cost effective means of achieving points toward the green building.
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Most Liked Stories on Facebook
"Like" our Facebook page to get breaking news and analysis on wood heat. Most liked posts in June:
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Fuel News: Firewood & Pellets
Tree trunks 26 feet long are stacked as high as a house, looking like a backcountry wood yard for a paper mill, but it's actually next winter's heat for hundreds of people in Greater Portland.
Pellet Prices Fall in EU
In the spring of 2014 the wood pellet price fell to its lowest level on the EU biofuel market, sinking 15 - 20% below last year's heating season.
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IL: This survey has three parts: your opinions about biomass heating and biomass heating appliances, yourself, and a few demographic questions. Please take the survey!
MA: The Patrick Administration's Department of Energy Resources (DOER) today announced it is providing $3.5 million to nine businesses to help grow the Massachusetts renewable thermal markets and strengthen infrastructure development.
ME: The idea is simple: Install an automated outdoor wood pellet boiler, and hook it up to a building's existing heating system. Don't charge the building's owner for either the boiler or the pellets. Charge for the heat that is used.
MO: Another story misrepresents the intent and meaning of the MO law which just prohibits regulation of existing wood stoves, something that the EPA is not trying to do.
NV: If you have an old, wood burning stove in Washoe County, you may be eligible for incentives to replace it with a new, more efficient stove.
Ithaca Bans Outdoor Boilers; Stoves Next?
NY: During its public meeting on Wednesday, June 4th, the City of Ithaca's Common Council passed an ordinance to amend city municipal code for "Exterior Maintenance" in order to impose a total ban of outdoor wood-burning furnaces within city limits.
More than 60 Woodstoves Turned in for Gift Cards
PA: The Allegheny County Health Department has collected 62 wood stoves after encouraging residents to turn in old stoves and outdoor wood-fired boilers that do not meet national emissions standards.
UT: One of the new laws passed in March by the Utah Legislature is the "Wood Burning Amendments" bill, or House Bill 154, which created funding for public awareness campaigns about the effects of wood burning on air quality.
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Upcoming Conferences and Webinars
Washington DC, July 14-15, 2014
The EIA Energy Conference has become a premier forum for addressing energy issues in the U.S. and worldwide.  Cottage Grove, Oregon, July 21-25, 2014  Orlando, FL, July 27-29, 2014 PFI is pleased to announce that the 2014 Annual Conference will be held at the Omni Orlando Resort at Champions Gate in Orlando, FL. Washington DC, July 29-30, 2014
The annual DOE conference brings together top government officials, members of Congress and industry.
 Missoula, MT, August 7-8, 2014 This wood smoke conference features national and regional experts who will be exploring the impacts of wood smoke and how effective different types of change outs and other interventions are.
Linz, Austria, September 8-11
This focuses on small- and mid-scale projects covering solutions for homes, smaller commercial/public buildings and district heating. September 15 - November 21, 2014
Developed in partnership with BTEC, this 10-week online course in designing and installing heating systems taught by John Siegenthaler is worth 20 AIA credits. Burlington, VT, October 16-17, 2014
This event highlights current energy challenges and Vermont's leadership role in the energy industry.
Brookhaven National Lab, Nov. 3-7, 2014. Building on the Wood Stove Decathlon, this event will focus on automated stoves and bring experts together to study, test and improve automated stove designs.
Lancaster, PA, February 18-21, 2015
The National Chimney Sweep Guild is now accepting speaker proposals for presentations at the NCSG 2015 National Convention in February.
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Advertisement of the Month
This claim for an uncertified stove made by Montana Stove caught our eye: "Likes Large Unsplit Wood."
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