December 2015
Green Heat News
Issue No. 76

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Price of Oil

November 23, 2015: $39.27

November 23, 2014: $76.52

  

Source:www.ycharts.com  

In Case You Missed it

Top stories in past issues:  

Office Equipment Needed

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: [email protected] 

Pellet Stove Challenge Update

The application deadline is Jan. 26.  Manufacturers can adapt and soup-up their own stoves and university teams are still buying pellet stoves to adapt and improve. Teams will be working on strategies to extract more heat from existing stoves to get exhaust temps down to gas furnace levels.

Eight teams are vying for to be finalists in the Pellet Stove Design Challenge so far.  Several top European brands, including Stuv, MCZ and a German prototype are applying along with university teams who are adapting a Quadrafire and a Vogelzang stove. Judges will be looking for various performance metrics to select finalists and the stoves will be tested using a modified ASTM E2779 test.

The Design Challenge is scheduled for April 6-8, 2016 at Brookhaven National Lab is open to all stakeholders involved in wood and pellet stove issues. There will be a series of panels and workshops on pellet stove design, testing and deployment, in addition to the competition between the pellet stove finalists.

Focus on NSPS
 
A provision in the EPA's new regulations, the NSPS, created voluntary hangtags, akin to a "green label." Stoves and boilers that meet the stricter 2020 emission standards and that disclose their actual efficiency are eligible to use this hangtag. Like the Energy Star label, stove consumers can now more easily identify the cleanest and most efficient appliances.    
Focus on Innovation
In this section we profile past participants in stove design challenges and other innovators. 

The EPA is planning to transition from testing with "cribs" to testing with cordwood, from a cold start. Woodstock Soapstone is again breaking the mold by publicly sharing their early test data and posting videos of their tests, which are at about 1 gram an hour with cordwood from a cold start. Their newest hybrid is scheduled for certification testing in January 2016. 

European experts now believe most major stove companies will have an automated stove in their line-up within a few years. Studies show that optimal control of combustion in a wood stove is virtually impossible if done manually.  With sophisticated, affordable electronic controls, automated stoves can maintain far higher efficiency and lower emissions.  The Danish company Hwanmis at the forefront of this movement. 


Funding Opportunity
 
The EPA is moving beyond funding only cookstove R & D and is involved in a multi-national, multi-disciplinary effort to design and build stoves for colder climates that cook, heat and make electricity for small homes.  

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From the Newsroom     
 
International

Australia: Rebates have been increased to encourage more Canberra residents to replace their old wood-fuelled heaters with winter heating that does not add to air pollution.

UK: The government will extend RHI funding to �1.15 billion ($1.74 billion) in 2021 and reform the program to improve value for money 
 
States
 
AK: Opinion: The news that the state is seeking to split the borough nonattainment in two is the latest wrinkle in an ongoing fight to clean up the area's air that has itself been, in a word, divisive.

CA: A change out program for wood stoves - and tractors. 

Pellet stoves get money saving makeover
ME: A new generation of pellet heat is making it easier and more affordable for Mainers to heat their homes.

ME: Innovations in making stoves more efficient and cleaner - producing fewer particulate emissions, or smoke - were driven by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations.

ME: Just as the buy local and eat local credo resonates, using local heat matters. Pellet and wood stoves, furnaces and boilers are a "stable and economical heating choice but also keep heating dollars in the local economy."  
 
MO: When temperatures drop, household use of fossil fuels rises in order to keep homes warm and comfortable. But it doesn't have to be that way. 

NB: Consumers buying firewood may find it impossible to price-compare or determine if they got the quantity they purchased if it isn't legally advertised or labeled.  

NH: After struggling for years to make a early, untested pellet boiler work, library trustees have given up and voted to switch to propane as the building's auxiliary heat source. Scott Nichols explains what went wrong.

NV: Washoe County residents will be able to get a rebate in the amount of $600 for a new wood burning stove or $800 for a new pellet stove through participating area dealers.

VT: Wood heat is keeping the Vermont Army National Guard warm during the winter.

WA: Opinion: To many of us, there's nothing better than the smell of a wood-burning stove in a rural area. It's difficult to swallow some agency telling us how we can and cannot heat our homes.
 
Upcoming Conferences and Webinars

Stove Retrofitting Health and Economic Impact Study
December 18, 2015, 2-3pm EST
Free webinar that discusses the benefits and challenges of retrofits.

Orlando, FL, January 23-27, 2016
Part of the 2016 ASHRAE Winter Conference.

Kirkland, WA, January 29-31, 2016
The largest annual North American gathering of the cook stove community.

Saratoga Springs, NY, February 9-10, 2016
This conference offers education in home performance and weatherization. Agenda proposals are now being accepted.

Verona, Italy, February 24-28, 2016
Progetto Fuoco is a global event for wood-fire heating, with an international exhibition of plants and materials.

Wels, Austria, February 24-26, 2016
A conference to present the work of young researchers in the field of energy efficiency (English only).

New Orleans, LA, March 17-19, 2016
North America's largest indoor-outdoor living industry showcase.

Burlington, VT, April 29-May 1, 2016
Almost 2,000 attendees are expected at what has become one of the fastest-growing biomass thermal energy conferences in the US.

Upton, NY, April 6-8, 2016
A pellet stove technology competition, workshops, hands-on-learning, roundtables, and much more. Stove designs now being accepted for the competition.

New York, NY, April 21-22, 2016
Last year, the conference established itself as one of the nation's foremost and widest-ranging conferences on energy technologies.


 
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