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Stay up to date with all things wood heat. All the cool kids are doing it! To sign up,
click here
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Jennifer Hedrick leaves PFIThe Alliance for Green Heat wants to extend our appreciation to Jennifer Hedrick for her years of work at the Pellet Fuels Institute leading the effort to bring higher quality pellets for consumers through the PFI pellet certification program. Good luck in your next job!
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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: [email protected]
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Pellet Stove Challenge Update
NYSERDA and AGH to issue joint press release
Next week, NYSERDA and the Alliance for Green Heat will issue a joint press release announcing the finalist stoves in the Pellet Stove Design Challenge and other news about the event.
The Pellet Stove Design Challenge is 2 and half days of lab testing, panels, roundtable discussions and social events. We are limited to 100 people because of lab space and spots of filling up fast. Register now for this unique pellet stove boot camp. Upton NY, April 6 - 8.
The Pellet Stove Design Challenge has a retreat atmosphere, where everyone eats and drinks together and gets to know one another. A list of attendees is forthcoming. Here are speaker bios.
Part of the Pellet Stove Design Challenge is showcasing where pellet stove technology is going in other countries and how its catching on as a premier green heat solution. Check these new Italian designs on our Facebook page.
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AGH Projects and Activities
When it comes to listing accurate efficiency and BTU output on their websites, there are only a handful of companies that you can trust. We commend Blaze King, Kuma, Seraph, Travis and Woodstock Soapstone for providing the same efficiency values as tested in the lab, to their costumers.
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Focus on Innovation
Unlike a typical, wood stove that sucks in air as smoke goes out the chimney in an inexact, unpredictable process, the smart-controlled Mulciber uses a fan to drive air through its system. This forces fires to burn as completely and as cleanly, as possible.
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Recalls
 A voluntary "recall to repair" for the Englander SmartStove is underway. There have been some incidents where when the unit pushes smoke out past the door gasket and in a very few extreme cases caused the glass to crack. Click here for the notice from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
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International
Canada: Wood heating is under fire in BC. "We're not saying, 'Don't burn wood.' We're saying, 'We have the ability to burn wood at a higher level of efficiency, so let's do that for the benefit of everyone's health," says Sarah Thomas, chairwoman of the Port Alberni Air Quality Council.
Denmark: There is a proposal to tax wood stoves based on the age of the stove, the population density where the stove is located and how often it is used.
Canada: A good, substantive article about the challenge of lowering emissions from wood stoves with a focus on Canada. Canada does not have national regulations like the US, so its more of a patchwork and uncertified stoves can still be sold and installed in some provinces.
Germany: As of January 1, 2016, all new building in Germany has to meet a strict heating system requirement that excludes almost all gas and oil systems. According to the German Federal Association of Renewable Energies (BEE), a combination of a pellet boiler and solar thermal system is the lowest carbon option.
States
AK: An expert familiar with this situation says the problem has less to do with the stove or the combuster and more to do with poor operation and a poor self-installation of the stove. Apparently this is one of the few change-out programs that allows self-installations.
CA: This $3 million dollar change-out in the California Bay Area only covers gas and heat pumps. New wood stoves are not allowed to replace old wood stoves. We think the cleanest pellet stoves (under 1 gram per hour) should be included in any program.
CO: Resident of five counties - Boulder, Denver, Jefferson, Larimer and Weld - will be able to receive $750 - $3,000 to change out old stoves for new ones. Stoves that meet the 2020 EPA emission standards get $1,000 and pellet stoves get $1,500.
IN: An Indiana family won an injunction to shut down a neighbors outdoor boiler that has been producing excessive smoke 60 feet from the family's house. The Alliance extends our thanks to the Hoosier Environmental Council for providing legal help to the family.
MA: While school officials weigh the advantages of replacing a school's propane-powered boilers with biomass pellet-fueled boilers, a regional health agent called for an emissions study.
ME: Pellet demand in Maine is down and has more competition from Canadian pellet mills. The challenge for Maine mills and distributors is how to store the excess through the spring and summer.
MT: The county's program to improve air quality in the Greeley School neighborhood is, so far, coming in under budget. Still, the program is looking for more homes to have their old stoves changed out for new ones.
NM: Part of an $84 million dollar federal grant from the Housing and Urban Affairs Department (HUD) went towards instaling new wood stoves in Navajo homes.
OR: A Lane County regulators say they may clamp down on large ceremonial-style bonfires, the use of metal drums as burn barrels, and grass and leaf burning. But the two top sources of complaints in 2015 were from open burning and home wood heating.
UT: Researchers have looked at the contribution made by fireplaces or wood stoves, the effect of the Great Salt Lake on ozone formation and the mysterious chemistry behind ozone formation during the winter months.
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Upcoming Conferences and Webinars
New Orleans, LA, March 17-19, 2016
North America's largest indoor-outdoor living industry showcase. Burlington, VT, March 30-April 1, 2016Almost 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. Charlottesville, NC, April 11-14, 2016
The dynamic event unites industry professionals from all sectors of the world's interconnected biomass utilization industries. Little Switzerland, NC, April 11-17, 2016
Attend the Annual General Meeting of the Masonry Heater Association of North America at Wildacres. Keedysville, MD, April 21, 2016  The workshop is a one-day educational and networking event to provide the firewood processing industry the latest knowledge on processing, kiln drying and marketing of firewood.
Amsterdam, June 6-9, 2016
EUBCE covers the entire value chain of biomass from sustainability to policy to technology of both heat and power sectors.
Asheville, NC, July 24-26 The PFI Annual Conference highlights the various applications of densified biomass.
Antique Stove Association Annual Show and Conference Save the date: Brainerd, MN, August 17-19
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Misleading Advertisements of the Month
The Alliance for Green Heat periodically finds misleading advertising or products that should not be on the market. We try to contact all companies for clarification before including them in our newsletter.  Rural King sells exempt wood and coal unit made by US StoveThis is one of many examples of US Stove products being illegally sold. In this case, the stove is advertised as an "EPA exempt" "wood/coal circulator." Any stove that is advertised for burning wood must be certified as of Jan. 1, 2016.
PP130 Pellet Stove
 The HHT company Pelpro claims "EPA-Certified 81.6% Efficiency" for their PP130 stove, and "EPA-Certified 89.5% Efficiency" for their PP60 stove. However, the EPA has not reviewed or approved any efficiency numbers for that stove. An HHT representative said they will provide both HHV and LHV numbers when they update the website.
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