Slide 2:
Choosing an independent heat source for your home is a very wise choice, not only as far as cost efficiency goes, but as well as for environmental reasons. The development of different the different heat sources by using different fuels, offers different advantages for different people.
For example, a person who lives in a more rural area will have the advantage of getting fuel for virtually free, all you have to go down and chop up a dead tree. They also can burn wood comfortably without the complaints of neighbors. For those who don’t mind burning wood in their neighborhood but still don’t have enough wood around, or perhaps don’t want the hassle of hauling and stacking large amounts of wood, a pellet stove might be what you are looking for.
Slide 3:
A pellet stove uses compressed and recycled wood, grass or corn pellets that are fed via an electric feeder to the burner, according to thermostat. Pellet stoves also use other electric part such as air intakes and exhaust fans. The exterior of pellet stoves stays at low temperatures and there is no need for you to open the fire box, eliminating any smoky smell in your home that might occur. Pellet stoves are great for those people who are big on using recycled products, and these recycled pellets are already dried, making them a very valuable fuel with cleaner particulate emission burns than fireplaces and woodstoves.
Particulate emissions, or smoke, became a big deal to the Environmental Protection Agency in the 1980’s and the EPA thus passed laws and regulations for more controlled burns such as wood stoves, which have proven to have less clean burn.
Slide 4:
These regulations lowered the grams of emissions per hour from 40-60 or more down to just 8, currently the emissions for non-catalytic stoves is 7.5 and 4 for catalytic models, however non-catalytic EPA stoves have been able to burn off as low as 2 grams per hour. Catalytic models use a honeycomb like filter that burns off carbon monoxide and unburned wood at temperatures above 1000 degrees.
Non-catalytic stoves use secondary, pre-heated air as an after burner in the fire box, holding the exhaust near the fire to get it hot using a baffle. Once the fire has heated you turn on the secondary air, you will notice a larger flame as excess exhaust is burned away.
Other options include gas or oil stoves. Some gas burners (either propane or natural gas) can burn at 99.9% efficiency, so there is no need for an exterior vent so fumes can escape. Oil is used in areas where gas is too expensive or hard to come by. The benefits to these would be the low particulate emissions.
The Environmental Protection Agency is actually offering tax rebates for the purchase of a qualifying EPA model. You can view some of the products that qualify at choosefireplacesandstoves.com or you can read more information about the program at the EPA Energy Star website.