Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association Searches
October 27, 2006
Alternative Heating Trends
Without a Flue: Ventless Fireplaces **HPBA**
Wall Street Journal
October 27, 2006
Suzanne Gannon
Shell Lake school building to be heated by corn
Spooner Advocate/spooneronline.com (Spooner, WI)
October 25th, 2006
Frank Zufall
Wood Furnace Bans
Opinion: Story gets it wrong in stating outdoor woodboilers illegal in Md.
Cumberland Times-News/times-news.com (Cumberland, MD)
October 26, 2006
Warren Walborn, President & CEO Hawken Energy, Shelby, Mo.
Without a Flue: Ventless Fireplaces **HPBA**
Wall Street Journal
October 27, 2006
Suzanne Gannon
More bad news for Santa.
Chimney-free fireplaces have been around for years. But now a number of companies are
breaking out of the fake log and oak mantel aesthetic. The latest flueless designs, also
known as ventless fireplaces, feature minimalist frames made from materials such as
stainless steel and concrete. Some look more like flat-screen televisions than homey
hearths.
In August, Olney, Ill.-based Blomus introduced its Chimo line of stainless-steel
fireplaces, which range in price from $719 to $1,549. One consists of a single sheet of
stainless cupped at the bottom to contain the flame. Milwaukee-based Sunjel introduced
two new models last year including the Zephyr, a $1,500 firebox with a cast concrete
frame. And last month, Wittus, in Pound Ridge, N.Y., began importing six wall-mounted
models from Europe made from materials such as black aluminum, glass and brushed
aluminum. They retail for $1,400 to $3,400.
The Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association estimates that ventless fireplaces accounted
for about 17% of the 1.6 million indoor hearth appliances (including gas, wood, and
electric) shipped in 2005. But interest in the flueless models is growing: While the overall
indoor-fireplace market last year grew roughly 11% over 2004, the ventless segment was
up 18% in the same period. The new minimalist designs appeal to younger homeowners,
says Alyce Wittus, vice president of the eponymous 28-year-old company. "They're
coming in without predisposed images of their grandmother's fireplace."
Shimi Zaken, a 30-year-old architect in Philadelphia, wanted a ventless fireplace that
would complement the modern-looking exposed beams and concrete floors in four
Rittenhouse Square apartments he is renovating. He just bought four gas-burning, $1,400
wall units from Wittus. He likes the "old tech, new tech" contrast of the black stainless
boxes mounted on exposed brick walls. "It isn't heavy," he says. "It's almost like a plasma
TV."
Traditional fireplaces that burn solid fuel such as wood require a masonry chimney or a
direct vent through an exterior wall to funnel smoke out of the house. Ventless fireplaces,
which use natural gas, liquid propane or alcohol-based gels, produce a flame but little
smoke, so they don't require costly chimney installation. Some units can stand alone,
others are wall-mounted.
Caveat emptor: Open a window. Like all combustion appliances, these fireplaces can,
under some circumstances, produce hazardous levels of carbon monoxide. Currently
marketed ventless models also come with oxygen-depletion sensors that automatically
turn the appliances off.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission advises consumers to consult local
building codes before installing. (Some models are prohibited in some areas.) The
commission also recommends buying only gas fireplaces that comply with American
National Standards Institute (ANSI) guidelines or gel-fueled units that are certified by
Underwriters Laboratories or a similar safety-testing organization.
Shell Lake school building to be heated by corn
Spooner Advocate/spooneronline.com (Spooner, WI)
October 25th, 2006
Frank Zufall
Two for renewable fuel. Shell Lake District Maintenance Supervisor Tim Ullom (left)
and Superintendent Gerald Gauderman were two advocates of burning corn, a renewable
fuel, to meet the district’s heating needs.
With a school revenue formula that penalizes districts for rising property values, every
Northern Wisconsin school district is looking to save dollars and keep costs in line to
retain programs and teachers.
One budgetary area most school districts feel they have little or no control over is heating
costs. After all, students cannot study if they are cold, and the cost of heating fuels is
erratic, often rising at the most inopportune time, especially after budgets have been set.
Shell Lake is one district in the Northland that believes it has its heating costs under
control and is anticipating considerable savings.
The Shell Lake School District recently installed at its grades 3 through 12 school a
$90,000 outdoor boiler with silo from Burns Best of Spooner, a boiler that is capable of
burning a number of lower-cost renewable fuels – wood pellets, corn, and coal.
Superintendent Gerald Gauderman said 70 percent of the district’s building’s heating will
be accomplished through burning corn this winter, instead of 100 percent dependency on
burning natural gas like last winter, a difference that could save the district between
$15,000 and $20,000 the first year.
If the savings are realized, Gauderman expects the payback for the boiler to occur within
four to five years.
The silo next to the boiler on the school’s back side holds 1,000 bushels of corn. To
provide 70 percent of the heating for the 104,000 square foot, the district contracted with
Burnett Dairy Cooperative of Grantsburg to supply 9,000 bushels of corn this winter.
Gauderman said he is not concerned with the possibility of a dwindling corn supply
because he is confident area farmers can respond to growing demand by planting more
acres. And besides, he said, the boiler can burn wood pellets, another source of renewable
fuel. He is confident of an ample supply.
Gauderman said the number-one consideration for purchasing the boiler was the district’s
budget. Another concern was buying fuel locally.
“We wanted to support our local taxpayers by buying corn raised in the area,” he said.
A third benefit of burning corn, he said, is students will be introduced to the idea of using
renewable fuels.
Gauderman and Maintenance Supervisor Tim Ullom came up with idea of using corn as
an alternative heat.
He said they had considered using other renewable fuels, such as wind and solar, but
found they were not practical for the size of the building.
After settling on burning corn, Gauderman and Ullom pitched the idea of a corn boiler to
the district’s building and grounds committee. The committee supported it and passed the
idea onto the full board.
“They received it very well, were very supportive,” said Gauderman. “Everyone thought
this was the thing to do.”
The corn boiler went online Thursday, Oct. 19. Ullom said he is very impressed with the
operation of the boiler, in particular because it only requires 15 to 20 minutes of
maintenance a day for removing corn ash and a hard carbon deposit in the middle of the
burner’s cylinders.
Corn from the silo is pushed upward through the floor of the burner via an auger, and a
blade rotates to spread the corn evenly as it burns.
After the corn is burned, the ash is discharged via another auger and collected and
dispersed over a garden.
On Monday, the outdoor boiler heated water to 180 degrees within the closed boiler loop.
Heat from the corn boiler loop is transferred to the building’s internal hot-water heating
system, another closed loop, via a heat exchanger about the size of a suitcase.
Gauderman said he expects visits by other school district administrators and area business
people looking over the boiler system for themselves.
If the corn boiler saves the Shell Lake School District the money Gauderman and Ullom
expect, plenty of people probably will visit the school this winter.
Opinion: Story gets it wrong in stating outdoor woodboilers illegal in Md.
Cumberland Times-News/times-news.com (Cumberland, MD)
October 26, 2006
Warren Walborn, President & CEO Hawken Energy, Shelby, Mo.
I have read the article entitled "Outdoor wood boilers illegal in Maryland." As the CEO
of one of the nation's largest outdoor wood furnace companies (and a former resident of
Maryland), let me set the record straight.
You have fallen for one of the lies that the big foreign oil companies are propagating that burning wood is somehow more harmful than burning fossil fuels! After reading
your article, I almost feel that I should seal up my fireplace, and turn up the fuel-oil
furnace! Do you actually believe that a few wood smoke particles are more harmful than
petroleum emissions and fumes? Should I also wear a gas mask when my neighbor uses
his fireplace since you state that "smoke particles can penetrate into homes even when
doors and windows are closed." Since when did we start building homes made out of
porous materials? Your points are preposterous - how about some facts:
1. If outdoor wood furnaces truly were illegal in Maryland, the outcry would be
enormous. They are not illegal in any state. Have your sources check their facts. You will
likely be printing a retraction. Most newspapers are printing articles about how these
products save customers money
2. Some models of outdoor wood furnaces (including ours) are designed to burn very hot
and therefore produce NO smoke. They are designed to be used in densely populated
areas where close neighbors would be bothered by even the smallest amount of smoke.
How could an outdoor wood furnace that produces no smoke be illegal, as you state?
3. Wood has been safely used as a fuel since the beginning of recorded history - longer
than any other fuel.
4. Wood is a renewable fuel. One of the reasons wood is such a perfect fuel is because it
is renewable.
5. Wood burning is completely safe in terms of "greenhouse gasses." All fuels produce
carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas, when they burn. Wood differs from the
fossil fuels coal, oil and gas, because it is part of the natural carbon/carbon dioxide cycle.
As a tree grows, it absorbs carbon dioxide from the air and stores it in the wood as
carbon, which makes up about half of the weight of wood. When the wood is burned,
carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere. No additional carbon is released
because the same amount of carbon dioxide would be released if the tree died and were
left to rot on the forest floor. The carbon in coal, oil and gas, by contrast, are taken from
underground stores, usually from overseas, where they were deposited by Nature, and
released into the air without means for equal reabsorption. When trees are used for
energy, a part of the forest's annual growth is diverted from the natural decay and forest
fire cycle into our homes to heat them. Firewood is a natural energy product from the
forest. Burning wood actually helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions by displacing the
use of oil, gas and coal. The U.S. government states clearly that wood burning is not
harmful to the environment in terms of greenhouse gasses: "Under international
greenhouse gas accounting methods developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change, biogenic carbon is part of the natural carbon balance and it will not add
to atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide."
6. The Environmental Protection Agency has specifically exempted outdoor wood
furnaces from its emissions regulations.
7. Per Btu, wood is much less expensive than fossil fuels - at current prices, natural gas is
three times the cost of wood, propane is five times the cost of wood, and electricity is
seven times the cost of wood.
8. Does the state of Maryland actually wish to force its residents to sustain the big foreign
oil companies?
In spite of what is being said by those opposed to wood burning, the bottom line is that
wood is affordable, renewable, sustainable, it is a secure domestic heating method, and
wood is appropriate to the resources of our country.
More of this information is available at www.hawkenenergy.com/cms/ - just click on
"Environmental Benefits."