Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association Searches
January 18, 2007
Hearth Trends
An array of affordable options keep the home fires burning **HPBA**
Cleveland Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) from Washington Post
January 18, 2007
Annie Groer
Pellet Heating
Popular heat source suddenly hard to find; Cold - A slump in the housing market
contributes to a shortage of sawdust pellets for region's stoves**PFI**
The Oregonian (Portland, OR)
January 18, 2007
Jill Rehkopf Smith
Wood stove owners scramble for pellets
News-Review (Roseburg, OR)
January 17, 2007
Woodstove Changeout
Upgrading woodstoves decreases air pollution
Terrace Standard (Terrace, Canada)
January 17, 2007
Sarah Artis
Health Concerns
Stoke your fire without stinking up the air
NowToronto.com (Toronto, Canada)
January 18, 2007
Adria Vasil
Outdoor Furnace Bans
Environmental bills vie for lawmakers' eyes
Bangor Daily News
January 17, 2007
Kevin Miller
Wood-fired boilers get attention
Kingston Daily Freeman (Kingston, NY)
January 16, 2007
William J. Kemble
An array of affordable options keep the home fires burning **HPBA**
Cleveland Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) from Washington Post
January 18, 2007
Annie Groer
So you don't have a fireplace - just a severe case of fireplace envy? There are alternatives
to the log-burning, built-in versions, says Leslie Wheeler, communications director for
the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association in Arlington, Va.; the group's Web site,
www.hpba.org, is an excellent starting place to learn more.
A natural gas fireplace with fake logs can be retrofitted into an existing fireplace and
vented up the flue (unit and installation typically run $3,000 to $4,000) or built into a
wall and vented directly outside without a chimney ($3,000 to $5,000, excluding gas-line
work).
A free-standing stove ($3,000 to $4,200) can be fueled by wood or wood pellets and
needs to be vented. Some gas stoves ($3,000 to $4,000, excluding gas-line work) are
ventless.
For those options, Wheeler urges consumers to look for installers certified by the
National Fireplace Institute.
An electric fireplace, complete with a surround and mantel, mimics its traditional cousin.
It can be hard-wired in place or moved around to plug into a standard outlet.
Some produce a soft crackling sound for added ambience. Prices range from $400 to
$3,000, depending on size and mantel material. Portable, free-standing electric stoves
with fake logs ($100 to $600) can be plugged into any standard outlet. An electric insert
can fit into an existing fireplace and plug into a standard socket; it runs $100 to $300.
Outdoor free-standing wood-burning fire pits and fire bowls - which cost $49 to $499 give a chilly evening a warm focal point. They can sit directly on a stone or concrete
surface. Cocktail and dining tables also come with fake logs built into a pit in the center;
these designs, fueled by propane, can top $1,000.
Metal fireplaces and metal or clay chimeneas, which tend to be taller, enclosed on three
sides and equipped with a chimney, run from $200 to $500.
Popular heat source suddenly hard to find; Cold - A slump in the housing market
contributes to a shortage of sawdust pellets for region's stoves
The Oregonian (Portland, OR)
January 18, 2007
Jill Rehkopf Smith
With snow outside his Buxton home, Bernie Eberhardt hopes he can keep his family of
five warm past Friday.
Eberhardt heats with a pellet-burning stove, an increasingly popular form of home
heating linked to a healthy lumber industry. Usually, the compressed-sawdust pellets are
in ample supply -- but not now.
The Shell station in Banks had three pallets last Friday, but those were gone Monday,
Eberhardt said.
Tuesday he called and found some at Hillsboro Feed, but "I went in 8:30 this morning
and they were sold out," Eberhardt said Wednesday. "It's unreal."
The fuel is in short supply regionwide, causing problems for pellet-stove owners. The
stoves' growing popularity is part of the problem, coupled with a slump in the housing
market, which has slowed production of lumber and its by-product, sawdust. With
unusually cold temperatures keeping people at home, the shortage comes at a bad time
for Oregonians.
A pellet stove was Eberhardt's cost-efficient solution to heating his two-bedroom home.
"I love it. It's amazing," said Eberhardt, who bought the stove last year for $2,500. Before
that, he heated with kerosene and before that, electricity.
"It's the output of heat," he said. "To keep my house that warm with electricity, it costs
$250 a month." With pellets averaging about $4 per bag, his heating costs are roughly
half what they were, said Eberhardt, who uses about a bag a day.
According to the Pellet Fuels Institute, pellet stoves are the smallest but fastest-growing
sector of the "hearth appliance industry." Their 4 percent of the market is far below
stoves fueled by gas (77 percent), cordwood (18 percent) or electricity (12 percent).
But sales of pellet stoves increased nationwide by 50 percent two years ago and 76
percent last heating season, from 67,467 to 118,490. The next-highest increase was in
electric hearth appliances at 27 percent.
Pellet manufacturers try to anticipate increases in demand, said Stan Elliot, sales and
marketing manager for Bear Mountain Forest Products of Cascade Locks, one of the
largest pellet producers in the West, manufacturing 110,000 tons per year. But there's a
lag time, he said. It can take a year and a half to get a new plant up and running.
Another problem for pellet producers was this fall's declining housing market, which led
to an excess of lumber in the Northwest, Elliot said. Most lumber companies usually shut
down between Christmas and New Year's, he said. But this year, "at least half took two to
three weeks or more. Plus dozens of plants just closed down."
The mill closures led to a reduction in sawdust, "which is what 90 percent of us use to
make pellets," Elliot said.
Dealers are handling the shortage in different ways.
Some are bringing in pellets from South Dakota or Texas, Elliot said, with the extra
freight costs raising the retail price.
S & H Landscape Supplies and Recycling in Tualatin sold out Sunday but hopes to have
more pellets by the end of the month, Greg Ish, an employee, said.
Gaston Feed is limiting sales to three 40-pound bags per customer, said manager Cari
Saxe, who has less than a ton left.
"I just want to make sure nobody goes cold," she said.
Tuesday, Saxe took a call from someone in La Pine looking for pellets. She told him
she'd see whether she could find another supplier, but half a dozen phone calls proved
fruitless.
Wilco, a farmers co-op with eight Oregon stores, was put on a weekly allotment by its
manufacturer about a month ago, said Suzanne Burbank, who manages the McMinnville
store. The co-op began limiting sales to 20 bags per person and has cut that to 10. Each
store sells out before the next allotment, Burbank said.
Eberhardt, down to his last two bags, plans to head to Gaston for his three-bag limit -and hopes there will be some left.
Wood stove owners scramble for pellets
News-Review (Roseburg, OR)
January 17, 2007
A shortage of wood pellets and a week of sub-freezing temperatures have left many
homeowners who have pellet stoves a bit chilly.
As of noon Tuesday, Coastal Farm & Home and the Douglas County Farmer’s Co-Op in
Roseburg and Sutherlin True Value Hardware and Building Supply in Sutherlin had no
pellets. Employees at each store said two out of three callers to each business were
inquiring about the availability of pellets.
“It’s a nationwide problem,” said Nis Jeffen, the store manager at Coastal. “It’s not just a
localized situation. Everybody is scrambling to get caught up on their inventory.”
Jeffen said a truck from the Bear Mountain pellet plant in Brownsville north of Eugene
was en route to Roseburg Tuesday, but had encountered a closed Interstate 5 because of
hazardous weather conditions. A store employee said the truck was due in today.
A co-op employee said a load of pellets from out of state was scheduled to arrive at that
business this afternoon, depending on the weather.
Both Coastal and the co-op have been out of pellets for the past couple of days. Both
stores will limit customers to 10 bags per visit once pellets arrive. The bags range from
$4.59 to $5.49 each.
The Sutherlin hardware store has been out of pellets for 10 days now and isn’t expecting
its next load until Feb. 5. An employee at that store said there is a “good supply of
barbecue pellets that can be used for heating, but they are $8.75 a bag.”
Upgrading woodstoves decreases air pollution
Terrace Standard (Terrace, Canada)
January 17, 2007
Sarah Artis
FOR THE first time in B.C., various benefits are being offered to Terrace residents who
help reduce smoke in their neighbourhood by exchanging their old woodstove for a new
one this winter.
These include a $250 rebate, waived installation fees and discounts ranging from seven to
15 per cent on new stoves from various retailers in the month of March.
This in addition to the savings in firewood – up to half the amount of wood for the same
amount of heat – and chopping labour, the new technology would provide.
The Woodstove Exchange Program, mainly financed by the environment ministry, aims
to recycle the 4,000 or more old stoves it estimates to be between Terrace and Burns
Lake and outlying areas.
The goal this year is 10 per cent, making the rebate available to the first 400 people in
that area who switch their stoves.
The reason behind it all – cleaner air.
Program coordinator Colin Macleod, says, “Woodstoves, especially old woodstoves,
contribute to poor air quality in winter months, especially when there’s an inversion. In
the grand picture, it may not seem like a big deal, but in the neighbourhood picture, it can
be a big deal. If smoke is laying low in a neighbourhood, people have to breathe it.”
Statistics show wood stove smoke accounts for roughly eight per cent of total air
pollution in the Bulkley Valley, which may seem low, Macleod said.
“But when you consider an actual specific airshed on a specific evening, it could be 100
per cent,” he said.
In Terrace, the problem seems more pressing in Thornhill, Macleod added.
The newer stoves, which can be identified by a certification sticker, can reduce emissions
by up to 70 per cent, burn less wood and significantly decrease the risk of chimney fires.
The stoves are designed to burn most of the smoke they produce, therefore waste less
energy.
Rona’s Kelly Francis said it “absolutely makes sense” to buy one of the new woodburning stove and though it’s an investment, it’s a good one.
The $1,000 to $3,000 cost is totally worth it, Francis said.
The City of Terrace is also contributing to the woodstove exchange program.
In addition to waiving the required licence fee to install a new stove – about $30 a stove
plus $8 for every $1,000 it cost to buy – the city will store and recycle the old ones.
The scrap metal will be sold for a modest amount, though whether that money will go to
the city or the organization spearheading the project, the Bulkley Valley Lakes District
(BVLD) Airshed Management Society, is still up in the air.
Council has also been asked to pass a by-law that would require all old wood stoves be
replaced and recycled by 2010.
Houston and Smithers, two towns that suffer significantly from smoke emissions due to
their geography, recently introduced such bylaws.
Terrace’s chief administrator Ron Poole said the city will make a decision once it has a
better understanding of the bylaw and its costs.
The BVLD Airshed Society plans to run the exchange program every year until the 2010
deadline, though benefits are not yet guaranteed for future years.
Macleod added that residents should be careful of the wood they are burning.
“Green wood,” moist wood that hasn’t sat for long enough, will smoke regardless of what
kind of stove is used.
“If it’s still too wet, it doesn’t matter how good your woodstove is. It will still produce
smoke because all of the energy is going to evaporate water rather than producing heat,”
he said.
He recommends letting wood dry for at least six months after it is chopped.
Local retailers that will offer the discounts on new stoves in March include Rona
Building Centre, Aqua Plumbing and Heating and Acadia Northwest Mechanical Inc.
The amount depends on whether distributors also contribute to the exchange program.
Anyone who bought a new stove after Nov. 15, 2005 and still has their old wood stove is
also eligible for the $250 rebate.
For more information call the woodstove hotline at 1 888 334 0335.
Stoke your fire without stinking up the air
NowToronto.com (Toronto, Canada)
January 18, 2007
Adria Vasil
Q Is lighting a fire all that bad for the environment? What about those eco-friendly logs?
A The thermometer has finally dipped below zero, and any home with a fireplace is
suddenly a hot commodity again. But before you throw another log on, let's not forget
that the planet is still melting, and burning wood is actually a greenhouse gas polluter.
That's right, kids, residential fires kick out carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other
smog-forming pollutants that aren't just dirtying the outdoors but choking up your indoor
air quality, too. Strangely, though, Natural Resources Canada says, and I quote, "Because
trees recycle carbon dioxide, wood burning doesn't contribute to climate change." Talk
about a backhanded way of justifying the clearing of our forests!
Yes, trees suck up carbon dioxide as they grow, but, for one, plantations tend to store less
carbon than natural forests. And even if log-burning is carbon-dioxide-neutral, it's still to
blame for 10 per cent of all the carbon monoxide (an important greenhouse gas precursor)
pumped into Canadian air. It's also behind 15 per cent of the smog-inducing volatile
organic compounds in the air and a whopping 25 per cent of lung-irritating particulate
matter, according to Environment Canada.
In smaller northern towns, keeping the home fires burning actually creates a cloud of
brown haze (you know, like the kind you see over Toronto on a hot summer day). And all
this stuff isn't just bad for the environment; it can also inflame health problems like
asthma, angina and bronchitis. Plenty of nasty carcinogens waft into the air to boot, like
benzene, formaldehyde and dangerous dioxins. (And don't sneer, natural gas fireplace
owners inefficient gas models pump out plenty of carbon monoxide of their own).
Kind of takes the romance out of that roaring fire, doesn't it? But don't worry, you can
still cozy up by those crackling flames if you do things right. For one, even plain old
wood can be less polluting if you make sure it's been "seasoned" right (dried in the sun)
and cut to a specific length (see www.woodheat.org for specifics).
But the best way to dampen those emissions is to invest in an advanced-combustion freestanding wood stove or fireplace. These babies actually burn up to 90 per cent cleaner
than older models and use one-third the wood. Look for those that are certified to be lowemission producers by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the Canadian
Standards Association (CSA) or ULC (Underwrit-ers Laboratories of Canada).
Pellet stoves, using wood pellets as fuel, are a hot option. Pellets can be made of
compressed sawdust, agricultural waste or switchgrass. Thing is, these puppies are
expensive (several thousand dollars), and there happens to be a nationwide shortage of
pellets right now. If you lived on a farm you could just throw in some corn husks or
switchgrass, but that's a little problematic for city slickers. For more info on pellet stoves,
check out www.naturalheat.ca.
If you can't afford to buy a new fireplace or stove, what's your greenest bet? Well, lots of
designer logs out there are being marketed as earth-friendly to one degree or another.
According to a joint EPA/Environ-ment Canada study, they all produce way less
particulate matter than traditional cordwood. The presence of harmful polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons is also much lower, but that doesn't make all logs green. Starter
Loggs, for instance, are branded as non-toxic, but they consist of sawdust and petroleumbased wax. Same goes for Duraflame and Conros products.
EcoLogs out of Quebec, on the other hand, use nothing but leftover chem-free sawdust
from the flooring biz and come certified by Environment Canada's Environmental Choice
Program (available at Canadian Tire and some Loblaws).
Another good option is Java-Logs, made of recycled coffee grounds, wood and vegetable
by-products (at many hardware and grocery stores). They emit 85 per cent less carbon
monoxide than firewood and 14 per cent less carbon dioxide. But fake logs should never
be used in wood stoves. For those, pick up sustainably harvested FSC-certified logs at
Whole Foods or Kitchen Table.
If you're shopping for a gas fireplace, make sure to get one with an annual efficiency
rating of about 70 per cent. Happy roasting!
Environmental bills vie for lawmakers' eyes
Bangor Daily News
January 17, 2007
Kevin Miller
AUGUSTA — Hunters want more land but fewer coyotes.
Environmental groups are hoping to clear the air about outdoor wood boilers and
chemical flame retardants.
Developers and property owners are gearing up for Round 2 on building setbacks near
sensitive wildlife habitat.
And then there are the perennial trash issues: how to generate less of it, and what to do
with the waste that Mainers (and non-Mainers) produce.
State lawmakers face a slew of environmental and natural resource-related bills during
the legislative session getting under way this month. Those measures will compete for
lawmakers’ time and attention during a session that so far has been dominated by debate
over the budget and school administration consolidation.
"It just seems like we have some very complex and somewhat controversial issues ... that
will really make a difference in the long term," said Rep. Ted Koffman, a Bar Harbor
Democrat who is co-chairman of the Natural Resources Committee. "So we are going to
have some long hearings and work sessions to get them right."
Members of the Natural Resources Committee can expect to delve into issues ranging
from additional regulation of water withdrawal rules to implementation of Maine’s
efforts to fight global warming.
Koffman ranked adoption of model rules for Maine’s involvement in the Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative as one of the committee’s most important tasks this session.
The initiative, known as RGGI or "Reggie" for short, is a multistate compact aimed at
reducing power plants’ emissions of gases linked to global warming.
But debate over greenhouse gases will likely be tepid compared to two other issues on the
committee’s plate: waste management and shorebird habitat protection.
More than a dozen waste-related bill titles are already in the hopper. They include
proposals to impose a moratorium on incineration facilities, to change Maine’s bottle bill
and to deal with construction and demolition debris.
The committee also is expected to revisit legislation approved last year that imposes a
250-foot buffer zone between new development and habitat for shorebirds and some
inland waterfowl.
Landowners, developers, bankers and contractors claim the required 250-foot setback
from migratory bird habitat is ruining property values up and down the Maine coast,
particularly in Washington County.
Department of Environmental Protection officials have offered a compromise that would
decrease the setback requirement near shorebird feeding and staging areas and provide
current landowners with an exemption window. But some lawmakers are pushing for a
total repeal of the new law.
"I think we will make some significant changes," Koffman said. "We’ll have a good
conversation, I’m sure."
On Tuesday, a coalition of nearly two dozen environmental groups held a press
conference at the State House to announce its list of six legislative priorities.
The coalition hopes to hold the line on existing environmental regulations, expand
Maine’s list of endangered and threatened species, and fight global warming through
greater energy efficiency.
The groups called on the Legislature to support a $25 million bond for riverside
community revitalization projects and increased funding for the Land for Maine’s Future
program. They also endorsed legislation to phase out Deca, a chemical flame retardant
found in some consumer products.
Traces of Deca, a form of polybrominated diphenyl ether blamed for health problems, has
been found in the environment, in wildlife and in humans, including in breast milk.
"I think it goes without saying that a mother’s milk should not be harmful to her
children," said Amy Graham, a Farmington mother and one of Tuesday’s speakers.
Other health and environmental organizations are supporting proposals to hold outdoor
wood boilers to the same air pollution standards as indoor wood stoves. Several Maine
communities have adopted or are considering restrictions on the outdoor wood-fired
furnaces, which critics say pose health risks to downwind neighbors.
Sporting groups also have an ambitious agenda focusing on increased public access to
land, expanded hunting opportunities and wildlife management.
Millinocket Rep. Herbert Clark has caused a stir among some landowners by proposing
that tax breaks under the state’s Tree Growth tax program only go to property owners
who allow hunting, fishing and other traditional activities on their land.
Clark, a Democrat who submitted the bill at the request of a constituent, acknowledged
that the measure’s primary target is conservationist Roxanne Quimby and other
landowners who prohibit hunting and mechanized recreation on their land.
"We feel if they are not going to allow access, they should not be receiving the perks,"
Clark said. Clark’s proposal is likely to encounter opposition from landowners, both large
and small, who allow hunting and traditional uses but disagree with state-mandated
access.
A number of other land-use bills, including several sponsored by critics of last year’s
Katahdin Lake deal, are also pending. One proposal would require the state to replace lost
hunting acreage on state-owned land with similar acreage elsewhere.
The Legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee, meanwhile, will likely hear
requests to allow deer hunting later in the fall, to expand moose hunting farther into
southern Maine, and to reinstate aggressive coyote control programs.
Wildlife activists will also be back with a bill to ban recreational bear trapping in the
state.
Wood-fired boilers get attention
Kingston Daily Freeman (Kingston, NY)
January 16, 2007
William J. Kemble
HURLEY - Town Board members have set a Jan. 22 public hearing on a proposed local
law requiring a permit for outdoor furnaces.
The session will begin at 6 p.m. in Town Hall at 10 Wamsley Place, with a Town Board
meeting scheduled for 7 p.m.
"It's the outdoor wood boilers," town Supervisor Michael Shultis said of the units the
proposed law addresses.
"There was a big push for the last several years before I came into office to get a law
passed restricting certain areas from their use," he said. "We had one incident in town
where a guy was being abusive, allegedly burning garbage and smoking out the
neighborhood and all the neighbors."
Under the proposed law, furnaces must be at least 300 feet from neighboring properties
and have chimneys that are higher than nearby homes.
"The stack needs to be at least two feet above the roof line of the nearest property,"
Shultis said.
There is no fee listed for the permit, which Shultis said will be required of the four known
outdoor furnaces in town.