The key to using wood as a sustainable, renewable energy source is to make sure that your home requires minimal heating in the first place.
Wood can be a great source of energy for heating a home, as it has been ever since humans learned how to start fires. One must be aware though, that heating with wood does add CO2, N2, and sometimes soot and creosote into the atmosphere.
Some cities and areas are not allowing residents to use their fireplaces and wood burning stoves during certain weather patterns. The Denver area and Aspen are probably the best known to have these restrictions.
The source of the wood you will be using is something else to consider. Is it grown locally, organically and harvested sustainably? Can your parcel of land support the growth of the required number of trees?
Say your house requires the equivalent of one tree each year for heating with a wood burning stove. This tree takes 30 years to grow to the required size. That means that your land must be able to support the growth of at least 30 hardwood trees.
If you have a low-energy home, using a wood burning stove to heat your home might not be the most eco-friendly option. Wood burning stoves burn the cleanest when they are burning at high temperatures. That in turn can mean that even the smallest stove will overheat your home.
The location of your stove is very critical. The heat from the stove must be able to be distributed to all rooms.
Also, if you are planning to heat your home solely with a wood burning stove, be aware of the work involved! I’d hate to see you install electric baseboard heaters after one season of cutting, splitting stacking 1-2 cords of wood.
The use of wood pellets has become popular in the last few years. Wood pellets are made with highly compressed sawdust. The pellets burn very cleanly and can be used in wood burning stoves, or specially designed wood pellet furnaces and boilers.
To use wood pellets in a traditional wood burning stove, a pellet basket is inserted into your stove. This is a great alternative to using stack wood. It is less work for you and the pellets burn cleaner than the wood generally used for stoves.
Wood pellet boilers and furnaces do require more attention than an oil or gas-fired boiler. The pellets are fed automatically into the burner as required. However, the hopper has to be filled, usually every 3-5 days, depending on the size of the hopper and the amount of wood being burned.
Before going ahead and installing a wood pellet furnace or boiler, or buying a pellet basket for your stove, it is important to make sure that wood pellets are locally available from a reliable source.
It is not a sustainable, renewable option to have to ship wood pellets from the other side of your state, unless you live in Rhode Island.
It is important to carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages, and to also look at other alternative and renewable energies, before deciding to heat with wood, such as:
