Posted on 03/18/2014 5:25:45 AM PDT by thackney
Wood as a main heating source in homes has gained popularity in many areas of the country in recent years, but the increase is most notable in the Northeast. All nine states in the New England and the Middle Atlantic Census divisions saw at least a 50% jump from 2005 to 2012 in the number of households that rely on wood as the main heating source. As the use of fuel oil and kerosene in this region has declined in recent years, many households have turned to lower-cost alternatives, including wood.
In total, about 2.5 million households (2.1%) across the country use wood as the main fuel for home heating, up from 1.9 million households (1.7%) in 2005. An additional 9 million households (7.7%) use wood as a secondary heating fuel. This combination of main and secondary heating accounts for about 500 trillion British thermal units (Btu) of wood consumption per year in the residential sector, or about the same as propane consumption and slightly less than fuel oil consumption.
Heating stoves are the most common equipment used by households that rely on wood as the main source of heat, and fireplaces are the most common choice for secondary wood heating. Most households still burn split logs, although wood pellet use has risen in recent years. And while households in higher income brackets are more likely to use wood, those at lower income levels who burn wood consume more on average.
The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed updated emissions standards for new wood-burning stoves and other biomass heating equipment. Although these proposed rules address health concerns associated with the release of fine particulates from burning wood, the standards would also result in increased efficiency levels of new wood-burning equipment.
Given all the junk mail I regularly receive I’m seriously considering getting a paper-burner...
Wood, a renewable energy source that converts solar energy into a carbon fuel, in relatively little time.
Of course, Leftist-Greenies hate it.
Main source?? Somehow I doubt that.
In reality, the left hates any form of energy use by humans.
Look for them to take steps against wood heating.
I can heat my house for the winter with five cords of wood and about 100 gallons of oil.
make it hard for industry to produce oil, gas and other fossil fuels....prices go up...
people heat with wood, produce more smoke and polution....
and if your reason for making it harder to produce fossil fuels is ecological, you’ve just screwed your own (albeit stupid)philosophy.
Those are mind boggling graphs. One of those...tell me the results you want and I’ll figure out a graph that looks good.
I've used would as the ONLY source (well, 99%) for 12 years now.
Used 275 gal of oil, over 5 years.
The oil is only for when we go away for over a couple of days, and can't feed the stoves.
Bought 10 cord of wood, at $210, back in October, had one left over from last year. Have about 5 cord left right now.
You are doubting that there are large numbers of people who use wood as a main source? Why? Perhaps you live in a city. It’s quite common in some rural areas.
A big driver of this is probably the wide spread, week long power outages caused by storms in the last few years. Those storms generated a huge amount of free firewood. Since then, the power companies have been cutting down a lot of trees every spring to help mitigate future storm related outages. Throw your saw in the truck and drive around and collect free heat. It’s a beautiful thing.
My bro lives near Oswego in an old farmhouse. He had/has a combo furnace. The cost of oil is killing him this year.
Don’t worry, the EPA will solve this little problem.
I think you might be right. Firewood as a main source of heat is a tough proposition; keeping a wood fire going day and night is not at all an easy thing to do.
Because I live in a very rural area, when it comes necessary to cut down a dead or dying oak tree I do and use my hydraulic log-splitter to split the sections into firewood. I then burn them in my wood stove in the basement and in doing so I cut down significantly on my electric (heat pump) and propane gas bill. I imagine others do the same thing.
I lived in a big city and we used coal and wood until about 1955. Dad switched to oil and eventually gas.
Beginning in 2015 all new wood burning appliances must be EPA certified. They are already expensive enough.
If you have a point, then make it.
You expressed doubt that someone could use wood as a main source.
I and others, refuted it.
Using wood fell out of favor when more high density heat sources became easily available.
The chart is faulty in that the % of homes in the NE using wood as a fuel was nearly 100% just 200 years ago.
Whale oil for lighting, wood for heating.
Just don't live in an area that is bowl shaped to trap particulates when inversions come.
The EPA is creating a new market. Follow the money....again
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