What is the best way to heat your home without damaging the environment?

Question

What is the best way to heat your home without damaging the environment?

Answer 1

Eco-Heating System

Gretchen Cuda  07.27.06 | 2:00 AM



MaxFire Stove View Slideshow  Until now, pellet heating systems have appealed mainly to the ambitiously eco-minded -- it takes a little work to keep them up and running. Now, a new system could attract even the indolent environmentalist.

Most pellets are made from a single fuel source, usually wood or corn, and commercially available stoves usually burn one or the other, not both. Bixby Energy Systems has developed a pellet made from various types of biomass and a stove that can burn all of them. The pellet formula can be customized to use local resources, such as grape waste, olive pits, almond shells, cotton-gin trash and hog waste, cutting shipping and distribution costs.

"Various experts … insisted I couldn't make a business out of this," said Bob Walker, founder of Bixby. People thought pooling materials with very different properties and getting them to ignite at the same temperature was impossible, he explained.

But when Walker puts his mind to something, he's got a proven track record of success. Lots of would-be entrepreneurs have had the same idea, but Walker is not just any business dilettante -- he invented the sleep-number bed.

"I began to realize there was a real business opportunity here if I could figure out how to make biomass a viable fuel," he said.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, biomass is the leading source of renewable energy, accounting for 4 percent of all energy produced in the United States. Most comes from agriculture and forestry residue, but a significant amount of biomass remains untapped because it's inefficient to collect and distribute.

A 2005 study (PDF) by the National Renewable Energy Lab concluded that, if used efficiently, Minnesota had sufficient biomass to produce 99 percent of the state's electricity.

Bixby's first generation stove, the 55,000 BTU MaxFire, burns corn, wood or biomass pellets at 99.7 percent combustion efficiency, meaning it gives off little ash. It holds 106 pounds of corn and heats a 3,000-square-foot area at about 45 percent the cost of heating oil and 55 percent the cost of natural gas.

One remaining drawback to pellet stoves is, well, the pellets. Unlike other fuels, pellets have to be bought and stored, and the stove must be refilled regularly. The extra work can be too much hassle even for consumers with the best intentions.

"Some people just don't want to do anything but turn up the thermostat," says Larry Thompson of LET Energy Systems, a Bixby retailer in Albert Lea, Minnesota.

Walker has a solution for that as well, which he expects will be in place in about two years. Bixby engineers have designed a biomass furnace that will provide heat, hot water and eventually electricity. The company has also acquired a delivery company that will bring biomass pellets directly to the consumer, depositing them into a storage tank that the furnace can access automatically.

Answer 2

First of all, what do you consider to be damaging the environment?

Your choices are:  emitting particulates and smog contributing gasses -OR- emitting "man-made" carbon dioxide

If you think the former is bad, go with an electric heat-pump which you could help power with solar panels.

If you think the latter is bad, go with wood.  You'll have to burn great quantities of it, and there will be smoke produced, you house will smell a bit, but it won't produce a bit of "man-made" carbon dioxide because it is a renewable energy source.

Answer 3

Growing up in California in the 1960-1980 period... my Father rarely allowed the furnace (natural-gas) to be used.

He insulated the house and we all got sweaters and sweats for gifts... the thermostat was set at 60 F.

I still live that way... my lil brother lives in the Sierra's and uses two wood-stoves with water-coils.

Answer 4

Wear a wool sweater. Any fleece pants. (and tights if you are a girl.)

Answer 5

I guess just a house full of people= body heat lol

Answer 6

What method of heating hurts the environment?

Natural Gas and Propane are just a fuel from Earth, Electric is made from Coal and/or Natural Gases. Wood heat is grown in the forest. Pellets are made from wood by products. Solar Panels are usually ineffective in many rural environments. (West Virginia)

Those all "hurt" the environment. But a very cost effective way of heating your entire home while maintain fire safety is using an Water Pipe Stove. Located outside in a small building or even a garage is a stove that you put wood, pellets, coal, to heat water that runs through pipes in the ceiling and floors of your house. Very cost effective and efficient.

Answer 7

You can heat your home using wood. Wood burnt with 10% or less moisture and in a wood burner stove or fire box doesn't contribute to climate change. Dry wood burnt in an efficient way doesn't release any more CO2 than it consumed in the first place. Timber processing plants waist huge quantities of saw dust that could be pressed in to wood pellets ideal for heating a home.

Answer 8

invite AL GORE over. everytime i have seen him in person he is sweating like a w***e in church. and he always has that shirt  collar to tight around his neck. the man is the cause of global warming.

Answer 9

Don't use any heating - first preference

Use solar water heating systems and run that hot water into heat convectors and radiators - second preference

Answer 10

Solar is probably the most environmentally safe. Unless you have George Bush and d**k Cheney move in - they're FULL of hot air!!!