Many of us Minnesotans heat our homes with wood, especially with the rising prices of propane and electricity. Approximately 10,000 outdoor wood boilers are currently in use in the State of Minnesota and about 20 percent of us heat entirely with wood.
In most of Cook County’s rural areas, such as the Gunflint Trail, this is how we heat. The sweet smell of wood smoke is always in the air during the cold winter months and like I tell my wife, it smells like money saved to me.
The Department of Environmental Conservation has passed some new regulations for the manufacturers of wood boilers as well as the users. If you have been using these types of systems prior to April 14, 2011 then you do not have to worry about the new regulations—yet.
The boiler manufacturers have been required to design more efficiently burning systems that put off less carbon smoke emissions. The fine particulates that are found in smoke exhaust are well known to cause cancer and respiratory illness. The EPA has set emissions standards that wood boiler manufacturers must meet.
The users are being regulated in two different ways. The setback requirements for an outdoor boiler must be 100 feet from any property lines, and the chimney must reach 18 feet above ground level. This will allow the smoke to rise quicker and disperse faster than the lower lying chimneys.
Many cities are passing local ordinances that ban the use of wood boilers altogether. Savage, Minnesota has done so as well as Fairbanks, Alaska. That is why I said that people who have had a wood boiler prior to April 14, 2011 need not worry about any regulations yet. This is all on a federal level right now, but state and local governments could change the game as well.
The NEC is also encouraging people to burn split and seasoned wood since it has less tendency to smolder and actually burns more efficiently. The older boilers, like mine, are more effective when you burn greener woods and keep them in rounds. The damper keeps the wood burning slower and longer which is the true culprit for bad emissions.
In the past, the average wood boiler ran at 43 percent efficiency. That means it takes two logs to equal the potential BTUs of one log. The newest Central Boiler, which has passed the current emissions tests, burns at 97 percent efficiency. Of course the initial cost is much greater than the older boilers, and my boiler is only three years old.
Much of the argument is that people are burning irresponsibly by incinerating their garbage and non-wood materials. I do not doubt a bit that people are doing some of that, and unfortunately it gives everyone else a bad reputation.
I bought my boiler because it is a less expensive way to heat my house. There is still a lot of back-breaking effort put into burning wood, but I am not dependent on foreign oil for heat and I am not contributing to greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel-generated electricity.
We live in the forest where forest fires happen naturally and I would certainly hate to see my right to burn wood safely in my outside boiler taken away. I would however, like to upgrade to these safer more efficient boilers that were not available before, but there would have to be some type of buy-back program before I could afford to do it.
Just like “cash for clunkers” the government should step in and offer some type of incentive programs for tradeins. The current $1,000 dollar tax credit I see advertised on Central Boiler’s web site is not going to cut it for me.
The boiler I purchased three years ago was about $6,000 plus another $3,000 for parts and installation. The newer models are about $10,000 plus installation and parts. Too rich for my blood, and it would just take too many winters to recoup the initial investment.
Cory Christianson, a graduate of the University of Iowa, has worked as a fishing guide on the Gunflint Trail since 2000. If you have any fishing reports or stories to share, send an email to: christiansoncory@hotmail.com or call 218-388- 0315.
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