Jeffrey Fisher: New wood-burning stoves are hot on many levels

Hi Jeffrey,

We have a small family cottage built in the 1960s that my brother and I share the financial and work responsibilities for. It’s not insulated for winter use, but we extend the seasons with the use of a wood-burning stove in the living area. When my parents were alive we didn’t make changes to the cottage out of respect to them but now that they’re gone we’ve been doing things bit by bit. That said, we would like a new wood stove, perhaps something a bit sleeker and efficient. Any suggestions?

Thank you, Beth



Hi Beth,



I think I appreciate a wood stove even more than a fireplace. I have great childhood memories of stoking my grandparents’ wood-burning stove in the kitchen of their farmhouse. Not only did the stove provide heat, it was the primary source for cooking. The wood burned in a side compartment and the top surface had ample room for pots, and there was an oven below. You don’t know the fine art of making biscuits until you’ve baked them in a wood-burning stove. Grandmother McCully was a pro.



Considering you’ve grown up with a wood-burning stove at your cottage, you know well the rewards of lighting the stove to take the chill off a damp summer day or provide full-on heat in early May or late September.



As you are probably aware, wood-burning stoves have advanced both in design and technology since yours was originally installed. Today’s stoves have advanced combustion technology that allows less wood to heat the same square footage, thereby reducing the carbon dioxide associated with the harvesting, processing and transporting of wood.



All of my favourite stoves meet the emissions standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. When you start shopping for your new stove make sure to note whetherit’s been EPA approved (it means something here in Canada as well).



With clean lines and subtle curves, the Stuv stove is a favourite of mine. There are three models, depending on the size required, but all have three rotating doors: a glass door to view the flames, a solid closed door for secure wood burning and an open-door mode when it’s time to throw in another log or two. The best part is the turning plate located under the stove, allowing you to direct the heat in the desired direction by rotating the stove up to 360 degrees. Established in Belgium, Stuv has a factory in Montreal and is distributed throughout North America. stuvamerica.com



Not surprisingly, the stoves I am drawn to are primarily designed in Northern Europe, with winters similar to Canada’s — or worse. Wittus (wittus.com) imports some great-looking stoves worthy of investigating; two of my top picks are the Shaker and Cosmos.



The Shaker, pictured, combines both a classic and modern look. It’s made of black steel and the small size might suit your needs well. It comes with a short bench (as pictured) or a long bench that Wittus says enables you to “sit comfortably close to the fire.”



The Cosmo series, also from Wittus, is not only good looking but designed to burn pure and efficient at 81%, resulting in a cleaner, hotter fire with very little ash. Its naturally carbon dioxide neutral wood-burning system gives off the same amount of C02 as when trees are left to decay in the forest.



The body of the stove comes clad in black or grey steel or heat-retaining soapstone and the door features a cool-handle concept, which positions the handle below and away from the firebox (a feature I especially like).



And if that’s not enough, the Cosmos series comes equipped with both a built-in ash pan and a storage component. It basically does everything but chop the wood.



All of these stoves have North American distribution, but if you happen to live in the Toronto area they (along with other great options) are carried at Marsh’s Stoves & Fireplaces (marshsfireplaces.com).



Good luck and stay warm this fall.

Jeffrey



Source: http://life.nationalpost.com/2014/10/10/jeffrey-fisher-new-wood-burning-stoves-are-hot-on-many-levels/



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Building a 'hillbilly hot tub' for a good backyard soak

Driving home along the highway, the winds were fierce. I shouldn’t have been worried, as everything was latched down and tied up, but the six-foot-across stock tank in the back of the truck amplified the spring winds. After all day driving to Colorado and back, I was ready to get home. I was ready to soak.

Even though my partners and I were finishing up that day’s trip, it was only the start of a whole new adventure — our foray into the world of hot tubs.

As long as we’ve been in New Mexico, we’ve been believers in the joys of hot water. Of course we’d take a special trip out to Ojo Caliente once or twice a year, to celebrate this or that. I’ve enjoyed a couple of midnight hikes down to the Stagecoach hot springs along the Rio Grande. And we’ve even gone as far as to theme our road trips around hot water — a light lunch followed by the “Lobster Pot “at the Montezuma hot springs near Las Vegas, N.M.; a camping trip in the Gila Wilderness, with pools of hot water steaming in the soft autumn light. We make no excuses for our love of hot water; we revel in it.

But as much as we love hot springs, our modest budget doesn’t allow us unlimited entry into unbridled joy, though a fateful Craigslist ad changed all that. A person in Colorado Springs had a funny-looking stove for sale, and it was perfect. The Snorkel-brand, water-tight stove is made in Seattle, Wash., and sits in a tub of water. While someone feeds the stove small pieces of wood, water naturally flows through two ports, heating an ambient pool of water in a matter of a couple of hours.

We set out early one Saturday morning to get the stove, having a hearty breakfast of chicken-fried steak and eggs along the way. At learning the three of us had just driven five hours from Taos, the guy took $50 off an already good deal for the stove. With that and a handshake, we were heading back south, Willie Nelson on the radio and Alamosa on our minds.

A lot of folks who get the Snorkel stove in the Pacific Northwest also get cedar wood hot tubs, too. But again, a shoestring budget had us looking for alternatives — a decent runner-up being the classic stock tank. It just worked out that we bought ours in Alamosa, though there are local outlets to get one too. Knowing more than just three people would use it, we bought it six feet across. As we entered back into New Mexico, the sun was just starting to set in the direction of Ute and San Antonio mountains; we pulled over for a few minutes just to take in this place we live.

You could easily just get a stock tank and build a fire underneath. I’ve heard of a set-up like that in Amalia, with wooden pallets to keep you from burning yourself on the metal. But the advantage of the wood-fired stove inside the stock tank is a slow, even heat. Its easy to get the fire roaring, opening the lid up, inundating the inside with oxygen. Or you can mostly close it off, letting the heat settle and swirl around you while only faint wisps of smoke come out of the 5-foot smoke stack (it has to be at least that tall to actually work).

Certainly, our set-up isn’t “easy.”

We can’t just turn on a switch and have a bubbling hot tub. Our “hillbilly hot tub” takes tending. In fact, the whole business of getting it heated is an all-day affair, a weekend ritual I’ve come to love.

In the morning, we fill the stock tank with water from the well, letting the sun knock off the coldest part of the chill throughout the day. In the afternoon, having cleaned the ashes out of the stove from the previous fire, I build another: a few pieces of wood and newspaper. As the fire gets going, we chop more wood. As the top layer of water gets warm, we stir the 400 gallons with a paddle made from a piece of board and an old broom handle.

After three or four hours, depending on how cloudy it is that day, the water is ready for soaking. A lot of times, a couple of friends will have already come over and we’ll have just finished a dinner of veggies grilled with piñon coals from the Snorkel stove. And if the timing’s worked out, the sun will be setting in all its New Mexican brilliance. Every time I tend the fire and stir the water, I think of that sunset driving home into New Mexico.

Taking a cue from a trip to Japan last year, we follow the idea of “naked fellowship,” enjoying the hot waters as God made us. By the time we’ve settled in, the sun is set and the stars are out. All summer, we charted the movements of constellations across the sky and tracked the depth of the Milky Way — the way it seems to change color, grow and shrink from week to week. There is no way to watch the night sky but soaking in hot water with friends, family and lovers.

Usually, we soak again the next day, or the day after; given a little pool-grade hydrogen peroxide the water won’t get slimy for a week or more. But soaking night always eventually yields a “garden day.”

We’ve taken to emptying the tub buckets at a time, watering the plants the hose just won’t reach. Or we pump it into the back area, a space that was just sage and dirt last year. Every couple of weeks, I spend a morning playing in the yard — moving rocks, realigning paths, contouring and making little terraces and diversions. It reminds me of using acequia water at a farm I worked at a few years ago, because through the water I got to know the land.

Over the summer, all sorts of things I don’t know the name for bloomed and died. Bunnies were born and made our yard part of their daily beat, and magpies, robins and now finches all take turns picking it over for dried grasses and bugs.

From that day when we plopped the stock tank down in the back yard, our hillbilly hot tub has made a ritual out of weekends and a friend out of the yard.



Visit us: http://www.taosnews.com/lifestyle/article_c47f5e9e-4fe3-11e4-afad-6b93645947e9.html



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Heating pellet prices rising ahead of winter

ROCKFORD, Mich. — Even though we are still getting into the fall season, winter weather is right around the corner. Many homeowners are looking ahead at efficient ways to heat their homes, without breaking the bank.



Richard Brill with H2O Oasis says the popularity of pellet stoves has drastically increased, and they are more popular than ever. Affordability is the reason.



While a pellet stove is a pricey investment often costing thousands of dollars, customers who currently use propane heat will recoup their investment within a couple years, said Brill. “If I’m burning pellets, it will save the average propane customer about $2,000 dollars a year.”



Pellet stoves may not be the most popular form of heat, but it’s the fastest growing. “Pellet stoves actually began in the U.S., then they moved to Europe,’ said Brill. “You probably have 10 times higher percentage of people heating pellets in Europe than you do here.”



Brill said that he has been on the phone with manufacturers who tell him that a shortage in raw material is making pellets harder to get. Manufacturers weren’t able to get into forest areas to cut down lumber as early as normal due to an extremely cold winter. According to Brill, even though West Michigan has had lower pellet prices in past years, this year the price of pellets could increase from about $200 a ton to around $250 dollars.



Brill calls the pellet shortage manageable, adding that planning ahead and not hoarding pellets will help secure availability to everyone.



Source: http://fox17online.com/2014/10/02/heating-pellet-prices-rising-ahead-of-winter-season/



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Hot tub cinema pulls in big crowds on its first night in Bristol

THEY came, they saw and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The Hot Tub Cinema's first night in Bristol was a sold-out success, as its six other screenings promise to be.



Tickets for all of the films being shown in this unusual way at the Paintworks Creative Space were snapped up within a day, sparking the company's founder Asher Charman, to vow that he would bring the attraction back to the city again.



"We've had an extraordinary response from the people of Bristol. It's actually quite humbling," he said. "I used to work in Bristol and lived in Bishopston, so I consider it one of my home towns.



"Bringing the cinema here has a real personal touch for me. Watching a film like this is a uniquely luxurious experience that you can enjoy with your loved one or friends."



Last night, indoor pop-up cinema showed The Hangover. Other screenings while it is in Bristol include Ghostbusters, The Lion King and Grease.



As more than 100 ticket buyers arrived, some stayed in towels and dressing gowns while the more daring took the plunge straight away.



The familiar smell of popcorn filled the air as the 20 tubs started filling up with people.



After loosening up with a few drinks, any shyness subsided and the excitable groups settled in for the film that was shown at either end of the cosily-packed inflatable tubs.



Couple Jess Fuller and Owen Nicholson, from Stapleton, were the first to take a dip, glasses of bubbly in hands.



"It's something really different," said Jess, 25. "It's not every day you get to watch a film in a hot tub."



Redland housemates Reanna Edwards and Beth Green couldn't wait for the film to start.



Reanna, 23, said: "I think it's a really cool idea. I'm glad it's a film we've seen before because it means we don't have to concentrate on it too much and can enjoy the experience more."



Recruitment consultant Beth, 23, added: "I'm really excited – especially about seeing Bradley Cooper on the big screen.



"Looking at the weather outside, I'm glad it's indoors tonight."



Emily Ball had come all the way from Newport to enjoy the night with her friends.



"It's very unique – really cool," said the 23-year-old.



Pal Josie Berry, 23, who lives in Bedminster, said: "It doesn't really matter what film they show tonight, it's about the experience."



Alex Pugh, 23, used to work at the Paintworks.



"I used to work at weddings here, but I've never seen anything like this at the Paintworks," he said.



Source: http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Come-inHot-tub-cinema-pulls-crowds-night/story-23070368-detail/story.html



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5 Ways to Improve Homeowners' Energy Efficiency Outdoors

When most people think about ways to save energy in their home, their minds first go to insulation. It makes sense that homeowners would want to focus on insulation—after all, when you minimize air leaks, you can cut down on your use of central heating and cooling units, resulting in tangible savings on the next utility bill.



However, insulating a home’s interior isn’t the only way to provide great energy savings. As a home energy professional, you should talk to homeowners about exterior methods of saving energy that they may not have considered yet. Here are a few subjects to bring up.



Energy-efficient windows. If the homeowner you’re working with lives in an older house, they may want to completely replace their windows in favor of something with a higher energy rating. New windows can be strategically placed to maximize solar heating in the winter and minimize it in the summer. Homeowners should work with a professional and use a site plan to determine where their windows will be most effective. In regions with a long cooling season, homeowners can also add a highly-reflective film to east- and west-facing windows in order to block some of the sun’s heat.



Overhangs. One exterior window treatment that homeowners often overlook is the roof overhang. Overhangs work best over south-facing windows because they can help block the sun during the summer and, if oriented properly, let in sunlight during the winter. Overhangs work best for houses that are currently under construction or undergoing major renovations, as a number of passive solar design factors (including latitude, window size, and illumination levels) will need to be taken into account. Existing homes may still benefit from awnings or lattice-type panels, however.



Geothermal heat pumps. This type of heat pump uses underground pipes to capture ground heat—which remains fairly consistent year round—in order to warm the house in the winter and cool it in the summer. One thing you’ll need to be sure to explain to homeowners about this project is that there’s a relatively high up-front cost: because of all the piping that needs to be buried deep in the ground, homeowners can expect to pay $15,000 to $20,000 for the installation. However, a geothermal heat pump can make up for it relatively quickly by saving anywhere between 30 and 70% on home heating and cooling bills.



Exterior doors. While caulking and weatherstripping can help reduce air leaks for exterior doors in older homes, some homeowners may find it’s a better investment simply to replace their doors with newer, more energy-efficient ones. Talk to homeowners about choosing a door with a steel skin, polyurethane foam insulation core, and magnetic stripping as weather stripping. This is one of the most energy-efficient types of exterior doors and, if installed correctly, it won’t require any additional weatherstripping.



Cool roofs. Homeowners in regions with long cooling seasons can benefit from a cool roof, which will reflect sunlight and absorb less heat in order to reduce air conditioning needs. The good news for homeowners is that they don’t necessarily need to replace their entire roof to get these benefits; while some people do choose to install new reflective tiles or shingles, it’s also possible to use a reflective paint on an existing roof. When talking to homeowners, be sure to mention that the benefits of a cool roof extend beyond savings on their cooling bill; because the roof is retaining less heat, it is likely to have a longer life and fewer repair needs.



There are, of course, many ways that homeowners can save energy inside their home as well, but don’t neglect to discuss the exterior features that will help reduce energy usage. Energy saving needs to take the entire house—inside and out—into account.



Source: http://www.homeenergy.org/show/blog/id/609/nav/blog



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How to Cut Residential Energy Use

Recent Efforts by Utilities Offer a Glimpse at What Programs Work Best With Consumers







It's a nearly universal maxim in the energy world: Efficiency is a vast, barely tapped resource that can be unlocked with the right policies and incentives.



The trick is finding the key.



Some efficiency programs have failed to get the desired effects, at least as cheaply as their proponents had hoped. Some even backfire, causing people to use more energy.



"Not all energy-efficiency programs deliver," says Lucas Davis, an associate professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. "But for me, this means that we need to design them better."



The payoff could be billions of dollars in energy savings. A recent report by McKinsey & Co. says that up to 20% of U.S. residential energy use can be cut by a few changes in consumer behavior, from slight changes in thermostat adjustments to shorter showers. "There are lots of attractive options for efficiency" that wouldn't greatly inconvenience consumers but that aren't being widely adopted, says Humayun Tai, a senior partner and a leader of McKinsey's energy practice.



So what are the best ways to get consumers on board? A pair of approaches have shown they can deliver results.



We're in This Together

One fairly modest new technique has proved remarkably effective: telling consumers how their energy use compares with that of their neighbors.



Several times a year, households in one program receive a two-page sheet that compares their energy use with that of similar homes and "efficient" homes in the area. It also includes tips for saving energy, such as turning off the water heater while on vacation.



The program, run by Opower Inc. of Arlington, Va., for more than 90 utilities, has reduced energy use for participating utilities by 1.8% to 3%. That's not a huge amount, but the results are consistent, and they come at little cost—about three cents for each kilowatt-hour saved. (The cost is crucial, because utilities see efficiency in part as a way to meet future energy demand at a lower cost than building new plants.)



"You can have a program that has small effects but that's not very costly," says Hunt Allcott, an assistant professor of economics at New York University who has conducted several studies of the Opower program. "It's a lot easier to implement and cheaper to implement" than some other programs.



The approach works, Dr. Allcott says, because "it makes people feel like part of a community. If you have a program that guilted people into conserving, you probably wouldn't want to run that program."



Make It Easier

Rebates are another way to get people to save energy, by encouraging them to purchase energy-efficient appliances or light bulbs, which typically are more expensive than less efficient options.



But the hassle of rebates, which often involve clipping a coupon and waiting for a check, is enough to keep many people from considering more-efficient products.



So some efficiency programs are making it easier for consumers—giving them discounts directly and letting retailers or distributors handle the rebate paperwork.



Efficiency Vermont, an arm of the nonprofit Vermont Energy Investment Corp., offers technical advice and incentives aimed at getting consumers and businesses to reduce their energy use. It has run a rebate program in Vermont for energy-efficient light bulbs since 2000, with funding from an energy-efficiency surcharge on electric bills in the state.



For most of that time, it offered traditional mail-in rebates that covered about half the cost of the bulbs.



Beginning in 2012, Efficiency Vermont did away with those mail-in rebates. Consumers and businesses now simply pay a discounted price for energy-efficient bulbs, and Efficiency Vermont pays retailers or distributors who file for rebates for the difference between that price and the full price.



The results are dramatic: Sales of LED bulbs to consumers jumped to about 117,000 in 2013 from about 5,000 in 2012. Sales to commercial customers rose to about 96,000 in 2013 from about 74,000 in 2012 and 18,000 in 2011.



Efficiency Vermont says its portfolio of programs spent 4.1 cents per kilowatt-hour saved in 2013, compared with an electricity supply cost in the state of 8.4 cents per kilowatt-hour.



What Not to Do

There's also something to be learned from programs that haven't worked. In 2009, Mexico adopted an ambitious "cash for coolers" program, which gave nearly two million households subsidies to help them replace older refrigerators and air conditioners with new, more efficient models.



Over the two years of the program, according to a study of utility bills by Berkeley's Mr. Davis and others, refrigerator replacement reduced electricity consumption for the participating households by about 8%—a significant amount, but only a quarter of the savings predicted before the program started.



One reason was that the original estimates assumed households would replace much older, much less efficient models. In fact, most of the replaced refrigerators were less than 12 years old and already were somewhat more efficient than older models. Consumers also took advantage of the program to trade up to refrigerators that were somewhat larger and had more features.



Worse, the air-conditioner program resulted in higher energy use. People used the new air conditioners more, partly because they were willing to keep their houses cooler since they knew the new models used less energy—what economists call the "rebound" effect.



So, while the program reached an enormous number of households and produced large overall savings, the reduction in energy use was far smaller than expected and came at a large cost: about 29 cents a kilowatt-hour for the energy saved. By comparison, energy-efficiency programs by U.S. electric utilities spend an average of about 3.3 cents per kilowatt-hour saved.



Mr. Davis says a few changes in the program could have made it more effective.



It could have excluded air conditioners, which don't offer the same potential efficiency gains that refrigerators do and are more vulnerable to the rebound effect. It also could have required replacement refrigerators to be even more efficient. The result would have been a smaller program, with lower overall savings. But the cost of cutting each ton of carbon-dioxide emissions would have been lower.



"It is challenging to design these programs so that they're cost-effective," Mr. Davis says. "Free riders are going to be a problem. The rebound effect, though not as big as some critics say, is real. And the savings are going to be less than predicted."



Source: http://online.wsj.com/articles/how-to-cut-residential-energy-use-1411937802



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What’s the greenest way to keep my fireplace burning?

Q. We are adding a fireplace insert to a small cabin. Should we use wood or propane (natural gas is not available) for the best fuel in terms of environmentally friendliness and energy efficiency?



A. Dearest John,



It’s that time of year, isn’t it? That time of year when people start thinking about turning on the heat again, and therefore wondering if it isn’t time for an eco-upgrade to the whole heating system. This year I’m working on training my cat to sit on my lap on command — imagine, a heated blanket that runs on tuna!



Your home improvement project sounds a touch more realistic, John, and more than a touch more sustainable, as you’re getting rid of an energy-wasting fireplace. Inserts are designed to be vastly more efficient — 80 or 90 percent efficiency versus a dismal 10 percent for the old-fashioned hearth — though equally cheerful. Kudos to you for making this smart switch.



Inserts (basically a stove made to fit right inside an existing fireplace) come in several varieties, of which you’ve noted three, John: natural gas, propane, and wood. Let me add a few more to that list: pellet and electric. And here you thought I’d be helping you narrow your choices, not expanding them — but I think each deserves a look.



Let’s start with the two options available to you: wood and gas. Wood-burning inserts are nice because they run on a renewable resource, and one that’s often easy to source locally. Burning sustainably harvested wood is also considered carbon neutral because you’re only releasing the carbon that the tree sequestered in its lifetime; it’s part of the carbon cycle in a way that underground fossil fuels are not. Plus, an EPA-certified stove or insert (really the only kind you should be thinking about) is built to burn cleaner and more efficiently, dramatically reducing fine particle emissions and pollution over older models. And of course, wood fires have that snap-crackle-pop ambience going for them.



Now for the however: Even the cleanest wood fireplace inserts release some nasty stuff into the air, including lung-clogging particulates and volatile organic compounds. And you live in Washington, where smoke is one of the biggest polluters, especially in winter; That’s one reason your state’s stove standards are even stricter than the EPA’s.



Propane gas, on the other hand, burns much cleaner. And gas stove inserts are easier to deal with — just flip a switch, no careful fire-tending needed. But we can’t get around the fact that propane and natural gas are fossil fuels, nonrenewable, and increasingly obtained via environmentally dubious fracking (propane is derived from natural gas or oil).



Clearly, neither option is perfect. So let’s look at those alternatives I mentioned before. Wood pellet inserts and stoves are nifty contraptions that burn ultracompressed wood and other biomass (such as switchgrass, olive pits, corn, and cherry pits) that might otherwise have been landfilled. Pellets are super-dry, which makes them burn cleaner and more efficiently than wood. Pellet stoves do require some electricity to run, and they tend to be a bit more expensive up-front, but a pellet stove could be just the ticket for you, John, especially if you feel you just have to burn something. Head over here for a lot more on the topic.



And finally, there’s the electric fireplace insert — a bit like a space heater, really. These don’t produce any smoke or emissions on site, and while they’re not the most efficient way to heat a big home, one might work for a small space like your cabin. I bring this one up specifically because of your zip code: Most of the electricity in Washington comes from clean hydropower, so you wouldn’t be committing pollution by proxy. The coziness factor of an electric fire is somewhat debatable, true, but its virtues may outweigh its vices in your case.



As with any home improvement projects, John, the best choice for you will depend on your budget, your house specs, fuel availability, and other factors. But I do hope you think outside of the wood-gas box while planning for the cozy evenings ’round the fireplace insert that await.



Source: http://grist.org/living/can-we-keep-our-cabin-cozy-and-sleep-with-a-clear-conscience/



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