Cordova brothers Chris (left) and Billy Thompson display the Central Boiler wood furnaces they are dealing. The pair believe these are the top-of-the-line outdoor wood furnaces on the market.
Kris and Billy Thompson are installing wood stoves and thermal solar panels on their own homes to heat their water and homes, and becoming dealers of the Central Boiler outdoor furnaces they use.
“It’s for us individually to start with, and then other people who want to do it as well,” Billy said.
He explained the fuel and electricity prices prompted them to look at these technologies.
“That’s part of it,” Kris said. “It’s gone down a little bit right now, but I don’t think that’s going to be a long-lasting thing, and the price of power is going up. I believe Pee Dee Electric just had a 12 percent increase to residential customers. That turns a $200 power bill into $224 without any increase in use.”
Through research, Kris found the average consumer spends in the neighborhood of $2 a day just to heat the water in their home, and utility companies want to reduce demand to keep energy affordable.
“If you’ve got a heater of this type, you eliminate that bill, and if you add solar, you do it without having to use wood in the summertime,” he said. “When you start heating a home, you can add that much or probably more to your annual bill, so it’s a major thing you can do and it doesn’t take a long time to figure out whether or not it’s practical.”
Kris admits they are not the only people in Richmond County who deal in wood stoves, but he believes the Central Boiler brand makes them stand out.
“We looked at the market, and the different stoves that are available, and I have a background in welding,” Kris said. “To us this appears to be the best fabricated, most well put together stove on the market. That’s the reason we chose to go with Central Boiler.”
According to the company’s Web site, burning wood is a more environmentally-friendly way to produce heat than reliance on fossil fuels.
“Wood is a totally renewable resource, that when burned, results in no net carbon dioxide increase and helps reduce your carbon footprint,” it reads.
It also states the gathering of firewood has a pruning effect on forests that allows new growth to flourish, and the wood you burn is most likely not an imported commodity like oil.
In addition, the brothers also plan to begin dealing in the solar panels they are installing on their own homes.
“The (electricity-generating) P.V. solar panels just aren’t practical right now, because it takes up to 20 years to pay for itself,” Kris said. “Right now, in 2009 this is something that is affordable, practical and fairly simple to install. And it works.”
There are testing reports produced by the US EPA in the mid 90s that state that the emissions generated from an outdoor wood furnace are similar to that of other wood heating appliances. In addition, a voluntary emission reduction program exists with respect to the outdoor wood furnace industry called the EPA Hydronic Heater Program. This program was the first program of its kind for the outdoor wood furnace industry. It established a specific testing method and emission limit for the Phase 1 and Phase 2 parts of the program whereby manufacturers could test to, for the purpose of producing a new generation of cleaner, more efficient outdoor wood furnaces. In order to be considered a qualifying model under the Phase 2 Program manufacturers must test to one of the two qualifying testing methods and be accredited by an independent third-party laboratory to meet an emission limit of 0.32 lbs/MMBTU of heat output. Models that qualify under the Phase 2 Program are very clean and highly efficient (efficiency is built into the program over 4 test burn categories for the program, while most indoor wood stoves would not be able to meet a 0.32 output and are given a default efficiency).
Models that qualify under the EPA Hydronic Heater Program can be viewed here: http://www.epa.gov/woodheaters/models.htm
Wood is a renewable, carbon neutral fuel that has been around since the dawn of time. It has been around long before people developed processes to remove nonrenewable fossil fuels from the Earth (which we are depleting at an alarming rate). Heating with wood in an outdoor wood furnace is a reliable, economical, efficient, and safe heating option for many people.
http;//freedomofair.webs.com
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http://burningissues.org
The truth is out there.
OWBs should only be used within a rural setting with neighbors not having to be smoked from their homes.
Also the article doesn't mention that increased costs of electricity when using the boiler. Sure you may save a few hundred dollars a month on your heating gas bill, but you turn right around and triple your electric bill?
So not to mention the pollution levels that these omit.