Press release: Alliance for Green Heat and NYSERDA Announce Seven Finalists in International Pellet Stove Competition

Two New York teams are among the finalists Alliance for Green Heat and the New York State Energy Research and  Development Authority (NYSERDA) today announced that seven pellet  stoves have been chosen as finalists in the Pellet Stove Design  Challenge.  This international competition, administered by the Alliance for Green  Heat, identifies innovative low emissions and high efficiency pellet  stoves for the residential home heating market. The competition supports Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's Renewable Heat NY initiative, which is building a sustainable, high-efficiency, low-emissions wood heating sector in New York. The Pellet Stove Design Challenge supports the commitment of  New York State, the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National  Lab, the U.S. Forest Service and a number of other states, agencies and institutions to understand and improve the technology, engineering and smart deployment of pellet stoves to reduce reliance on fossil heating fuels. The stoves will be judged for particulate matter emissions, efficiency, safety, innovation and market potential.  The winner of the competition will be the team that best blends these qualities.  The stoves present a wide range of design approaches, including gravity feed, downdraft burners, a combination  cordwood/pellet stove, a $300 stove and more traditional designs. In April 2016, the teams will showcase their stoves at Brookhaven  National Lab during the workshop and conference that are open  to the public. The event includes several days of panel discussions and informal roundtables on pellet stove technology, public health, deployment, policy and innovation in pellet and cord wood stoves. The technology competition will be followed by a multi-year  initiative to exhibit the winning stoves and educate consumers and  agencies that deal with wood smoke issues and the deployment of  residential renewable energy systems. NYSERDA is providing  support for this competition with additional support being provided   by the Osprey Foundation and U.S. Forest Service. NYSERDA President and CEO John B. Rhodes said, "The Pellet  Stove Design Challenge is an innovative way to advance new  technologies that can potentially provide consumers with higher  efficiency pellet stoves.  This competition aligns with Governor  Cuomo's Renewable Heat NY initiative, which is building a  sustainable, high-efficiency, low-emissions wood heating sector  in New York." Three stoves will be extensively tested and compete for a grand  prize and four demonstration stoves will provide comparative,  baseline data. The three competition stoves are: 1. A prototype that will burn cord wood or pellets and is controlled  by sensor technology made by DBFZ, a German company,  that markets in the U.S. through Wittus Fire by Design of Pound Ridge, New York. 2.  A new stove coming to the commercial market later this year,  made by Seraph Industries, a small Illinois company, known  for robust heat exchangers and a track record of  transparency and high efficiency multi-fuel stoves. 3.The Torrefire pellet stove, made by Seattle inventor  Geoffrey Johnson, which is a prototype that employs radically  different combustion and heat transfer strategies. The four demonstration stoves are: 1. The Vibrastove, made by Noble Metals Recovery, a small  Virginia company that is a downdraft, gravity feed stove,  inspired by rocket stoves. 2. A modified Quadra-Fire pellet stove made by a student  team from the State University of New York at Buffalo. 3. One of the cleanest commercial pellet stoves on the market  today that is certified at less than .3 grams per hour. 4. Another very clean commercially available pellet stove,  certified at less than .6 grams per hour. The event is also bringing attention to the need for cleaner  cord wood stoves. A student team from the State University  of New York at Stony Brook and MF Fire, a company that  grew from at University of Maryland team, will be showcasing  automated, sensor controlled wood stoves. The 2016 Pellet Stove Design Challenge is the third stove  challenge that the Alliance for Green Heat will host.  The first  was a cord wood stove competition held on the  National Mall  in Washington DC in 2013 and the second was held at Brookhaven  National Lab in 2014.  The Alliance for Green Heat, a non-profit  education and advocacy organization manages the Challenge,  which was inspired by the Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon. "We strive to foster a community that shares ideas and data to push  this technology forward and get pellet stoves the recognition they  deserve as a mainstream renewable energy technology," said John  Ackerly, President of the Alliance for Green Heat. "Like solar and  wind, pellet stoves have huge potential in the United States to  drastically reduce household use of fossil fuels if the technology can raise efficiency and reduce emission levels," Ackerly added. According to the Alliance for Green Heat, the average pellet stove in  the U.S. is believed to be around 70 percent efficient but many of  the most popular models are in the low 60s and the best ones are around 80 percent efficient.  About one million homes are heated with pellet stoves in the United States, with sales averaging about 75,000 per year.  An efficient pellet stove can pay itself back in three-to-five years, depending on the heat source being replaced. Currently, the federal government offers a $300 tax credit for new pellet stoves.  Eight states including Idaho, Maryland, Maine, Montana, Oregon and New York,  offer incentives of up to several  thousand dollars for pellet stoves. The  Advisory Committee that oversees the Challenge includes  representatives from NYSERDA, Brookhaven National Lab, the   USDA Forest Service, the Washington State Department of Ecology,  the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, Clarkson  University and others. About Reforming the Energy Vision  Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) is New York Governor Andrew  M. Cuomo's strategy to build a clean, resilient and affordable energy  system for all New Yorkers. REV is transforming New York's energy  policy with new state-wide initiatives and regulatory reforms. REV will  grow the state's clean energy economy, support innovation, ensure  grid resilience, mobilize private capital, create new jobs, and increase choice and affordability for energy consumers. REV places clean, locally produced power at the very core of New York's energy system. This  protects the environment and supports the State's goal to reduce  greenhouse gas emissions by 40% while generating 50% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030. Successful initiatives already launched as part of REV include NY-Sun, NY Green Bank, NY Prize, K-Solar, and a commitment to improve energy affordability for low-income communities. To learn more about REV, visit www.ny.gov/REV4NY and follow us @REV4NY. About NYSERDA NYSERDA, a public benefit corporation, offers objective information and analysis, innovative programs, technical expertise, and support to help New Yorkers increase energy efficiency, save money, use renewable energy, and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. NYSERDA professionals work to protect the environment and create clean energy jobs. NYSERDA has been developing partnerships to advance innovative energy solutions in New York State since 1975. To learn more about NYSERDA's programs, visit nyserda.ny.gov or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram. About the Alliance for Green Heat The Alliance for Green Heat promotes modern wood and pellet  heating systems as a low-carbon, sustainable and affordable energy  solution. The Alliance works to advance cleaner and more efficient  residential heating technology, particularly for low and middle- income families. Founded in Maryland in 2009, the Alliance is an  independent non-profit organization and is tax-exempt under section  501c3 of the tax code.

NYSERDA Provides Grant to Develop Automated Wood Stove

In an effort to bring more automation to the wood stove, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is providing a $49,000 grant to support the Alliance for Green Heat to test and work towards improving automated wood stove designs.

The project will bring some of the world’s leading automated stoves and prototypes to Brookhaven National Lab in November to test their performance and assess which designs hold the most promise in smoke reduction, reliability and consumer demand.  Seven companies with different approaches to automation are competing in the event.

John Rhodes, CEO of NYSERDA
announcing Renewable Heat NY
funding in August 2014

 NYSERDA support is part of Governor Cuomo’s Renewable Heat NY initiative, which encourages the expansion of sustainable markets in New York State for high-performance wood-fired heating technology and encourages the use of renewable biomass fuel, such as cord wood and wood pellets. NYSERDA has become the largest supporter of research on residential wood and pellet heating technology in the U.S. 

This project, called the Collaborative Stove Design Workshop, is a follow-on to the successful Wood Stove Decathlon on the National Mall in November 2013 that was also supported by NYSERDA.  Unlike the Decathlon, which was a more formal technology competition, this Workshop will bring a variety of experts together to study and help improve the automated designs, some of which may be open sourced so anyone can build from them.

“A wood stove is only as good as its operator and its fuel,” said John Ackerly, President of the Alliance for Green Heat (AGH).  Automation can eliminate the widespread problem of operators who don’t give their stoves enough air at the right times, leading to excessive smoke in rural communities, suburban neighborhoods and towns.  It can also mitigate the problem of using unseasoned wood. “Pellet stove technology represents the biggest breakthrough in residential wood heating in the past quarter century but we believe more breakthroughs are possible,” Ackerly said.

The Organizing Committee that oversees the project consists of John Ackerly, Alliance for Green Heat; Ellen Burkhard, NYSERDA; Tom Butcher, Brookhaven National Lab; Craig Issod, founder of Hearth.com; Mark Knaebe, US Forest Service; Ben Myren, Myren Consulting; Norbert Senf, Masonry Heater Association; Dean Still, Aprovecho Research Center; Rod Tinnemore, Washington Department of Ecology; and Rebecca Trojanowski, Brookhaven National Lab. Additional funding comes from the Osprey Foundation and the US Forest Service.

Applications to attend and take part in the workshop are being accepted until September 1.