Stove Repair Relief Fund to aid families during Coronavirus pandemic

The Alliance for Green Heat is starting a fund that will help families struggling during this pandemic keep their stoves running and operating safely.  Together with the Osprey Foundation and Stove Parts 4 Less, we are launching The Stove Repair Relief Fund!  Please consider becoming a partner in this effort. 

The Stove Repair Relief Fund provides large discounts on stove parts to people who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic. With an initial fund of $20,000 provided by the Alliance for Green Heat, Stove Parts 4 Less, and the Osprey Foundation, eligible customers will receive 30 – 50% off of their parts orders. The intent is to provide essential stove parts to lower-income families who may not be able to afford to keep their wood or pellet stoves working.  It often only takes a small part to get a pellet stove back up and running or make a dangerous wood stove safe again.  

If you are a verified low-income household or have been laid off due to the pandemic, you are eligible for a 30% discount (15% donated by the Alliance for Green Heat and 15% by Stove Parts 4 Less). If you are from a verified low-income household and have been laid off, you are eligible for a 50% discount on your needed parts (25% donated by the Alliance for Green Heat and 25% by Stove Parts 4 Less).

Please note, this offer is only good for wood or pellet stove parts orders up to $500.  It is not applicable to any grill parts, gas stove parts, new stove installs or orders over $500.  If your household has been hit hard by this pandemic and you need a stove part, provide all required information on the sign-up page here to determine if you are eligible.

We are doing a soft launch of this program at the end of this heating season to assess how it works.  We hope to improve and relaunch it this fall during the upcoming heating season.

The program funders want to ensure that the funds are used to help people who really need it, and are asking people to provide documentation of their employment and economic status.  In addition, funders do not want to subsidize the sale of any parts that are available cheaper elsewhere.  Customers should check prices and ensure that Stove Parts 4 Less is offering the best price, which they usually do (make sure to also include shipping and consider the reputation of the seller for aftermarket parts). They will also match any price.  

The Alliance for Green Heat does not normally partner with or endorse specific companies, but these are not normal times.  Our staff, working with our Board, has done their due diligence to move forward with this program and will re-assess it this summer and publicly share that assessment.

We expect this pandemic to severely impact rural wood heating communities for up to a year, and many may turn to wood heating even more than in previous years.  It may also make people less likely to buy new stoves, and need to keep repairing their old ones for longer.  Pellet stove repair and maintenance has always been a challenge, and dealer training and support for older pellet stoves is often poor.  If stove dealers, NFI or CSIA technicians can't access a part elsewhere, they can alert low income clients of this program.  AGH always recommends that stove installations are completed by professionals, but basic repairs and maintenance are often done by stove owners.  If any repair has safety implications, please consult or hire an NFI technician or other professional before trying to do it yourself, even if you procure the part yourself.

The Alliance for Green Heat and Stove Parts for Less are doing everything we can to keep our employees and local communities safe, and we ask that you try and do the same.  Stay home when possible, cover up your nose and mouth with a mask or scarf and do not host large gatherings.  Save lives and give our medical professionals, first responders and people working in essential businesses a break!

Want to do your part too? Support the Stove Repair Relief Fund!

You can donate too!  To help struggling families who heat with wood and pellets, you can make a tax-deductible donation to the Stove Repair Relief Fund via the Alliance for Green Heat.  Any contributions to support this cause will be matched dollar for dollar by Stove Parts 4 Less, up to $10,000!  Please contact us if your company or institution wants to partner in this effort or has ideas on how to improve it.  100% of all donations will go to helping low-income families in this time of need.

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.

Final Report on Wood Stove Decathlon from Brookhaven Lab

Reproduced below are the absract and introduction of a 17-page paper that gives an excellent overview of the technical aspects of testing stoves on the National Mall for the Wood Stove Decathlon, held in November 2013.  To read the entire report, click here.

Innovative fine particulate measurement systems for the Wood Stove Design Challenge 

R. Trojanowski1, T. Butcher1, C. Brown1, G. Wei1, Y. Ahn2 , and J. Wong2 

1. Energy Conversion Group, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, USA 

2. Chemical and Molecular Engineering Department, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA 

ABSTRACT 

The rising price of fossil resources has contributed to the increase in the amount of wood-fired residential heating appliances. Wood stoves are often overlooked by the public as a clean and renewable source due to concerns about particulate (PM) emissions. In order to gain acceptance in the market the Alliance for Green Heat and

Popular Mechanics magazine initiated a Wood Stove Design Challenge (WSDC). The selected teams designed stoves that incorporated the best practices in design and operation to maximize efficiency and minimize PM and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions since most often high emissions are seen as a result of incomplete combustion. Further, a testing protocol for the challenge was developed specifically to measure the emissions in a non-laboratory setting. Standard testing procedures may not be representative of in-use fuel and operational practices and, due to the competition venue and schedule contstraints, could not be used for the WSDC. New portable PM sampling technology released in the European market recently was adopted for the competition and evaluated to current U.S. PM measurement methods to build a correlation. 

INTRODUCTION

Tom Butcher uses the Wohler portable
particulate sampler to test a stove.

 As the price of heating oil has increased, more residents in the northeastern region of the United States have returned to heating with wood. Most existing wood stoves date from before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) implemented emission certification requirements for these devices. These less efficient wood stoves often cause high amounts of smoke, yielding particulates known to trigger coughs, throat and mucosal irritation, acute respiratory infections, occurrence of asthma and other diseases over prolonged exposure. A review from Bølling et al. reported residential wood combustion has also been reported to contribute significantly to raised levels of air pollution locally, both with respect to increased levels of fine particles (particulate matter with an equivalent aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 μm; PM2.5), the organic particle fraction, particle bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and volatile organic compounds. Even those wood stoves that do meet EPA’s Phase II requirements may have unacceptably high emissions once in use. This is due to several factors including the design of the appliance, weather patterns and location, combustion activity, wood species and quality, and operator habits. While the EPA is developing new regulations, the test method used for certification is not representative of in-use fueling and operational practices. 

Designs that improve combustion and emission performance, thermal efficiency, and operational  

The Decathlon tent on the National
Mall, in between the Capitol and
the Washington monument

variability are needed in the U.S. heating market. Modern wood stoves have shown reduced reported emission factors compared to conventional wood stoves, 34-330 mg/MJ from 50-2100 mg/MJ, respectively. However, if the modern stoves are not operated correctly the combustion performance can be compromised yielding higher emissions.

This event showcased advanced technologies that could help address the problem of increased particulate emissions and enable the continued use of wood as a renewable fuel. The teams selected came from various backgrounds, ranging from established wood stove companies to independent inventors and engineering student teams. Some of the stoves selected for the WSDC were controlled by microprocessors and connected to smartphones while others were ultra-efficient stoves based on 17th century Scandinavian designs. Several state-of-the-art hybrid stoves that are already on the market were also included4. Six of the 12 finalists were from Europe. 

Teams were judged on their innovation, emission and efficiency performance, affordability and consumer ease. In November 2013 on the National Mall in Washington D.C., ten judges (made up of leading experts from Popular Mechanics, the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA), the U.S. Forest Service, Washington State Department of Ecology, DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), The Biomass Thermal Energy Council (BTEC), the Osprey Foundation, the Masonry Heater Association and UC Berkeley) tested and assessed the 12 stove finalists and announced an overall winner as well as winners in specific categories. 

A key challenge in this competition was measuring the particulate emissions accurately in a field environment. This project sought to develop an energy efficiency and emissions testing protocol for the WSDC which reduces the variability due to fuel and operations. The current standard test method (EPA Method 28) involves testing stoves using a dilution tunnel. Since the WSDC was held at the mall in Washington D.C., this test method would not suit and so there was the challenge of measuring the emissions in a repeatable real-time way, in a non-laboratory environment. Recently, new portable particulate measurement systems have been introduced in Europe for field inspection of biomass heating systems. Two specific products were selected for use in this project the Testo 380 and Wöhler SM 500. Both analyzers are a low cost option and offer the advantage of ease and portability. 

To determine the accuracy, precision, instrument range, and applicability for use in the WSDC for thermal efficiency and emissions of these portable direct measure analyzers, an evaluation was conducted while simultaneously following the standard methods for determining the emissions.  From laboratory testing, BNL developed a testing protocol implementing the analyzers for the competition.

To read the entire PDF report, click here.

For more information about the 2013 Decathlon, click here.

For information about the 2014 Collaborative Stove Design Workshop, click here.