Task Group begins work to include wood heaters in energy audits

Tens of thousands of energy audits happen every year, but wood and pellet stoves are almost always left out of them.  The Alliance for Green Heat took this on, challenging energy audit institutions to justify overlooking such a critical piece of heating equipment. The leading institution in this space, the Building Performance Institute, agreed to work with us to develop standards. We then invited key industry and government experts to be on a BPI Solid Fuels Task Group, a sub-group of a BPI working group (WG-7) addressing the development of BPI-1200 Standard for Basic Analysis of Buildings. 
 

BPI is an ANSI-accredited standards development organization, which means that the procedures used by BPI meet essential requirements for openness, balance, consensus and due process. As part of that process, the Solid Fuels Task Group has begun the important but tedious task of developing standards that will then be published for public comment. 

The Solid Fuels Task Group is made up of John Ackerly of the Alliance for Green Heat, John Dupree of the EPA, Rod Tinnemore of the Washington State Department of Ecology, Ashley Eldridge of the Chimney Safety Institute of America, John Crouch of HPBA, Rick Vlahos of the National Fireplace Institute and Mike O’Rourke of  TBHI Presentations. From BPI, key people are John Jones, Darlene Welch and Jeremy O’Brien.

Our Task Group addresses the solid fuel components for the Combustion Appliance Testing section of BPI-1200. BPI-1200 provides the step-by-step procedures for conducting an evaluation of the home that addresses energy usage, and limited aspects of building durability and occupant health and safety. The evaluation will provide a comprehensive scope of work to improve the home and will include a cost-benefit analysis. 

Key issues to be addressed by the Solid Fuel Task Group surround how to assess the safety and efficiency of a wood or pellet stove and how to educate and urge the homeowner to upgrade or repair old or poorly installed appliances.

In August 2012, the New York Biomass Energy Alliance wrote to NYSERDA asking for answers about how and why wood stoves could be excluded from the energy audits that they subsidize, particularly in the northernmost counties. 

For more background about the need for this standard, click here. 

Wood Heat Fact Sheets by the Alliance for Green Heat & UMD Extension Now Available

The University of Maryland Extension in collaboration with the Alliance for Green Heat developed several fact sheets on the topic of residential wood heating in the state of Maryland. The fact sheets in this five-part Wood Energy series are available for download.

The Wood Energy Audit Checklist is mainly designed as a tool for energy auditors performing appliance inspections but also contains useful safety tips for homeowners with wood burning stoves. The checklist covers a number of practical topics, including stove and chimney maintenance and how to inspect for clearances.

Buying and Storing Firewood & Pellets takes an in-depth look at how to buy firewood wood and pellets. The fact sheet covers properly seasoning and storing wood.  Nearly everyone who has bought firewood multiple times has been shortchanged. Even an experienced wood burner is likely to find something new and helpful in this guide.

Buying a Secondhand Woodstove explores a widespread - but scarcely written about - practice of buying a used wood or pellet stove. It cautions against buying a secondhand wood stove that is not EPA-certified and offers other advice to consumers, including how to inspect a used wood stove for damage and what questions to ask the seller.

How to Buy a New Wood Stove delves into the typical questions consumers have when beginning to shop for a wood-fired heater.  It covers what qualities to look for when purchasing a wood stove, such as sizing and EPA certification, as well as the differences between the various types of wood stoves (cat, non-cat, pellet and masonry), how to buy a wood or pellet boiler, and more.

Considerations for Your Wood or Pellet Stove Installation  explains the importance of having your stove installed professionally and pulling the required permits from both a safety and insurance perspective. It also discusses the appropriate clearances needed for combustibles, chimney, hearth pad and stove pipe options, and differences in pellet stove installation.

Wood Stoves Almost Included in Energy Audit Standards

Wood stoves were on the verge of being formally included in standards used by energy auditors.  With AGH's leadership, BPI developed a standard to inspect wood stoves during energy audits but it only becomes a voluntary standards, not a regular required one.  

BPI did strengthen some of its language in the Home Energy Auditing Standard (BPI-1100-T-2012) that now includes two provisions for wood stoves and other solid fuel burning devices. 

The first, listed under 7.8 of the section on Combustion Appliance Testing, requires home energy auditors to “inspect solid fuel burning appliances for safety and efficiency” (page 6).  The second, 7.23, instructs auditors to “recommend replacement of solid fuel burning appliances with UL-listed and EPA-certified appliances if the existing appliance is not UL-listed or has signs of structural failure” (page 7).  You can view the entire standard here: http://www.bpi.org/files/pdf/BPI-1100-T-2012_Home%20_Energy_Auditing_Standard.pdf  

The inclusion of 7.8 and 7.23 followed a meeting between John Dupree, the EPA wood stove NSPS compliance lead, John Jones, BPI National Technical Director and staff of the Alliance for Green Heat.  Much more detail about how stoves should be inspected and assessed will be followed in BPI Basic Analysis of Buildings Standard 1200-S.  The Alliance for Green Heat is in the process of reaching out to stakeholders to form a working group to help draft provisions this standard, a companion piece to BPI-1100-T-2012 that outlines how energy auditors shall meet the requirements listed.  It is expected to be finished later this year.  This is was the provision that could have been mandatory, but only ended up as voluntary.

BPI-1100-T-2012 is also in the process of becoming an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard, which are commonly adopted by state agencies such as NYSERDA.   

The standard represents a major step forward in the Alliance for Green Heat’s mission to make wood stove inspections a routine part of home energy audits.  Energy auditors could be assessing fuel savings by switching from oil to wood or pellets, testing wood for moisture, recommending chimney cleanings and generally helping to educate homeowners about clean burn practices.

 

Wood Stove Energy Audit Update

The Alliance continues to press for energy auditors to include wood stoves in their audits. Discussions with EPA, NYSERDA, BPI, state officials and others point to a near unanimous agreement that wood stoves deserve better representation in energy audits. The Alliance approached two of the main institutions in the energy audit space, BPI (Building Professional Institute) and RESNET (Residential Energy Services Network) and began initial exploratory talks.  We were also directed to the four companies who have accredited home energy software tools used by auditors. We contacted the representatives from these companies and found that none of the four include checklists for wood stove safety, which means home energy auditors who use this software most likely are not checking wood stoves.

The good news is that most of these software designers are interested  and willing to include information on wood stoves in future editions of their audit software. Andy Bardwell who represents the energy audit OptiMizer software said, “We'd like to include this type of safety checklist for wood stoves in future editions,” after looking over the wood stove energy audit checklist that the Alliance for Green Heat is developing.

The Alliance urges professional auditors and software developers to take a look at our checklist here and give us with feedback on how wood stoves can be better included in home energy audits.

2014 Update: BPI adopted voluntary standards for BPI accredited energy auditor to inspect wood and pellet stoves and make recommendations to homeowners.  However, because they are voluntary, as of 2017 it appears that they have not been used much.  To get these standards used by energy auditors,  state may have to make them part of the mandatory energy audit.  We expect states like New York, Vermont,  New Hampshire and Maine could benefit from this.  Please contact us if you are interested in helping to get these standards used more.

Unsafe Wood Stoves Routinely Overlooked During Energy Audits

Energy audits have two primary goals: 1. Identify how a family can conserve energy and save money and 2. Identify important health and safety issues in the home. Often, the wood stove is overlooked in audits, even though it may be the primary heating appliance in the house and can be a major source of carbon monoxide and a leading cause of house fires.

 “The Alliance for Green Heat believes it is scandalous that energy audits, particularly in rural, northern areas, do not address wood stoves like they address furnaces and boilers,” said John Ackerly, the group’s President. “Its time for energy auditors to expand their audits to address these health and safety issues in rural, low-income homes,” Ackerly said.

(2013 update:  BPI has started to include wood stove inspections in the standards.)

The Alliance for Green Heat is calling on the relevant federal and state officials as well as groups like Building Performance Institute (BPI) to improve standards for energy audits. Most energy audits check for carbon monoxide leakage, but since blower door tests are also routinely done, auditors instruct homeowners not to have a fire in a wood stove or fireplace. This prevents the auditor from checking for elevated carbon monoxide leakage from the wood stove. Moreover, energy audit standards, such as those set by BPI, do not include checking whether a wood stove is EPA certified or whether gaskets are missing. And, there is no accepted criterion for auditors that would signal when a wood stove is a “health and safety issue” and should be replaced.

The result is that wood stoves far past their lifespan are not being replaced at nearly the same rate as old and unsafe furnaces and boilers, even when they are the primary or a substantial secondary heat source.

In response to requests from energy auditing companies who wanted to better market themselves in rural areas, the Alliance for Green Heat developed an Energy Auditor Checklist for Wood Stoves. Now the Alliance is using that Checklist as a practical tool to show federal and state officials how and why assessing wood stoves should be a vital part of an energy audit. The Energy Auditor Checklist for Wood Stoves is still being improved, and input is welcome. Click here for a copy.

In many states, low-income families are eligible to have their current heating appliance replaced if it’s inoperable or a danger to health and safety. Families on low-income heating assistance (LIHEAP) in all states are also eligible to have their heating appliance replaced if it’s inoperable or a danger to health and safety, but only if it’s their primary heating appliance. However, many if not most families whose primary heat is a wood stove, claim their low income heat assistance for their secondary heater, such as oil, propane or kerosene. They do this because the benefit amount is often larger and they cannot obtain those fuels for free, as they can with wood. And, many energy auditors and state officials consider wood stoves to be a de facto secondary, space heater, even when most of the home’s heat comes from it. This has contributed to programs overlooking the wood stove and potentially dangerous conditions.

The surge in primary heating with wood stoves that occurred between 2000 and 2010, leading to a more than 100% rise in primary wood heat, was achieved not just by consumers buying new EPA certified stoves, but often by consumers dusting off old, uncertified stoves. Compared to new, certified stoves, old stoves produce far more smoke and creosote and are more likely to have cracks and metal fatigue. This rapid rise in wood heating is one of the major reasons that the federal government and states need to ensure that standards for energy audits and related programs are not biased against those who have taken up wood heat or returned to wood heat.

Another reason energy audits should better include inspections of wood stoves is that installing old stoves, which are neither EPA certified nor UL listed, is still legal in most places outside Washington State. Many homeowners try to install these old stoves themselves without the owner’s manual, resulting in them being installed too close to combustible surfaces or not vented according to code. And, the EPA still allows the sale of stoves that are exempt from emissions standards. Although they are UL listed, these exempt stoves are likely to have health and safety issues far sooner than EPA certified units.

If your state is overseeing standards for energy audits and/or subsidizing them, we urge you to contact the relevant state office and urge them to ensure that wood stoves are assessed during energy audits.