Maryland program helps residents install cleanest stoves on the market

Garry Aime manages the
stove rebate program. 

A Maryland renewable energy rebate program established in 2012 has provided assistance to nearly 3,000 to purchase and install cleaner, modern wood and pellet stoves.  The program was designed to help rural families, who were least likely to benefit from solar and other renewable energy programs.

The state has invested $1.88 million dollars, or an average of $664 per home.  The average purchase and installation costs of a stove is often around $3,800, so the state would be providing less than 20% of the price tag for a significant reduction in a home's annual fossil fuel footprint.

The Maryland Energy Administration, who manages a suite of renewable energy incentives, runs the program.  With this program, the MEA cannot exactly track the amount of fossil fuel that the program has reduced, which hinders the ability of regulators to track data as they can with the solar and other rebate programs.

Of the 2,845 stoves purchased through the program, 2,425 or 85% were pellet stoves.  To be eligible, pellet stoves have to emit 2 grams an hour or less, and wood stoves 3 grams an hour or less, well below the federal EPA limit of 4.5 grams an hour.  Pellet stoves are eligible for a $700 grant and wood stoves $500.  (As of Sept. 1, 2022 eligible stoves must be 75% efficient or higher.)

Rebate data provided by MEA

“We are pleased that this program steers so many people towards pellet stoves and ensures that the installation is done professionally,” said John Ackerly, President of the Alliance for Green Heat, a Maryland based group that worked with MEA to establish the program. 

Only residents who do not have access to natural gas are eligible for the grant, which as a result helps families in rural areas who rely on more expensive fossil heating fuels.  New York also adopted this innovative approach, and only provides incentives to homes that are not on the natural gas grid.  A 2013 analysis of the program by the Alliance for Green Heat found that it was helping less affluent families to reduce fossil fuel use.

The program does not require residents to turn in an old, uncertified wood stove to participate in the program.  However, some retailers report that nearly half of their customers who use this program turn in an old stove that is recycled. 

During 2015, the program experienced its highest participation rates, providing grants for 1,036 stoves, 904 of which were pellet stoves. 

“A $3,000 pellet stove installation can reduce fossil fuel usage by as much as a $15,000 array of solar panels,” said Ackerly.  “And increasingly, we see families who have solar panels also installing pellet stoves so that they can use renewable energy for both their electric and heating needs,” he added.

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More States Start Innovative Stove Incentive Programs

Updated: Dec. 16, 2024 - Some or all of these programs have now been suspended. 

Updated: Dec. 4, 2019 - More states are starting or changing their stove incentive programs to tighten eligibility, require professional installation, and sometimes, to install an outside air supply.  Until recently, incentive programs only required that wood stoves be EPA certified.  And even though the EPA certifies many pellet stoves, it did not recommend EPA certified pellet stoves be required in incentive or change-out programs prior to 2015.  Change-out programs designed and managed by the EPA and HPBA used to allow virtually any new wood or pellet stove to be installed.  The new trend led by states is changing all that.

The Oregon program, which began in 2013, was the most complex in terms of requirements and provided up to a $1,500 tax credit.  The highest tax credit awarded was $960, according to Deby Davis of the Oregon Department of Energy. The program was discontinued in 2017.

For larger tax credits, the Oregon program required that stoves have actual measured efficiencies and be listed on the EPA list of certified wood stoves.  When the program operated, 100 stoves had provided the EPA with actual efficiencies and those brands got a bump in sales in Oregon.  If the manufacturer of the stove had not provided the EPA with an actual measured efficiency, the Oregon tax credit was $144 for non-catalytic stoves, $216 for catalytic and $288 for pellet stoves. 

The Maine program had wanted to require actual efficiencies but as of now only requires emission limits only.  The emission limits of 3.5 grams per hour for wood stoves and 2.5 for pellet stoves mirror the emission limits in Oregon.  Despite a very generous $5,000 rebate for residential boilers, the Maine program provides only $500 per stove.

The Maryland program is slightly stricter on emissions, with an upper threshold of 3.0 for wood and 2.0 for pellet stoves.  The program provided a larger rebates for stove with listed efficiencies.  The program is unique in that the $500 - $700 rebate is only available to homes that do not have access to natural gas.  The program does not require that an uncertified stove be traded in for a new stove. As of Feb. 1, 2020 stoves must have an EPA listed efficiency of 70% to be eligible for the credit.

 

These programs mark a trend towards stricter eligibility for stoves incentivized with taxpayer funds.  But managers of these programs are struggling with some unintended barriers and consequences. 

 Oregon, Maine and Maryland require professional installation and Oregon and Maine require inclusion of outside air supply.  In Oregon, this could have meant a simple $35 vent that provides air within several feet of the stove.  All three programs avoid "free riders" to some extent because even if the incentive does not lead to the sale, the state achieves important goals of professional installation, cleaner appliances, outside air where applicable, etc.  Free riders is a term used for consumers who get a rebate but who would have made the same purchase regardless of the incentive.

The 2015 EPA stove regulations required all newly certified stoves to be tested and listed for efficiency and all stoves have to be retested by May 15, 2020.  This will change the efficiency requirements on a number of state incentive programs.