Trump Administration to change Obama era wood stove and boiler emission regulations

Delaying or weakening emission regulations will impact thousands of communities nationwide

The EPA is “taking steps to provide relief to wood heater manufacturers and retailers” according to a statement released by the EPA.  The EPA expects to issue a proposed rule this spring that could potentially weaken parts of the regulations enacted under the Obama administration.

January 2019 update: The EPA has proposed giving a 2-year sell through for wood boilers and furnaces, allowing manufacturers to make and sell Step 1 units right up until May 2020.  Those units could then be sold through May 2022 by manufacturers directly or by retailers. Attorney Generals from seven states filed comments saying the EPA did not have the legal authority to provide such sell-throughs, portending a legal fight.

March 2020 update: The EPA issued its final rule and decided not to provide any sell-through periods for any class of wood heater.

The April 2018 move to provide relief is supported  by companies such as Central Boiler, the largest outdoor wood boiler manufacturer in North America, who has been aggressively lobbying to delay and weaken the standards that were to come into effect in 2020. But to some smaller companies who have already invested in the R&D to meet the stricter 2020 standards, the EPA announcement undermines the significant investment they’ve made in designing cleaner and more efficient wood heaters. 

Thousands of cities, towns and communities are impacted by excessive wintertime levels of wood smoke, posing health risks and undermining support for an iconic renewable energy technology.

It is widely expected that part of the relief that EPA will be providing to industry is a three-year delay in the emission standards that were  set to take effect in June 2020.  Republicans in the House of Representatives had already passed legislation for a three-year delay, but the Senate has not.  A court filingby the EPA said that it “intends to take final action on this first proposed rule by this fall,” and that would allow manufacturers to slow down their R&D and certification testing.

But the EPA can pick and choose which parts of the Obama era wood heater regulations that it wants to rewrite and they say they will issue a series of federal register notices asking stakeholders for comment and input on substantive issues.  Experts believe that a statement released by the EPA indicate that emission test methods are being considered. 

Environmental groups, industry and the EPA have been wanting to move away from testing and certifying wood stoves with crib wood – 2x4s and 4x4s – which has been the standard testing fuel since the first set of wood stove regulations in 1988.  All parties want to switch to using cordwood, the fuel used by homeowners, recognizing that stoves have been fine tuned to run better on crib wood, rather than cordwood.  This has resulted in stoves that may run at 4 grams an hour of smoke in the lab, but may be 10 grams an hour or more in the hands of homeowners. In a statement this week, the EPA said it is concerned that its regulation“may not be achieving the environmental benefits it was supposed to provide.”  

The EPA appears likely to accelerate the transition to testing with cordwood but industry seems to favor an ASTM cordwood test method while some states and others are developing a new method that reflects how stoves are used by homeowners.  This method, call the Integrated Duty Cycle (IDC) method is still in draft form and is a drastic departure from the traditional way that stoves have been tested since the 1988.  

The EPA could also decide to weaken emission limits for wood boilers, which would primarily benefit the outdoor wood boiler industry led by Central Boiler.  

Since the 2015 regulations went into effect, scores of wood and pellet stoves and boilers have been tested to meet the 2020 standards and most prices have not gone up significantly.  The 2015 regulations began a process of requiring that manufacturers test and report their efficiencies, and delaying the 2020 deadline would set back efficiency disclosures, harming the ability of consumers to choose more efficient appliances. 

States are allowed to set stricter standards but not looser ones, and if the EPA were to weaken the federal rule too much, some states could either stick to the original standards set by the Obama administration in 2015 or develop new ones. States like New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington are already battling long-term wood smoke problems and have started to chart their own course for wood heater regulations. If several states adopted a different cordwood test method or stricter emission standards, they could have a “California effect” of moving the entire market.

“We are very concerned that the Trump Administration  may weaken consumer and environmental protections for wood stoves,” said John Ackerly, President of the Alliance for Green Heat, an independent non-profit that promotes cleaner and more efficient residential wood heating. “Wood and pellet stoves are vital to help families affordably reduce fossil heating fuels, but we can’t move this technology forward unless they can burn cleaner in people’s homes,” he said. 

March 11, 2020 update: The EPA finalized amendments to the 2015 NSPS and did not provide a retailer sell-through or any extensions for central heaters or room heaters.  They did remove pellet fuel minimum requirements but retained the list of prohibited fuels in the 2015 NSPS.

How to claim the $300 stove tax credit

Updated on Jan. 6, 2020 - Legislation just became law that provides a 26% tax credit for wood heaters, and ends the traditional $300 credit. Qualifying stoves purchased in 2020 can still receive the $300 tax credit by filling out IRS Form 5695.  Form 5695 will also used in 2022 to file 2021 taxes, where taxpayers can take the 26% credit if they purchased an eligible heater. 

Taxpayers purchasing eligible stoves in 2020 can still take the $300 tax credit on their 2020 taxes. To be eligible for the $300 tax credit, stoves or boilers need to have a 75% "thermal efficiency rating" or greater and be purchased in 2018, 2019 or 2020.

To claim the credit for 2019 and 2020 complete IRS Form 5695 when you file your taxes.  Wood and pellet heaters are covered under Nonbusiness Energy Property Credit on line 22A.  Do not include more than $300 on line 22A.  According to the IRS, your stove must have "a thermal efficiency rating of at least 75%" to take the $300 credit.  Any thermal efficiency ratings less than that would enter "0" on line 22A, and the taxpayer may not need to file Form 5695 at all unless they installed other eligible energy efficiency property in 2019.  Instructions for Form 5695, with other important qualifications, are here.  Online service such as Turbotax and Intuit have Form 5695 integrated into their software.

Taxpayers do not have submit receipts with their taxes but need to maintain receipts in their files. The EPA database provides verification of whether a stove is 75% efficient and is the only reliable place for consumers to determine efficiency numbers. If the EPA database provides an efficiency of less than 75% for a particular stove, it may not be eligible for the tax credit.

The EPA database is easily searchable
to find efficiency and emission ratings.

Unfortunately, many manufacturers are issuing certificates of eligibility for stoves that are far less than 75% efficient. For IRS purposes, consumers are allowed to rely on the manufacturers certificate, even if the stove is listed far below 75%.  However, if you want a higher efficiency stove, which is particularly important if you are in the market for a pellet stoves, first refer to the EPA database.

One retailer inaccurately advertised that "because this [64% efficient] model was EPA approved, it qualifies for the tax credit." Major manufacturers such as Drolet, Enviro, Harman, Jotul, Quadrafire, all claim stoves far below 75% (LHV or HHV) are eligible. V.P Berger, the President of Hearth & Home Technologies (HHT) that owns Harman and Quadrafire signed a manufacturers certificate claiming the Harman XXV pellet stove, at 66% efficiency and the Quadrafire Classic Bay pelet stove at 64% efficient were eligible.  Mr. Berger and others at HHT did not respond to calls or emails.   Even one pellet stove that is listed at 59% efficient is claimed to be eligible. 

If the IRS determines that a manufacturer's certificate is erroneous, the IRS can "withdraw a manufacturer’s right to provide a certification on which future purchasers of the component or property may rely, and taxpayers purchasing the component or property after the date on which the Service publishes an announcement of the withdrawal may not rely on the manufacturer’s certification.”  

These 2020 manufacturer certificates

all claim stoves under 67% efficiency

are eligible for the IRS tax credit and

are signed under penalty of perjury.

Two companies, U.S. Stove and England Stove Works, that dominate the market for lower cost and often lower efficiency stoves, stopped issuing certificates of eligibity for any of their stoves as of 2020.  If they had adopted the questionable and unexplained efficiency calculations of many of the big name brand manufacturers, they could have allowed thousands of consumers to claim the credit on their lines of stoves.  Both U.S. Stove and England Stove Works have eligible stoves that are over 75% efficiency (HHV), with England Stove Works getting three of their 2020 compliant pellet stoves between 76 and 79% efficiency, higher than the pellet stove efficiencies of bigger name brand stoves.

The Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association (HPBA) would not take a position on loopholes used by manufacturers to qualify stoves that are in the low to mid 60s efficiency range.  AGH urged HPBA to advise manufacturers not to mislead consumers or the IRS.

There is a $500 limit is a lifetime limit for all energy efficiency property, including insulation, doors, windows or other wood or pellet stoves. So, if a taxpayer has claimed $300 in previous years, for example, they may only be able to claim $200 on their taxes for a qualifying stove.  The tax credit also applies to wood and pellet boilers and furnaces.   

Other heating and cooling equipment had far stricter qualification standards to ensure that consumers got a tax credit for a genuinely more efficient appliance or item.  

The 2014 tax break cost taxpayers about $42 billion.  The tax credit for stoves alone is not likely to cost more than $50 million and that’s if a majority of people who bought stoves learn about the credit and take it on their tax return.

The wood heater tax credit comes and goes

Labs now test wood and pellet stoves
for efficiency but some manufacturers
ignore those tests and tell consumers
their stove are 75% efficient and
thus qualify for the $300 tax credit.

Dec. 2020 -  The $300 wood heater tax credit was about to expire on Dec. 31, but it got extended in a big way.  In 2021 and 2022, high efficiency stoves and boilers will now get a 26% tax credit on purchase price and installation costs.  In 2023, the credit will drop to 22%.  Heaters must be 75% efficient or higher, based on the efficiency provided on the EPA list of certified heaters.   See more details here.

Dec. 2019 - A federal tax credit had not in been in place for wood or pellet heaters in 2018 and 2019, but in December of 2019 it was made retroactively available back to Jan. 1, 2019 and through Dec. 31, 2020.  Congress stated that stoves needed to be 75% efficient to qualify, but manufacturers have ignored that and claim that almost all stoves qualify.

The Green Act, released by House Democrats in 2018 would have given wood and pellet heaters that are 75% efficient or higher a 30% tax credit, just like solar.  A similar bill in 2019 came very close to passing but didn't.

Feb. 9, 2018 - Today President Trump signed into law a budget deal that included a one year, retroactive extension of the wood heater tax credit for 2017.  Thus, consumers who bought stoves that are presumptively 75% efficient or higher may qualify for a $300 tax credit on their 2017 taxes.  Stoves purchased in 2018 or 2019 are not covered.  Click here for more detail on the 2017 tax credit extension.

Nov. 18, 2016 - Republican leaders on Capitol Hill say they do not intend to consider a tax extenders bill, that could have extended the $300 tax credit for wood and pellet stoves into 2017.  Currently, that credit is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2016.  Next year, a tax reform package could revive a wood and pellet stove tax credit, and make it retroactive to Jan 1, 2016.

Renewable energy and energy efficiency incentives appear less likely under a Trump administration with both houses of Congress controlled by Republicans.  A $300 tax credit for stoves was not significant enough to really tip the scales for that many consumers, and when it did they were just as likely to buy a very low efficiency stove, due to misleading advertising by most stove manufacturers claiming that nearly all of their units are 75% efficient.  This loophole that industry created has diminished support for the stove tax credit among key energy efficiency groups and may reduce its chances of being included in a bill in 2017.

Dec. 18, 2015 - The United States Congress passed a massive omnibus spending bill to fund the government and provide tax breaks to businesses and individuals.  Among them is the $300 tax credit to purchase a wood heating appliance.  The bill extends that credit through Dec. 31, 2016 and is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2015.

In a far more widely anticipated move, Congress extended the 30% tax credit for residential solar PV panels through 2019 and then gradually reduce it.  This credit was set to expire at the end of 2016 and offers that industry a level of support and certainty for strong growth.

For wood and pellet heaters, the bill extends the $300 tax credit, contained in Section 25C of the IRS tax code, which states taxpayers are entitled to a $300 tax credit for the purchase of a wood or pellet heating appliance that is 75% efficient or greater.  Consumers need to obtain a certificate from the manufacturer, stating that the appliance is qualified for the credit.

For consumers who purchased a wood or pellet stove in 2015, or who will do so in 2016, they will likely be entitled to the $300 credit if they have not used up their $500 lifetime maximum credit for energy efficient property. 

Wood and pellet stove manufacturers routinely mislead the public by claiming that virtually every single stove they make is at least 75% efficient, flouting the letter and intent of the law, which was to only qualify stoves at 75% efficiency or higher. As of May 15, 2015 all stoves and boilers certified in the US are tested for efficiency using the CSA B415.1-10 efficiency test.  This efficiency test provides a guideline for how to test and not all stoves will achieve an efficiency of 75%.

“Higher efficiency wood and pellet heaters deserve renewable energy incentives to help American families reduce reliance on fossil fuels and to encourage companies to build higher efficiency appliances,” said John Ackerly, President of the Alliance for Green Heat, an organization that advocates for wood and pellet heating. “In the past, some in industry has made a mockery of this tax credit, misleading tens of thousands of consumers into thinking they are buying higher efficiency stoves.  Its time to start measuring efficiency and reporting it honestly and only qualifying those heaters that are 75% efficient or higher,” Ackerly said.

The Alliance for Green Heat estimates that a third of all wood and pellet stoves could meet the 75% efficiency threshold, giving consumers a wide range of choices.  Appliances that are 75% efficient using the European lower heater value (LHV) are usually between 69 – 71% efficient using the North American higher heating value (HHV).  A leading industry expert, Rick Curkeet concluded in a 2008 letter to an industry trade association that "the intent of the solid fuel appliance incentive program recently enacted by Congress is ... to require a minimum of 69.8% efficiency."

Stove manufacturers are now required to disclose their efficiency and more than a quarter of all EPA certified stoves now have actual, verified efficiencies posted on the list of EPA certified stoves,  A few stove companies, such as Blaze King, Jotul, Kuma, Seraph, Travis, Woodstock Soapstone publicly disclose actual efficiencies of most of their models on the EPA website and almost all of those models appear to qualify for the tax credit.  However, other manufacturers still list one efficiency with the EPA, but maintain another efficiency definition that allows them to claim their stoves are 75% efficient to qualify for the tax credit.

Unlike other heating and cooling appliances, prior to May 2015 wood and pellet heating appliances did not have to test or report efficiencies and there are still few accepted norms on advertising practices.  Websites and promotional materials of many major stove brands contain exaggerated efficiency claims, some of which may come from the company’s internal laboratory, not from a reputable, third party lab.  

Could a Thermoelectric Wood Stove Pay for Itself?

By Ken Adler, AGH Senior Technical Advisor

Payback calculations are common in the residential solar photovoltaic industry where homeowners want to know how long it will take for them to recoup their initial investment. If you purchase panels outright, payback periods depend on a variety of factors including a utility’s price for electricity, tax incentives, and amount of daily sunlight hours. A range of 5 to 8 years is possible however, it can be as wide as 3 to 15 years.[1]

Answering the payback question for thermoelectric wood stoves is one of the objectives for the 2018 Wood Stove Design Challenge. In the meantime, there are several ways to begin answering this question with information already available. It is also useful to look at how use of a thermoelectric wood stove in combination with another energy-saving system, i.e., solar, could prove beneficial to the homeowner and thus both industries as well. For example, in northern states and Canada, a thermoelectric wood stove could reduce the number of residential panels needed and thereby save the homeowner thousands of dollars in panel costs.

Early Thoughts on Payback

The retail price of a thermoelectric module is around $57.50 for a 22-watt module, or $2.61 per watt.[2] One critical point to make here is that the power output of our 22-watt module assumes an optimal hot-side temperature of 300 C (572 F) and cool-side temperature of 30 C (86 F). This ideal temperature differential is very difficult to achieve in real world conditions, so the real-world cost per watt for thermoelectric modules will be higher. However, cost should decrease and efficiency improve with widespread adoption of thermoelectric modules, similar to what happened in the solar industry. For example, DOE estimated that the installed cost of a solar panel declined from $7.06 per watt in 2009 to $2.93 in 2016, a reduction of 60 percent.[3] If we go back to 1977, the cost of a solar panel was $77 per watt. It is not unreasonable to expect a decline for the cost of thermoelectric modules as economies of scale reduce production costs.

Of course, when a thermoelectric module is placed into a wood stove there are other associated costs. The primary cost by far is the heat exchange system. As I’ve discussed in a previous post, to generate at least 100 watts of power, it’s likely that a water-cooled heat exchange will be needed. The current retail price for a 100-watt water cooled thermoelectric generator, which includes eight thermoelectric modules, is $599, or $5.99 per watt. One question the competition will attempt to answer is how much this heat exchange will cost when it is integrated into the design of the wood stove.

Secondary cost considerations include the price of the wood stove, its installation, and fuel costs. The price for a larger size 50,000 BTU wood stove can range from $900 to over $4000, and the average consumer spends about $2,500. Since a thermoelectric wood stove would be providing both heat and electricity, it is difficult to separate out how much of the cost of the stove is for each function. The more crucial point for now is that many larger size stoves, which can generate up to 50,000 BTUs and meet the 2020 EPA NSPS standard, are available for as little as $1,300. While this does not include the cost of installation, it does suggest that the wood stove portion of the costs should not be a major obstacle.

The cost of installing a thermoelectric wood stove into a home should not necessarily be that much greater than the cost of installing a traditional wood stove. One additional cost will be attaching the power outputs from the thermoelectric wood stove to an inverter. However, if we assume that early adopters will already have or are planning to get a solar PV system (more on this below) the cost of the inverter would not be a major obstacle.

Finally, one can assume that the fuel cost for a thermoelectric wood stove is essentially zero because the wood stove is already being used to heat the home. A thermoelectric module will convert only 3 to 6 percent of the heat from a woodstove into electricity, while the remaining 94 to 97 percent passes through the module and is released as heat into the home. In other words, the module is only using a very small percentage of the heat generated by the stove to produce electricity.

Value in Combining Technologies

While more in-depth analysis is needed, it’s possible that a thermoelectric wood stove could help reduce the size and cost of solar PV systems in northern climates that have limited sunlight/solar radiation in winter. For example, a typical 5000 watt solar PV system in Vermont produces 6,280 kWh of electricity per year, while the same system produces 7,913 kWh in Los Angeles.[4] Most of this difference is due to the low winter time output in Vermont between October and February: For example, the Vermont system produces 239 kWh in December, as compared to the Los Angeles system’s 473 kWh. If the Vermont resident wanted to generate the same amount of power as in Los Angeles, they would need to increase the size of their solar PV system from 5000 watts to approximately 6300 watts. At the current cost of approximately $3.36[5] per watt installed for residential solar, this could cost the Vermont resident an additional $4,368 for additional solar panels.

Alternatively, instead of purchasing extra solar panels, the Vermont resident could invest in a thermoelectric wood stove to boost their winter time power output. As we mentioned in our previous blog, a wood stove with a 150 to 200-watt thermoelectric generator operating 16 - 20 hours per day could generate 93 to 124kWh of electricity per month, which would be a good boost to the Vermont output of 239 kWh in December. And, at 0.16 $/kWh for electricity in Vermont, the thermoelectric wood stove could save the homeowner an additional $15 to $20 per month.

While a real payback calculation for a thermoelectric wood stove will need to wait until prototypes go through more testing and we get results from the 2018 Wood Stove Design Challenge, the available information suggests thermoelectric wood stoves could help reduce the cost of residential solar installations, and potentially save homeowners thousands of dollars.


[1] http://solar-power-now.com/the-typical-solar-panel-payback-period/
[2] See our Resources page for a list of thermoelectric retailers.
[3] NREL. U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System Cost Benchmark. September 2016. In 1977, solar panels cost $77 per watt.
[4] NREL PVWatts Calculator
[5] EnergySage. Solar Marketplace Intel Report. April 2017.

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HPBA gets delay in lawsuit to give Trump Administration time to review

President Trump shaking hands with
his EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, a
prominent climate change skeptic.

The Hearth Patio & Barbecue Association (HPBA) moved to delay its lawsuit to allow the Trump administration time to review the settlement proposals that HPBA submitted in 2015 and 2016 and re-evaluate whether some issues can be settled out of court, according to its court filing.  The EPA and the environmental groups who intervened did not oppose the delay. They filed their motion with the US Court of Appeals weeks before they would have had to meet the first filing deadline.

The original suit was consolidated to include challenges from HPBA, the Pellet Fuel Institute (FPI), Tulikivi and Richard Burns and Company. In November 2016, the EPA informed HPBA that it would not continue in settlement talks, but they did reach an amicable settlement with Tulikivi, a masonry heater company that wanted masonry heaters to be a regulated technology under the NSPS. The EPA is seeking additional information with regard to PFI’s lawsuit.

On March 16, 2017, the United States Court of Appeals approved the 90-day delay sought by HPBA and set a new briefing schedule for the parties that plays out through the end of 2017. HPBA must file its brief with the Court on June 26, laying out a final list of issues it intends to litigate. After that, the EPA will respond with its positions on September 26, revealing how it will defend those portions of the regulations.

Less than a month later, the interveners must file their briefs. Interveners include the American Lung Association, Clean Air Council, and the Environment and Human Health, Inc. They are represented by Timothy Ballo of Earthjustice.

HPBA is simultaneously moving a bill in Congress to delay the 2020 provisions of the NSPS by 3 years, which in turn will give the legal proceedings time to play out. Another bill would erase the wood heater NSPS altogether. HPBA does not support this, but some individual boiler and pellet producers support it.

“The Trump Administration is a wild card for all parties in the lawsuit and the Alliance for Green Heat urges all parties to support the core provisions of the NSPS,” said John Ackerly of the Alliance for Green Heat. “For the future of wood heating in the US, we need to protect the transition to cord wood testing and adopt affordable test methods that reflect how consumers use stoves,” Ackerly added.

A blog “Hearth industry lists grounds for lawsuit against EPA” by the Alliance for Green Heat in 2015 laid out more details of the substance and process of the lawsuit. One often overlooked point is that HPBA does not appear to be challenging the 2020 emission standards for wood or pellet stoves, but only for outdoor wood boilers and warm air furnaces.

Petitioners' Brief(s)                               June 26, 2017

Respondent's Brief                                September 26, 2017

Intervenor for Respondent's Brief   October 18, 2017

Petitioners' Reply Brief(s)                  November 8, 2017

Deferred Appendix                               November 15, 2017

Final Briefs                                             November 22, 2017