Pellet Wood and other Biomass Furnaces

The high costs of electricity, oil and gas are making wood furnaces – and other biomass furnaces - an interesting solution.

If you intend to run a central heating system (based on ductwork) with a renewable biomass energy product, pellet wood furnaces - or similar technologies like corn furnaces, based on traditional American Midwest furnaces - are a solution to consider.

Wood-Pellet and biomass fuels

Fuels made from wood and their subproducts and wastes – which is the case of pellets - are considered renewable energy sources because they release as much carbon dioxide as the one absorbed, during their growing years or periods, by the trees and plants behind them.

That is typically the case of wood pellets or shelled corn – the fuels of pellet and corn furnaces...

For details on pellets, see: Pellets

Models

The market is offering a wide variety of residential wood furnace models, with very different capacities. Models in the range 70,000 BTU to 4,000,000 BTU are common.

Advantages

There is a large offer of pellet wood furnaces, mainly made by small companies hugely engaged on environmental alternatives to traditional heating appliances and fuels. Some residential pellet fired furnaces meet air quality standards and surmount the negatives of typical wood furnaces.

Disadvantages

The new technological advances are rather untested. Unlike pellet boilers, the pellet wood furnace market is far from mature.