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Impossible comparisons

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

“If your pellet boiler needs a fossil fuel back-up, you’re a heating hobbyist.” Dutch Dresser, Maine Energy Systems.

Funny things happen in times of transition; I’ve written about that before.  I’m quite interested today in emerging market confusion among naïve consumers as marketers pass off very dissimilar products as similar.

All would agree that both bicycles and automobiles are means of conveyance, but we’re informed enough not to consider the bicycle simply a less expensive conveyance than an automobile and otherwise equal.  Both have wheels and gearing and brakes and means of steering, but the distances they can travel comfortably, the loads they can carry, the protection they provide from adverse weather, and, the source of the propelling energy are all very different.  We’ve learned, as informed consumers, to look to bicycles for some sorts of travel and automobiles for other sorts.  If I argued that my Cannondale was better than your Mercedes, you’d find it hard to even consider the comparison.

As new technologies emerge, the distinctions among products from related domains can result in comparisons that are nearly as difficult to even consider.  Many of us remember well when dot matrix printers gave way to inkjet printers.  Consumers came to understand, after many disappointments, that print quality and print speed were very different between the two technologies.  Today no one would compare dot matrix printers with inkjet or laser printers for quality work.

Renewable energy alternatives are more important in our lives everyday.  To avoid trying to make the impossible comparisons shoved at us by marketers, we will all have to become informed consumers.  Burning wood pellets in the Northeast is a wonderful way to utilize renewable resources, but pellet-burning equipment serves as a fine example of the need for education among consumers before purchase time.

Pellet stoves                        

There are many brands of pellet stoves.  Most do a fine job of heating one, or several, rooms. Some have remote thermostats, others have heat adjustments at the stove. All require the manual feeding of pellets, generally from bags, and all require removal of ash and cleaning of the burner and burn chamber at regular intervals.  Pellet quality is an important factor for pellet stove users as excess ash and clinkers from inferior pellets are personal experiences for them. 

Hobbyists’ pellet boilers              

There are two general sorts of pellet boilers available today. I call them hobbyists’ boilers and designed boiler systems.

I have a hobbyist’s pellet boiler.  It is typical of many Scandinavian-style pellet boilers.  I call it a hobbyist boiler for two reasons.  First, the parts that constitute it were not designed for each other but were gathered from various manufacturers’ inventories.  Second, because of the boiler’s design I must spend considerable time with it and its by-products throughout the heating season, and even in the summer as I use it to heat domestic water.

Not including the shower that necessarily follows, the cleaning process takes me about one hour and always creates ash dust in the house that my wife mentions gently.

That said, the boiler heats my house pretty well, and it was inexpensive. I can leave the house unattended for extended periods only because I have a back-up oil boiler, otherwise, I’d have a short tether as the boiler would want my attention regularly.

When I sell my house, I suppose my heating hobby will be seen as neither an asset nor a liability, since the oil boiler is still there.  Whether my hobbyist’s boiler will be used, or not, depends upon the tolerance of the buyer.  The cleaning cycles of hobbyists’ boilers require significant commitment.

Designed pellet boiler systems               

Designed pellet boiler systems rival liquid and gas fuel burning equipment in ease of use and consistency of efficiency.  Every element of the system from the underfed burner to the robust pressure vessel to the vacuum or auger fuel feed to the storage unit is designed to work seamlessly with the other elements of the system.  There is no need to buy add-ons or additional parts and pieces, the system is purposefully designed to do serious work with almost no user intervention.

The MESys AutoPellet boiler system is a carefully designed system.  It cleans its own heat exchanger tubes regularly, and it removes the ash from its firebox into a small valise on the side of the unit.  Emptying the valise is required about four times a year in the average home and takes less than three minutes.  There is no exposure to ash, so whatever you happen to be wearing is fine, and you won’t need gloves.

Unlike top-fed burner units, the MESys burner is underfed.  This means two things to the end user.  First, there is no build-up of clinkers or slag, so you don’t have to shop for just the right pellets to keep your system running.  And, second, there is no heat-off cleaning cycle in underfed burners.  The burner can run as long as it’s needed whether that’s measured in hours, or days.

The efficiency, the cleanliness, the ease of use, and the fact that you can use the boiler as your sole and primary heat source is remarkably affordable, less than 10% more in equipment costs than comparably sized hobbyists’ boilers.

Summary

Take the time to educate yourself so you don’t buy a bicycle, a dot matrix printer, or a hobbyist’s boiler when what you really needed was an automobile, a laser printer, or an automatic pellet boiler designed as an integrated system.

The MESys AutoPellet Fully-Automatic Wood Pellet Boiler

The MESys AutoPellet Fully-Automatic Wood Pellet Boiler

 

Posted in Environmental issues, Fuel switching, pellet boiler market, Pellet burners, Renewable energy, Uncategorized, Wood pellet boiler | Comments Off

Moving the dial

Friday, October 12th, 2012

Dutch Dresser

When you work on introducing a new technology to a population and region, you discover lots of intriguing impediments to that introduction that you’d never have imagined. Yesterday (October 11, 2012) the Maine Fuel Board voted to allow Maine Energy Systems to engage in an “Emerging Technologies” project with them that might lead to elimination of one of those impediments for the pellet central heating industry in the State of Maine.

Maine is unique in its licensure of technicians for “solid fuels.” In Maine a person installing a boiler must have “solid fuel” authority on his license to legally install a “solid fuel” boiler in someone else’s building. (It’s a bit more complicated than that, but let’s avoid the levels of license detail.) The need for this rule apparently arose from three potential hazards associated with “solid fuel” boilers: the possibility for a thermal run-away during a power outage as combustion continues on a load of fuel while circulation fails due to lack of power, high chimney temperatures, and high boiler surface temperatures.

As highly sophisticated automatic pellet boilers made their way into the American market, they were defined in Maine as “solid fuel” appliances because pellets are solid. While that seems innocent and logical enough, the categorization has one substantial flaw and it creates one significant impediment to product growth in the marketplace.

The Flaw

State-of-the-art pellet boilers display none of the attributes that led to the perceived need for “solid fuel” rules in Maine. The rules were devised for cordwood boilers and coal stoker boilers that can hold a significant charge of fuel at any given time. The combustion of that fuel is relatively uncontrolled. Pellet boilers burn a very small quantity of fuel at any given time, and the combustion of that fuel is highly controlled. Combustion stops almost immediately if the power goes out, hence, no excessive heat can be produced during a power outage.

Cordwood boilers and coal stoker boilers can produce very high stack temperatures. The exhaust gas temperatures from state-of-the-art pellet boilers are very much like those of modern oil boilers. In fact these boilers are so efficient, the stack gas temperature is often quite cool, 250F, or so, but it never exceeds 400F. Therefore, high chimney temperatures never occur.

Old cordwood and coal stoker boilers could develop high surface temperatures making installed distance from combustible surfaces important. The surface temperature of these state-of-the-art pellet boilers is the same as the temperature of the room. The heat exchangers are extremely well insulated to achieve the desired efficiencies. So, the worry about proximity of flammable materials due to high boiler surface temperatures is not justified with these boilers.

The Impediment

Because these highly sophisticated boilers are lumped in the same category as cordwood boilers and coal stoker boilers, “solid fuel” license holders must install them in Maine. There are many fewer “solid fuel” license holders than ordinary oil license holders, so scheduling boiler installations in this rapidly growing segment is very challenging in the busy times of the year. Other busy technicians find it hard to justify studying for a test that focuses generally on boilers they’ll never see, so they’re not inclined to prepare for the “solid fuel” test to install pellet boilers as they’re just beginning to make a mark on the marketplace.

The Emerging Technologies Project

On October 11, 2012, the Maine Fuel Board approved a request made by Maine Energy Systems for a year long project intended to confirm the company’s assertion that their boilers, and those similar to them, can be installed by oil boiler license holders who have been suitably trained in the differences between pellet boilers and oil boilers.

This is great news for the pellet industry in Maine as the State’s boiler inspectors will inspect some, or all, of these installations and, thereby, become much more familiar with these sorts of systems. If the project leads to the anticipated conclusion, the request to re-categorize the boilers for licensure requirement purposes should be reasonably received. We have little doubt that the Project will reach successful conclusion as these very same boilers are installed throughout the Northeast by the same technicians who install oil boilers and who have been trained at Maine Energy Systems in fuel handling and burner adjustment.

In the meantime, Maine Energy Systems will be training oil boiler technicians in the installation of their equipment to ensure that all who choose to install the MESys AutoPellet boiler can do it this heating season on a schedule that works for them.

Dutch Dresser is the Managing Director of Maine Energy Systems in Bethel, Maine.

Posted in Boiler training, Fuel switching, Legislative, pellet boiler market, Renewable energy, Small boiler experiment | Comments Off

Theorem: The published study as truth

Wednesday, July 11th, 2012

For years I listened as educators started their speeches with “research has shown,” or some phrase of similar meaning. I learned through my own educational research the narrow applicability of research findings, the limits inherent in studies’ designs and interpretations, and the fundamental importance of the assumptions underlying those designs. With those understandings, I came to hear something else in the “research has shown” introduction. Unless the speaker was intellectually naïve and broadly construing narrow findings, the presenter was usually saying, “This is what I believe, and you should, too.”

I began to think of this practice as application of an unwritten theorem which assigned the published study a truth value often well beyond its intended interpretation. I became an instant skeptic when presenters seemed to be applying this unwritten theorem by citing research only generally as justification for conclusions to be offered. Without a chance to review the studies cited, I remained skeptical of both the application of the studies’ findings and the derived conclusions.

Recently we’ve been working to introduce pellet-fired central heating to the US marketplace, particularly in the Northeast where oil dependency is extraordinary. Pellet central heating is commonplace in much of the world but is still relatively new in the US. Work in this business has led me to a couple of corollaries to this “theorem” of the published study as truth.

The more alarming of these two corollaries is “the first counts most” corollary. In several developing markets highly questionable studies have been released to the marketplace. As the first published pieces devoted to examination of the relationships between pellet heating and the environment or competitive energy sources, they have become the studies against which all other thinking is compared.

In one case in the Northeast, the commissioned study was intended to inform the policy-making of politicians through exploration of the use of biomass as an energy source for the production of electricity. The study has become a “truth” of sorts on issues ranging far from the production of electricity using biomass fuel to the use of wood products for heating buildings.

A Northwestern report of the comparative costs of heating using various energy sources has taken on unwarranted stature despite its deeply flawed analysis simply because it is the first such study published in the region. The study talks about “wood” heating and seems to conflate data associated with cordwood burning with data associated with pellet burning resulting in meaningless results.

A second corollary to the “published study as truth” theorem is the “misconstrual” corollary. This corollary is commonly applied both by the proponent of a particular point of view and by general consumers of studies. Widespread practice has those who have only read summaries of a study construing those studies in contexts well beyond those justified by study design or analysis. Whether these people are using their conclusions to support a point or just to formulate an opinion, they are assigning truth value based on poor application or lack of understanding of actual research findings.

In 1962 Thomas Kuhn told us that scientific change occurs by revolution, not evolution. He pointed out that most scientists spend their careers proving the existing point of view and that those who take a contrary position are often castigated for their efforts. When enough thoughtful researchers recognize that the newly proposed thinking has value beyond that of the old, a revolution occurs and thinking shifts and scientists begin careers proving the new model.

There is little different here. In the emerging biomass energy sector in the US marketplace, the first published “research” has come from those attempting to preserve the status quo for their own reasons, or to argue in favor of different energy sources. As more thoughtful members of the consuming public ignore these “truths” and move to biomass heating for its many values, a revolution in thinking will occur and the old first published truths will finally be recognized as passing efforts at preserving what currently is.

Dutch Dresser is the Managing Director of Maine Energy Systems in Bethel, Maine. He has a doctorate in science education.

Posted in Energy models, Environmental issues, pellet boiler market, Pellet Fuel Promotiion, Wood pellet boiler | Comments Off

Curves

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

Dutch Dresser

I have a natural fascination with graphical depiction of data. Graphs provide a visual way to see what has happened and to predict what might happen. In the exponential growth curve the rate of growth is proportional to the current value of the variable. This curve is generated by changes of many different types throughout our world.

As new products or technologies are introduced into a marketplace, those behind the introduction hope their products will move into the market in a pattern of exponential growth.

Following the introduction of residential and institutional sized pellet boilers in Europe in 1998, the rate of growth of pellet boiler sales in Germany, Europe’s largest market, reflected the classic exponential growth curve starting at a few hundred per year just before the turn of the century to 155,000 during the 2011 calendar year with more than 180,000 sales predicted for 2012.

Two similar shaped curves are being created as pellet boiler central heating is becoming increasingly popular in the northeastern United States.

On a shorter time scale, Maine Energy Systems’ growth curves in three categories are showing classic exponential growth curve characteristics. The red bars are annual pellet boiler sales (the gray bar in 2012 is a projected sales bar, which appears to be conservative). The blue bars are sales year to date for the current month (May). And, the green bars represent serious prospects on sales lists, year to date. Given a pretty consistent conversion rate from prospects to sales, the projected sales bar for 2012 should likely be about 25% taller than the prospects bar.

On a still shorter time scale, the growth in the rate of distribution of government rebate funds for those installing automatic boiler systems in New Hampshire also shows exponential characteristics.

More rebates were extended half way through the eighth quarter than in the seventh quarter, but funds for the rebates ran out before the quarter could be completed.

Every company that is working to make central pellet heating available in the US Northeast spends considerable time and energy educating lots of constituencies, particularly potential consumers. The information currently available on sales growth over the last five years strongly suggests that those efforts are having the desired impact. The marketplace is understanding the many clear benefits of heating with locally produced, renewable fuel. The future is bright for both those in the industry and those converting to central pellet heating.

Dutch Dresser is Managing Director of Maine Energy Systems in Bethel, Maine

Posted in Fuel switching, pellet boiler market, Renewable energy, Wood pellet boiler | Comments Off

Choosing the best boiler

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

Dutch Dresser

For many pellet boilers are a whole new idea.

The latest pellet boilers are wonderfully reliable central heating systems very nearly as automatic as oil or propane systems. Some of them have the advantage of European design providing many features and a beautiful look.

However, there are differences among modern pellet boilers as fundamental as the differences between a rotary engine Mazda and a piston engine Mercedes. This piece will help you make informed judgments about the pellet boiler that will best serve your needs.

comparison_chart1

Click to enlarge

1,2 Boilers, Tube Cleaning. The ÖkoFEN pellet boiler system has a steel vertical tube boiler with a 25 year design life. Its boiler tubes are automatically cleaned daily so they never require manual cleaning.

3 Certifications. ÖkoFEN boiler systems are UL listed and available in stock with either ASME stamped vessels or EN 303-5 certified vessels depending upon the code and insurance demands of your installation. (American Society of Mechanical Engineers H stamped vessels are required in many installations and can be installed in any jurisdiction in the U.S. for any application.)

4 Ash Removal. ÖkoFEN boiler systems automatically remove the ash from their fireboxes and compress it into a handy, easily emptied storage container. In typical installations, the ash container requires emptying about four times a year, a two- to three- minute process. The ash acts like lime when spread on your garden or lawn.

5 Burner. The ÖkoFEN burner is an underfed burner. This means that there are many fewer cold starts during the heating season than with other burner types, that there is never a need for the burn chamber to be emptied of ash for a restart, and that troublesome combustion by-products (sinters, clinkers, and slag) that can plague other burner types don’t build up in this burner.

6 Burner Ashscrape. There is no ashscrape cycle in ÖkoFEN products because of the underfed burner design. The burner never needs to be cooled down for cleaning, and it frequently restarts with just the application of air after a low demand period greatly reducing the number of cold starts the system makes.

7 Output Modulation. The ÖkoFEN burner modulates its power over 17 intervals between 100% output and 33% output. Because of the careful control of combustion in the unit, the boiler is very efficient and has extremely low emissions levels at all modulation levels. This makes mass thermal storage for emissions control unnecessary with ÖkoFEN boilers.

8 Mass Thermal Storage. ÖkoFEN boiler systems modulate cleanly and restart quickly so thermal mass storage is not required with ÖkoFEN boilers. If you have unusual system demands and would like to use mass thermal storage with an ÖkoFEN, of course, you can, but if your demands are typical, save your money.

9 Reliability. ÖkoFEN boilers are very reliable; they are installed world-wide as stand-alone systems. No back-up systems are recommended or required. Of course, if you have a system you want to retain as back-up, you can do that, but it isn’t necessary.

10 Maintenance. The ÖkoFEN boiler system requires only annual maintenance by service personnel.

11 On-line Operation. The ÖkoFEN boiler system comes standard with an alarm port that will trigger dialers or other alerts. An optional Ethernet port is also available to access the data that the control unit continually gathers. That data can be viewed from any Internet connected computer with this option installed.

If you’re comparing boiler systems for your home, business, or institution, feel free to copy the Pellet Boiler Comparison Chart and use it to gather data to help with your decision.

Dutch Dresser is the Managing Director of Maine Energy Systems LLC

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Posted in Commercial pellet boilers, Fuel switching, Pellet burners, Wood pellet boiler | Comments Off

In the Beginning

Monday, March 26th, 2012

By Dutch Dresser

While attending the Northeast Biomass Heating Expo in Saratoga
Springs, NY, I heard Carlton Owen, President of the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities make some observations about the budding biomass heating industry that I thought were important. In a remark that proved to be prescient to me, he warned against “too many voices” representing the industry.

The speakers I heard during the presentations felt obliged to speak in general terms about the industry and its technology with promotion of their own products at least muted. Unfortunately, their understandings of the state-of-the-art from which to generalize were not at all the same. The curious collective result would have confused many new biomass equipment consumers and sent them scurrying.

One speaker patiently explained to the satisfaction of engineers in
the room how the equipment he represented burned efficiently and
cleanly throughout its modulation range making expensive mass thermal storage tanks an option, not a requirement. Another devoted two presentation opportunities to insisting that everyone use large accumulators to ensure clean emissions. (See an earlier accumulator discussion.)

One speaker talked about the routine total replacement of fossil fuel burning equipment using his product here and in Europe, while another insisted that fossil fuel redundancy was essential with biomass heating systems because the products weren’t always reliable and service wasn’t always readily available.

One speaker spoke about delaying customer boiler acquisition until envelope tightening had been accomplished to ensure proper load matching, while another explained to the group how his boilers had adjustable output ranges so that boilers could be fine-tuned for matching load as load changed either up or down during the life of the boiler.

After listening to such contradictions throughout the presentations, it became quite clear that everyone was being earnest and everyone was telling a truth of sorts, but that the forced generalization of their product-specific truths was creating a fog of confusion that would have startled a potential buyer. This fog was likely a bit daunting to engineers and architects present for the first time trying to learn about the new technology and its possible applications.

I was reminded of my days in the IT industry during the early development of the Internet beyond colleges and universities. There were lots of different networking products emerging and setting new standards as they emerged.

Then, as now, the customer, engineer, or architect really needed only to listen to “generalizations” a manufacturer’s representative made about how things ought to be in the industry at large to hear how that manufacturer’s products were at that moment. As with the development of IT products, the marketplace will insist upon those products that are the most useful, most robust, and least demanding, and those products will quickly become the new standards by which others are measured.

Dutch Dresser is the Managing Director of Maine Energy Systems, a representative of Okofen boiler products.

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Posted in Fuel switching, Pellet boiler maintenance, Renewable energy, Uncategorized, Wood pellet boiler | Comments Off

“Better than Free”

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

I recently had the opportunity to talk with a municipal officer in a small Maine town. As in so many small towns, the large, old town office building has an old, inefficient oil boiler in the basement in desperate need of replacement. And, as in so many small towns, financial pressures force choosing allocations among many good options with the limited resources available.

In this particular case, loan money was readily available at 4.5% interest, and pellet fuel was available at a good price for a large customer.

After doing the arithmetic, the municipal official was surprised to find that changing out the building’s boiler was “better than free” in several ways. Here are excerpts from an e-mail I sent the town official after the visit.
_______________________________________________________

Dear [municipal officer,]

I did not stop by this morning to sell you a boiler. I did stop by to get your opinion on available interest rates. Thank you for your help.

At the same time, I can’t help but point out an opportunity for you that works with, or without, [grant funding]…

If I use the following assumptions:

* #2 oil use: 2500 gallons/year
* #2 oil cost: $3.80/gallon (actual current price)
* pellet cost: $210/ton
* pellet use: 20.59 tons (energy equivalent of 2500 gallons of oil)
* installed system cost: $32,000
* full system: financed at 4.5%
* payment term: 15 yrs

I arrive at the following results:

* current annual oil cost: $9,500
* annual pellet cost: $4,353.23
* annual debt service: $2,937.60
* total pellet fuel cost and debt service: $7,290.83
* net annual cash savings: $2,209.17

Obviously, if you can make a down payment on some part of the system, your savings improve noticeably. It should also be clear to anyone paying attention that oil prices will only continue to go up. Pellet prices have remained stable, or declined, over the past decade; there is no reason to expect them to increase beyond CPI increases in the foreseeable future. Maine Energy Systems will guarantee its fuel price until June 30, 2014.

This model demonstrates that you can have a brand new, renewable fuel boiler system in [your municipal building] with no immediate out of pocket expense and spend less money annually on fuel and debt service than you’re currently spending on fuel alone. We call these systems “Better than Free.”

You can confirm my figures, and play with other models, by using the calculator at

http://www.futuremetrics.com/HomeCalcTabs.html

If you’d like me to address [your elected officials] about this, I’d be delighted to do that.

Posted in Commercial pellet boilers, Fuel switching, Renewable energy, Wood pellet boiler | Comments Off

Pellet opportunities

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

The industry is growing. To take full advantage of the opportunities that are, and will be, available, consumers have to learn a bit about pellet central heating technologies and pellets. This letter was recently sent to some Maine Energy Systems institutional and commercial pellet boiler owners.

—————————————————————-

November 17, 2011

Dear MESys boiler owner:

Pellet-fired central heating systems are becoming much more common in our region. This is good news for system owners and for the regional economy and environment.

New opportunities to buy pellets are following this growth. That, too, is good news for everyone. Competition will ensure that prices you pay are fair and that a reliable distribution network will grow to serve the increasing demand.

Maine Energy Systems provides bulk pellets delivered for residential, institutional, and business systems throughout the southern half of Maine. The price is $239/ton for all customers receiving loads smaller than 9 tons at one location. These prices are guaranteed through June 30, 2014, for new boiler owners who use the delivery service continually through the period.

Pellet fuel is inexpensive, reliable fuel if it is delivered to you intact. It is our hope that this information will help ensure that your ÖkoFEN boiler systems perform with the efficiency and reliability that is designed into them.

Sincerely,

“Dutch” Dresser, Director, Maine Energy Systems

Basic pellet and delivery information

• Different pellets burn differently in boiler systems. Those which are best produce very little ash and ash which doesn’t melt to form clinkers or slag.

• Pellets can be easily damaged during delivery. The dust that results from significant damage can accumulate and cause system outages. Several factors lead to excessive damage.
o Pellet manufacturing that results in pellets too soft for bulk delivery
o Pellet loading that doesn’t pre-screen pellets as they enter the delivery truck
o Pellet delivery from trucks designed for the delivery of agricultural products like grain and animal feed

• The dust from pellet loads accumulates in storage units as it flows differently from pellets. Accumulated dust can cause system outages when it flows in sudden slugs.

• Pellets are sold by weight. Upon delivery, your fuel provider should be able to present you a delivery weight slip from certified scales on the truck, just as oil delivery trucks provide a certified tally of gallons delivered.

Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does the vendor have pellet source redundancy, or is the vendor a sole source provider?
a. Pellet source redundancy assures best available pellets continually
b. Pellet source redundancy assures continuous availability despite mill shutdowns
Maine Energy Systems represents up to six mills in Maine, New Hampshire, and southern Quebec Province.
2. Does the vendor have certified delivery scales for accurately reporting delivered quantities?
a. Certified delivery scales provide printed receipts for actual weight delivered
b. Certified delivery scales are type evaluated (NTEP) by the National Conference on Weights and Measures.
Maine Energy Systems’ delivery trucks have on-board scales that are NTEP certified.
3. Does the vendor test each batch of pellets by burning before delivery? Pellet quality is best confirmed by burning
a. Pellets that produce unacceptable by-products are eliminated through burn testing
Maine Energy Systems tests every load of pellets as it comes from the mill before putting them in storage for redistribution. Occasionally, loads that don’t meet our standards are returned to the mill.
4. Does the vendor remove dust from the pellets before delivery?
a. Dust in large quantities can choke fuel delivery systems
b. Pellets from mill runs typically contain a significant amount of dust which must be removed before the pellets are delivered
Maine Energy Systems “shakes” its pellets to remove dust as they’re loaded into the delivery truck.
5. Does the vendor deliver the pellets relatively dust-free using fully pneumatic equipment?
a. Pellets can be broken. Fully pneumatic equipment is easiest on pellets
b. Mechanical/pneumatic systems can cause substantial pellet breakage and dust
Maine Energy Systems has a fully pneumatic delivery truck with the latest in delivery system technology ensuring that the pellets are delivered with very low levels of dust.
6. Does the vendor stand behind the suitability of the fuel for trouble-free operation of the boiler system over time?
a. Systems choked with dust must have their storage units emptied and cleaned
b. Delivering pellet vendors are responsible for the delivered quality of their product
Maine Energy Systems stands behind the suitability of its pellets for the purposes for which they are delivered.
7. Does the vendor routinely deliver pellets in the quantities you will need?
Maine Energy Systems delivers more pellets to residential and small commercial pellet central heating systems than anyone else in the region.

Posted in Bulk pellet distribution, Fuel consumption, Pellet fuel, Wood pellet boiler | Comments Off

Choosing Pellet Heating Equipment Wisely

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

If you’re reading this, your organization or institution is likely ready to actively consider biomass heating as an option for its needs. In times of significant technological change trusted advisors must be carefully considered and opportunities for overcharging are plentiful. Here are some things to consider as you prepare your move toward renewable biomass heating.

  • You need basic insights: The vendors of high quality biomass heating equipment often provide training sessions for technicians, engineers, architects, and end-users. For example, http://www.maineenergysystems.com/Contractor_Training_Schedule.htm

    To give your organization a basis for sound decision-making take advantage of that training. Your organization will learn the basics of the heating technology and will have a better idea what questions to ask those who submit proposals for engineering and installation services.

  • Trusted advisors change: Most institutions and businesses have engineering firms that they routinely use when they have mechanical systems questions. As you consider changing to a renewable energy source, you will want to confirm that those trusted advisors have expertise in energy sources you want to consider. Well meaning engineers with no training or experience in biomass energy systems of interest to you can provide expensive, meaningless, even counterproductive, advice.

  • Vendor trustworthiness: There are ranges of renewable energy products on the market. Some are well-established products tested through years of field installation, and some are newly developed and largely untested hoping to fill emerging needs. Take the time to talk with the vendors of products you’re interested in to learn about the installed bases of their products and check with references on performance of some of their installed equipment.

  • Certifications: Different state and local jurisdictions have different requirements for system certifications. All boilers installed anywhere generally require UL/CSA testing and listing. Beyond that pressure vessels might also require certification. For example, in Maine all boilers installed in schools and municipally owned buildings must be stamped as built and tested to ASME H standards (American Society of Mechanical Engineers). Some installers have left systems “open,” or unpressurized as a way around that rule, but that isn’t a recommended practice. Check with your insurance underwriters before installing such a system. Some installers have suggested installation of their non-ASME boilers in unoccupied sheds, or buildings, adjacent to the buildings to be heated as a way to circumvent the pressure vessel regulation. Be aware that some States, including Maine, define boilers installed in unoccupied buildings as “outdoor wood boilers” and require them to have EPA hangtags certifying their emissions levels before they can be operated.

  • Equipment specification/pricing: There are growing lists of technicians who can install and service biomass heating systems; however, the list is smaller than the list of oil or propane installers. To get the most favorable pricing on a specified installation seek competitive bids from several companies who have reasonable experience installing the products you select. This suggests that you and your well-selected trusted advisor should select the equipment you want to install prior to seeking bids from installation companies.
  • Pellet supply, storage, and delivery: There are many pellet mills in the northeastern United States; they produce lots of good quality pellets. However, it is important that you understand what pellet attributes are most important for the equipment you’re considering installing. It is also very important to know how the pellets you contract for will get from the mill to your silo or storage bins. Pellet distribution in the US is still an industry in its infancy. Pellets are delivered by auger truck, by a truck with a mechanically fed Airlock, and by fully pneumatic trucks with pressurized bodies. Each delivery style is different. Make sure the delivery proposed for your system will deliver undamaged pellets quickly and quietly to the storage systems you plan to use.

There are many people who have devoted time to understanding the biomass heating industry in its entirety. Those people are generally happy to help direct you to trustworthy advice and products.Two significant trade organizations can provide such help, BTEC (Biomass Thermal Energy Council) http://biomassthermal.org and the Maine Pellet Fuels Association http://mepfa.org In the Northeast Maine Energy Systems is also a repository of information for those considering biomass fuel-switching. http://maineenergysystems.com

Dutch Dresser is a Director of Maine Energy Systems.

Posted in Fuel switching, Renewable energy, Wood pellet boiler | Comments Off

Energy box in the energy box

Friday, July 8th, 2011

Maine Energy Systems is Les Otten’s latest brainchild, and, as with so many of his ventures, the office could easily be considered an “energy box.”

In the three years this young company has been in existence, it has been continuously involved in pioneering work in the introduction of fully automatic, pellet-fired central heating systems to the United States.  It has imported the world’s very best available pellet boilers, started a young, robust regional bulk pellet distribution network, facilitated the production of the first fully pnuematic bulk pellet delivery truck in the U.S., and worked with countless financial and regulatory agencies to help decision-makers understand the state-of-the-art in pellet central heating.

Today the energy box is producing an energy box.

Two heating system practices are common in Europe that haven’t yet become common in the United States–district heating and the use of “energy boxes.” District heating is the provision of heat to a number of buildings from a single boiler system; it is quite common in Western Europe.  Districts large and small efficiently serve communities from clusters of residences to whole villages and segments of cities.

Energy boxes are small structures outside the building to be heated that contain the boiler system(s) and the stored fuel.  These inconspicuous small enclosures preserve valuable space in the heated building for other uses while housing the whole boiler system just outside.

energybox

Maine Energy Systems is building the energy box of material researched and acquired from a Canadian manufacturer by Ben “BJ” Otten (standing in the doorway).  That energy box will house two OkoFEN 200,000 BTU pellet boilers and lots of pellet fuel.  In fact, there will be enough fuel in the box so that there will only need to be three, or four, deliveries made per year to fire the two-boiler system.

energybox400internalviewEnergy boxes are fabricated at the Bethel facility and equipped with boilers, electrical systems, feed augers, chimneys or power vents, and all necessary piping.  They are transported to the installation site by truck, set in place on a prepared concrete slab, attached to power and the heating system of the building and fired up.

As our culture understands the value of this style of heating, these small structures will become common means of heating individual buildings and collections of buildings.

Dutch Dresser is a Director of Maine Energy Systems in Bethel, Maine.

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