Pellet burners - sustainable??

[Captain Caveman]

We are considering putting a pellet burner into our next house. Its too big for ground source heating, so pellet burners are still carbon neutral, just not free!
I know the theory behind wood based fuels. Pellets are a by-product of sawmills which are using sustainable forestry
HOWEVER, at the moment not many people are using pellet burners. With climate-change awareness, increasing fossil fuels etc, more people will be going towards wood based fuels.
In the same way that bio-diesel is now having an effect on the global food market, if the demand for wood pellets goes up, prices will go up and eventually, current forestry in this country will no longer be able to support pellet burning - not as a byproduct anyway - therefore it will no longer be sustainable by definition

Looks like the G8 even agree to a point that bio-diesel is not going to solve the carbon crisis, as its now contributing to the food crisis

Opinions on a postcard please

Cavey

[Rod in Japan]

Pellet burners may be sustainable if forestry is expanded as a national sustainability priority, but pellet burners also have some obvious deficiencies. They use electricity, they're not very warming unless the fan is turned on, they're noisy with the fan on, and they only burn an industrially processed product (kreck me if I'm wrong here, these are just personal observations).

If your next house allows it, how about considering a masonry stove? These are a highly efficient pre-industrial technology that can incorporate an oven or two, and they allow you to burn whatever wood is available at the time. A friend living in a very cold area built one and is very pleased with it.

[ina]

Ground source heating needs electricity, too... So none of these options are completely free of that particular issue.
Pellet burners are quite common in other countries - there may be more info on the net for the Continent, for example. My brother had one installed a few years ago.

[Captain Caveman]

The pellet burner is to run the central heating and hot water rather than as a stove/fireplace. I would love to find one that can burn would also but because of the set up for the pellets to burn controlled and high efficiency I dont think it can cope with wood also
I think the elctricity used is less than ground source, but at least with ground source heating you get something for nothing - or at least 300% more energy than you put in

[DominicJ]

Grow tree.
Chop Tree Down.
Burn Tree.
Grow new Tree.

Seems "sustainable" enough to me, if you ignore the costs of actualy moving the stuff around.
Could get a proper wood burner and grow your own fuel.

[Captain Caveman]

Grow tree.
Chop Tree Down.
Burn Tree.
Grow new Tree.

All very well until 5 billion people want to do it. The planet can't sustain enough wood for all of us, and pellets are made from sawdust from sawmills rather than directly from wood grown for fuel

Could get a proper wood burner and grow your own fuel

Hven't got enough space to grow all my own fuel sadly, though we have a burner for the main room to complement the central heating (whatever method we decide to go for!)

[DominicJ]

But if the demand was there, they could grow wood just for fire pellets.

No idea about just how practical mass firewood growing would be, but we grow an awful lot of trees to produce paper.

[Ellendra]

I'm experimenting with growing clumping bamboo for firewood, each stalk is ready to burn in 4 years and it sends up new shoots every year, so theoretically one could grow more firewood in less space.

I just planted it this spring, so we'll have to wait for the results.

[Rod in Japan]

In my experience, bamboo burns very quickly, so if you hope to stay warm, you need some sort of thermal mass to capture the heat.

As for sustainability, there's a lot of scope for planting more trees, even if you do cut some of them down. Also, while pellets may or may not be sustainable in the long term, they may improve sustainability for now. Getting to sustainability from where we are now will require a whole series of intermediate steps.

[Ellendra]

Yeah, I forgot to mention that I'm also going to be building a masonry stove in a cob house. The whole place will be one big thermal mass :p

[Annpan]

I don't know exactly what it is about the pellet burners but I just don't like the sound of them... the pellets still require manufacturing, even if they are a by-product, and as it takes electricity to run the burner it just doesn't sound right to me...gut feeling really, I don't know enough about them.

We have a multi fuel burner (that will eventually run CH and HW) we can burn all sorts in it, I guess we could also burn pellets in it, obviously you still need to feed it but I prefer the multi-function-ality of it (if that isn't a word, it should be...lol)

[Magpie]

Agree with Annpan - also, if for some reason, they fall out of favour, and they stop producing the pellets, you're left with a heater you can't use - a bit too specialised and reliant on the manufacturer for me.

[Birdie Wife]

I agree too - I did a 4-day course on wood fuel and log burning stoves came out on tops for domesstic purposes. Pellets are gaining in popularity as they are clean and a recognisable product (some people prefer things to look processed ), but there are few processing plants at the moment, which means they usually have to be transported quite long distances to where they are used. Logs, on the other hand, can be produced virtually anywhere, ultra-low technology and easily available. Modern log burning stoves are really efficient, very low ash and all-round a better choice for my money.

[marshlander]

I really must go and get my computer specs - thought this was pAllet burners and I thought that must be really big to take Pallets!

[Ellendra]

Random fact: most pellet burners will also accept dry feed corn as fuel.