Across the world, the fight is on to reduce carbon emissions and switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Wind farms, hydroelectric power plants and solar power have all received plenty of press coverage and there are government initiatives galore to encourage people to install solar panels and windmills onto their roofs. However, people seem to have forgotten that one of the traditional solid fuels is renewable if managed and used correctly; wood.
Wood pellets are a carbon neutral, 100% renewable source of energy, with no additives and a very low ash production. In particular, the wood pellets we sell at Logs Direct are made in the UK and meet with high levels of FSC requirements, ensuring that all the woodland used for their production is sustainably managed. Trees are never removed faster than growth which can be sustained.
The carbon neutrality comes from the fact that as trees grow and photosynthesise, they take in carbon dioxide as part of their natural life cycle. This is stored in the tree and released during burning, or as the tree naturally decays. They also produce a minimal amount of ash, and that which is produced is clean enough to be used as garden fertilizer.
With concerns rising about the true sustainability of fossil fuels such as gas and oil, and prices rising regularly and rapidly, many people are looking to source their energy sustainably and wood pellets are consistently coming out on top.
Example of Wood PelletsAs well as being sustainable, wood pellets allow for a much greater level of control when heating a building than other forms of solid fuel. When relying on a traditional fire, rooms start off too cold and quickly become too hot as the fire catches. However, wood pellet boilers allow for fine tuning due to the compact and uniform nature of the pellets, which makes it very easy to release heat over time as needed, so operation is more similar to that of an electricity, oil or gas heating system than to a traditional solid fuel system.
An often-quoted argument against relying on wood pellets as a source of fuel is that the initial outlay on a wood pellet boiler is relatively high. However, when you consider that our wood pellet supplies have, on average, less than 10% moisture content and thus burn incredibly efficiently, and that the UK government is launching an innovative new financially incentivised scheme called the Renewable Heat Incentive (already available to businesses, coming to domestic users in 2014), the initial outlay is recouped within four years, with subsequent years bringing substantial savings over electricity, oil, and liquid propane gas.
Perhaps the most compelling reason to switch to a wood pellet heating system is the security it provides. The prices in the energy market are fluctuating, almost always up rather than down, on such a regular basis that there is a huge value in the peace of mind a wood pellet system brings. With speculation rife about the possibility of fossil fuel rationing in the not-too-distant future, switching to a long-term renewable energy source seems to be a very good option.
