RENEWABLE FUEL
BTUs as well as we do, and with as small a carbon footprint. We decided from the outset that we were going to make this happen the right way.”
“Last winter, the new wood waste-burning system improved our comfort while saving thousands of dollars in fuel oil,” con- tinued Merv. “It’s also a lot safer. The shop’s old woodstove was surrounded by sawdust and wood scrap. It was an accident wait- ing to happen.”
ALL IN THE FAMILY
The Wenger’s woodshop is located on a 26-acre property with a 100 year-old farm house, Merv’s home, and a 1940’s cinder block garage that gradually morphed into an apartment. As Merv explains it, the extensive heating overhaul led to home and apart- ment remodeling, improvements that the Wengers do entirely on their own.
In fact, the old garage is now a radiantly-heated newlywed suite for Travis and his wife, Rachel, married in May. For several months, Merv, Travis and Rachel, along with her parents, friends and relatives, labored away on the building, turning it into two- bedroom, 1,200-square-foot living space complete with new kitchen, a vaulted ceiling and spacious laundry room.
SYSTEM, AT THE HEART OF IT
The Wenger’s mechanical system is a stingy BTU machine. At the heart of it is a super-clean, 300,000 BTU Econoburn wood gasifi- cation boiler made by Alternative Fuel Boilers in Brocton, New York. The boiler uses European-styled gasification technology that greedily scrubs and re-burns exhaust gasses, heating water to meet the Wenger’s space and domestic water needs. The Econoburn Boiler is a pressurized wood gasification boiler rated at 87 percent thermal efficiency. Its high efficiency is attained by not only burning the wood, but also the wood gases and smoke in a secondary chamber.
According to Mark Odell, vice president of sales & marketing for Econoburn, “Two-thirds of the wood energy is in the form of wood gas and smoke that traditional wood burning boilers allow to escape out the chimney as wasted energy and pollution.” “The wood boiler is connected to a vertical 800- gallon storage/ buffer tank,” explained Dave Yates, president of York, PA-based F. W. Behler, Inc., hired by the Wengers to assemble the mechanical heating system. Three inches of closed-cell polyurethane spray foam provides an R18 insulation value across its entire surface area. “The giant buffer tank is the wood boiler’s ‘thermal target’—a huge heat reservoir for all space-heating on the property,” added Yates.
www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | MAY 2011 29
