How Can You Use Biomass To Heat Your Home?

If you're tired of high winter heating bills, you may be investigating various alternatives to your electric, propane, or oil heater. While a number of alternative energies exist -- from geothermal heat to wood stoves -- one option you may not be considering is the use of biomass fuel. The use of biomass in place of other heating fuel can dramatically reduce your utility bills while providing your home with a steady, safe source of organic heat. Read on to learn more about biomass, as well as how you can use this type of fuel in your home.

What is biomass?

Biomass is any type of combustible and organic fuel -- like wood chips or pellets, waste plant matter from crop harvesting (like corn husks), or even animal waste. Recycled mulch from lumberyards and paper mills is often an ideal source of biomass for the small-scale home heater.

Biomass provides several advantages over other types of heat, but the clearest is its environmental friendliness. By using recycled mulch, paper products, or pellets made from herbivorous animal droppings, you can provide these waste items with a new purpose while avoiding the usage of oil or another environmentally-harmful fuel. Biomass is also relatively inexpensive when compared to other types of fuel, particularly as it requires no processing (unlike the wood in a wood stove).

Can you convert any of your current heating appliances to run on biomass?

If your current heater runs on oil or gas, it's unlikely that you'll be able to reconfigure these delicate components to run on combusting biomass. However, you may be able to install a wood chip-fired heater to run through your current forced-air ductwork at relatively little cost. If your current oil or gas heater is still in good shape, you should be able to sell it to recoup some of the costs of a wood chip-fired heater.

If you currently have a wood heater but are tired of cutting, splitting, and loading logs into the oven, the process of converting this heater to a wood chip-fired heater is relatively easy. And if you have an inexpensive or free source of wood pellets or mulch biomass, you'll be able to provide most or even all of your home's heating needs for next to nothing. It may be worth your while to cozy up to a few loggers or paper mill workers to arrange a reliable supply of biomass for your new heater. For more information about obtaining mulch or wood pellets, contact a company like Brampton Pallet Inc Recycled Pallets.

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