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Heating with Wood Chips in Harmony with Nature |
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| Heating with wood chips is good for the environment and helps you reliably plan your future energy costs. |
The Energy Costs
The Basis of Your Future Expenses |
Energy derived from fossil fuels will unavoidably become more expensive. Future developments in the price of wood are manageable by comparison.
The price of fossil fuels has jumped in unpredictable leaps, yet constantly increased (something that was considered unlikely ten years ago). This situation will probably not improve in the medium term. The demand, particularly for crude oil, will continue to increase due to the growth of countries such as China and India, and the price inexorably along with it.
Wood chips are a source of energy that is comparatively stable in price. With wood, you’re heating on the safe side. | |
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A healthy cycle;
plants remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Through decaying and burning, they return exactly as much CO2 to the atmosphere as they previously removed. Heating with wood, therefore, contributes to a healthy natural CO2 balance in the atmosphere. |
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The burning of wood releases the same amount of CO2 back into the environment as was previously absorbed and bound in the wood through photosynthesis during the life of the tree. When unused wood rots in the forest, the same amount of CO2 is also released again. The burning of fossil fuels, such as heating oil and natural gas, has a much greater impact. In this case, CO2 which has been absorbed and
stored over the course of millions of years is released back into the atmosphere again. This further increases the greenhouse effect and thus leads to climate change. | |
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Useful facts regarding heating with wood | |
Energy prices 2002 - 2006
The demand determines the price.
Crude oil will become more
expensive as an increasing number
of countries require this raw material. An end to this upward spiral in price is nowhere in sight. By contrast, wood prices change only moderately. |
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As an operator of a wood heating system, you can considerably influence its efficiency and emissions. A minimum of emissions can be achieved by burning well dried, split wood.
Waste wood or dirty, decayed and very wet wood requires energy for drying, produces less heat and reduces the service life of the boiler. You can only achieve maximum heating performance of the boiler (nominal output) and minimum emissions by using dry wood.
The huge influence of water content upon the thermal value is made clear by the following diagram.
Sources: Energy iInformation Centre, Stuttgart.
Wood Sales Promotion Fund, Bonn.
Bavarian Regional Office for Agriculture and Forestry. |
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| Thermal value in kWh/kg according to water content (wet basis) | | |
| Useful Conversions |
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Wood Moisture Comparison:
Water content (wet basis) 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%
Wood moisture (dry basis) 18%, 25%, 33%, 43%
Conversion Factors:
1 litre of heating oil generates 2.676 kg CO2
1 litre of heating oil corresponds to 2.5 kg of wood
1 kg wood chips (w = 30 %) generates 3.4 kWh |
1000 Litres of Heating Oil Corresponds to:
Approx 5 - 6 rm hardwood, stacked log wood
Approx 7 - 8 rm softwood, stacked log wood
Approx 10 - 15 srm wood
Explanations and Abbreviations:
1 srm = 1 m3 of poured wood (loose)
1 rm = 1 m3 of stacked split wood (stere)
1 fm = 1 solid metre of wood (without gaps) | | |
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