Learn more about the Amish heater and EdenPure space heater

The calendar indicates that heating season is  upon us, but the Home & Garden blog team doesn't need to look at a thermometer or watch the Weather Channel to know it's starting to get colder here in the New York City metro area and elsewhere around the country.

Nope, all we've got to do is look at the traffic to and comments about heating appliances on the Home & Garden blog and ConsumerReports.org. Specifically, readers are looking for information about the Heat Surge Roll-n-Glow Electric Fireplace (aka the Amish heater), EdenPure space heaters, and pellet stoves.

• If you're considering the Heat Surge appliance, read our review of the Amish heater as well as our post about some consumer complaints to the Better Business Bureau. And remember, although Heat Surge claims its heaters will help you save on your heating bills, the only way to do so is to employ zone heating. (Note: According to a customer-service representative at Heat Surge, heaters made in 2009 were updated with a stronger blower and other changes affecting heat distribution. The company also says it plans to add a thermostat on future versions, possibly in 2010. The model we purchased and reviewed early this year might have incorporated some or all of the updates.)

• If you're pondering buying an EdenPure space heater, read "Are EdenPure Space Heaters Just a Lot of Hot Air?"
 
• If a pellet stove seems like a viable heating option, learn more about these appliances in our October 2009 report and our previous buyer's guide to pellet- and wood-burning stoves.

Essential information: "Don't Let Energy Savings Go Up and Out the Chimney" covers proven ways to save energy during heating season. And learn about space heaters, programmable thermostats, and weatherizing your attic. If you're in the market for new heating equipment, get up to speed on the $300 million State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, aka cash for clunkers for appliances.

By the Numbers: Energy Star homes reach major milestone

1 million

Number of Energy Star-qualified homes built nationwide since the program debuted in 1995. These homes have saved Americans $1.2 billion in energy costs, reduced greenhouse-gas emissions by 22 billion pounds, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The top 10 markets for Energy Star homes are Houston, Dallas, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York City, Tucson, San Antonio, Sacramento, and San Diego.

To qualify for Energy Star, says the EPA, a new home must be at least 15 percent more efficient than homes built to the 2004 International Residential Code and include other features that make them 20 to 30 percent more efficient than standard home, such as effective insulation, high-performance windows, and efficient heating and cooling equipment, appliances, lighting, and ventilation. (The image below, from Energy Star, shows typical locations of air leaks in a home. Check out our recent Weekend Project on weatherizing your attic.)

"This is an amazing achievement for the Energy Star program, but the real winners are the 1 million American families who have the chance to save money and keep harmful pollution out of the air. That's great news for anyone who wants to cut costs and protect our planet," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson in a press release. "We're going to keep the number of Energy Star homes growing, because every new Energy Star home is a step towards lower costs, cleaner air, and communities that are environmentally and economically sustainable."

To boost the energy efficiency of your home and save some real money, start with these simple, inexpensive steps and follow our overall advice for using less energy at home.—Celia Kuperszmid Lehrman | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: If you haven't done so already, get your heating system tuned up and install a programmable thermostat. Also refer to our buyer's guides to furnaces (more details here), water heaters, pellet stoves, and solar water heaters, and find the best compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Remember, some projects might qualify for federal tax credits. If you want energy-efficient appliances, stay up on the news related to the $300 million State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, also known as cash for clunkers for appliances.

 

10 Questions for . . . Jon Strimling, President of WoodPellets.com

In this installment of 10 Questions for . . ., Associate Editor Gian Trotta speaks with Jon Strimling, president of WoodPellets.com about the pellet market. Strimling also addresses some of our readers' concerns about wood pellets and their delivery.

Last year there were reports of pellet shortages. What are the prospects for pellet supplies this winter?
We're clearly in a better position now at the macro level than we were last year, when oil prices shot through the roof in May, June, and July and caused a run on pellet supplies. The industry usually has until November to provide enough fuel for a winter season, but last year many people saw prices going up and thought that they should get their pellets early.

The sudden surge in demand was challenging, and there were times last year when one coast or another would go into back order. But the country has never been short of supply; it was just a case of the product sitting in the wrong place. We were able to keep a flow, but pellets were traveling farther and cost of transport was higher.

A fair bit of additional capacity has also become available. Over past few years 20 new mills have started producing pellets in U.S. and Canada, and new capacity has been added to existing plants. This year, a major boost to raw-material supplies consists of lodgepole pines in Colorado and British Columbia. Because of beetle infestations in recent years, there is an enormous quality of dead standing timber being removed for forest-fire mitigation, and the highest-value use of that resource is pellets.

Will all those factors offset the reduction in pellet raw materials from lumber and wood-flooring production?
Certainly, housing starts are down, and that has reduced capacity of some mills that rely on that stream of dry residual wood. But most of the newer mills can employ "green chips" that enable them to continue to produce premium pellets, and in some cases even superpremium pellets. These clean, debarked chips are cut before wood is dried, for example from the lumber cut from side of logs to square them.

How vulnerable are pellet-producing plants to supply interruptions?
Fortunately, production is dispersed among several areas and companies to reduce chance of shortages. Individual pellet-supply facilities can go down, especially if they are linked to a particular lumber mill. The network of 80 to 100 plants is as a whole pretty robust, so if someone goes down, someone else will pick up that volume.

One of our readers noted that when he began using pellets five years ago, pellets were $110 a ton, now he's paying $265. What is your long-term forecast for pellet prices?
It may be that this consumer got a very unusual deal in 2005 through some sort of a clearance event, because that price is much lower than even typical wholesale pricing was in 2005. If you look at when we started this business in 2006, our retail price was right about what it is now. In 2008, pricing went up about 10 percent.

If you go back five to 10 years ago when crude was cheaper, pellets cost less. Wood and pellets are typically moved by trucks that use diesel fuel, which has gone up since then; so there's no avoiding that pellet prices will rise as oil rises, as diesel fuel is an element of pellets' cost. Normally, when the price of oil doubles, it results in an increase in transportation costs for pellets of about 25 percent.

How do sales of pellet-burning appliances affect your demand forecast?
Last year, sales of pellet-burning appliances were up 180 percent. We won't see sales like that repeat this year—probably not until the next spike in oil pricing. But every heating system sold creates an incremental increase in demand, and people who have systems are continuing to use them, even with oil at lower price levels.

What we're seeing this year is that demand for pellets is coming later. There hasn't been mad rush to go out and buy supply, so we're seeing a later buying season with strong demand. There's not a feeling of panic of everyone this year like last year with the continued growth in the industry. Folks with stoves and inserts are telling friends to go out and buy a pellet-burning stove.

What's the difference between premium and superpremium pellets?
The Pellet Fuel Institute just released a new standard for superpremium pellets and is working out the statistical data around the new methodology. Ash level is a major distinction. Premium has a maximum of 1 percent ash content while superpremium has less than one-half of one percent. That's a big deal to a stove owner because you're cleaning your stove half as often.

Other things tested by the PFI include Btu content, length and diameter of the pellets, and durability. The heating value and ash level are of primary interest to a consumer. The range of variation for the heating value can be 10 percent, but ash level can vary by a factor of three. Moisture level is inversely proportional to heating performance also.

Shale gas holds promise, but drilling for it is controversial

As we covered in Buzzword: Shale gas, this natural gas contained within fine-grained, sedimentary rock is a topic of much interest for the energy industry. There are vast reserves of shale gas nationwide, and energy companies are working hard and fast to tap these natural-gas sources through what's called water fracturing, also known as hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking. (The graphic below details how hydrofracking works. It was created by Al Granberg and is being used courtesy of ProPublica: Journalism in the Public Interest, a site that features lots of coverage of shale gas and gas drilling.)

As you might expect, there's more to shale gas than the promise of abundant supplies of natural gas and lower prices for consumers. There's also concern that the process used to tap into the shale-gas reserves presents serious environmental and health risks.

Today's New York Times features an interesting story, "Gas Company Won't Drill in New York Watershed," on the decision by Chesapeake Energy not to drill for natural gas in upstate New York after the Oklahoma City-based corporation's plans met with strong opposition. If you're interested in the topic of shale gas, give it a read.—Steven H. Saltzman | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: If you haven't already, get your heating system tuned up. And to save money on your utility bills, install a programmable thermostat, read our buyer's guides to furnaces (more details here), solar water heaters, and pellet stoves, and follow our overall advice for using less energy at home.

Looking at the future of the energy-efficient home at the 2009 Solar Decathlon

Mother Nature didn't make it easy for the teams that took part in 2009 Solar Decathlon, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The homes designed and built by 20 college and university teams were put through the weather wringer during the final days of the event last weekend, with cold, rainy, overcast weather prevailing—not exactly ideal conditions for solar-powered homes.

The homes in the 2009 Solar Decathlon were judged on 10 characteristics, including architecture, comfort, lighting, appliances, hot water, home entertainment, and market viability, or how easy and affordable the home is to build. Readily available products used in the houses include compact fluorescent lightbulbs and LED lighting, induction cooktops, front-loading washing machines, energy-efficient windows, bamboo flooring, and low-VOC paint.

Team Germany took first prize in the fourth installment of this competition (see its home in the video above) earning 908.29 points out of a possible 1,000, followed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Team California with 863.08 points. See the complete final standings.

With umbrella in hand and galoshes on feet, I checked out the future of the energy-efficient home. (You can avoid any inclement weather by visiting the 20 projects via a virtual tour.)

While the competition calls for uniformity in overall size—houses can be no larger than 800 square feet—the first thing I noticed was how different the houses looked from one another. With teams from throughout the U.S. as well as Canada, German, Puerto Rico, and Spain, each featured a design unique to its climate and region.

10 Questions for . . . Jack Hidary, Chairman of SmartTransportation.org

In this installment of 10 Questions for . . . , Senior Editor Daniel DiClerico speaks with Jack Hidary, chairman of SmartTransportation.org, which brings together various organizations seeking innovative transport solutions. Here, Hidary talks about the inspiration behind last summer's Car Allowance Rebate Program (cash for clunkers), the $300 million State Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program, and why he's now focused on making American homes more energy efficient through the PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) bond program. As always, the responses below are the opinion of the interviewee.

You're an entrepreneur with a background in finance, technology, and medical research. What turned you on to energy efficiency?
I love taking an idea from the back of a napkin to a full-fledged company. In 2001, I built an energy practice that exposed me to the inefficiencies of fossil fuel. Take coal. By the time you go from the coal mine to the processing plant, over the power line and into the home, you're left with around 15 percent of the original energy. That's an enormous waste. Then there are the health and environmental issues related to carbon emissions, not to mention the economic and national-security issues related to our dependence on fossil fuels.

How did that translate into cash for clunkers?
In 2005, I spearheaded the effort to change the taxicabs in New York City to hybrid vehicles. Today, 25 percent of the city's fleet are hybrid, and the rest will so be in two to three years. The success in New York got me thinking about the roughly 250 million cars in the rest of the U.S. I realized that there needed to be an incentive to accelerate their turnover, especially since the average age of our vehicles has gone from seven years to 14 or 15 years. When I was growing up in Brooklyn, our local utility had a program that gave rebates for trading in an old air conditioner for a new unit. That to me was a great model for what we needed to do with cars. So I put together some ideas for a cash-for-clunkers program and presented it at the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative.

Do you think cash for clunkers will have a long-term impact on our culture?
There's now an entire set of programs based on clunkernomics, or the notion that efficiency makes good economics. During cash for clunkers, people walked into their dealership with a totally different mind-set. They weren't just looking at the transaction value of the sticker price but also at the cost of gas and maintenance. They understood that if a car is $500 less on the sticker but costs $2,000 more each year to operate, that's a bad deal. In technology, we call this total cost of ownership. The concept has been around for years, but it's entered the consumer lexicon, and moved well beyond cars.

The U.S. Department of Energy recently kicked in $300 million for cash for clunkers for appliances. And I just had an e-mail from a leader in computer-data centers, which suck up about 2 percent of the country's electricity. She's proposing a cash-for-clunkers program that would help swap out these massive servers for more efficient ones.

Why have you turned your attention to buildings?
We're hoping to catalyze the same paradigm shift in how people buy and maintain homes. The built environment—houses, apartments, commercial buildings, warehouses, etc.—is responsible for 40 percent of the nation's energy use. The average American household uses 50 percent more energy than the average Italian household. So there are a lot of things we can do to make buildings more efficient.

We have better windows and lighting and ways to harness solar power. These things all have great payback, but they also cost a lot to buy and install. Enter two guys from Berkeley, California, named Cisco DeVries and Dan Kamen. They came up with the model for a bond-based financing mechanism that would give people loans to pay for their energy retrofits and solar. They approached me and several other folks with the idea. We looked at it and decided to take it to scale through the formation of the PACE Now coalition. We're predicting that the program will stimulate up to $500 billion in business over the next decade.

How does a PACE bond work?
PACE stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy. It's very simple for consumers to access. They apply for a loan from their city or municipality, say $20,000 to replace the windows, lighting, and central air conditioning. The city issues a PACE bond and then lends the money, which the borrower pays back over 20 years via a surcharge on their property taxes. That's plenty of time to break even on the energy retrofit and solar installation, and consumers still qualify for federal energy tax credits, saving them even more on the project.

U.S. households could bank savings on heating costs this winter

Your heating bill could drop this winter, thanks to lower fuel prices and a forecast of slightly milder weather in many areas, according to the latest projections from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration.

The EIA estimates that the average U.S. household will spend about $960 on heating during the October 2009-March 2010 heating season. That's a decline of $84, or 8 percent, from the 2008-2009 heating season. The biggest savings are expected for homes that heat with natural gas or propane. You can save even more money by installing and using a programmable thermostat.

• Natural gas. The EIA expects that the average household that heats with gas save 12 percent this heating season, with those in the Midwest spending 15 percent less. (Check out our buyer's guide to furnaces.) A record high inventory of natural gas has resulted from a huge decrease in demand by the industrial sector and an increase in domestic production, including shale gas.

• Propane. Midwesterners might see an average decrease of 21 percent while those in the West should spend only 5 percent less. One reason for the variation is that the Midwest is projected to have a winter that's about 4 percent warmer while the West could be about 4 percent colder, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

• Heating oil. Oil is used by only 7 percent of U.S. households, the majority of which are in the Northeast. This season, those who heat with oil could save about 3 percent, around $60. Heating oil is averaging about $2.64 a gallon, 2 cents less than last season and 67 cents less than the in 2007-2008.

• Electricity. Those who heat with electricity will spend 2 percent less than last winter , an average of $20.—Kimberly Janeway | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential reading: Our latest report on pellet stoves highlights the pros and cons of this alternative heat source. (Ratings are available to subscribers.) To cut energy use year-round, find out how to save up to $1,500 on your annual utility bills, read our report on solar water heaters, and learn which compact fluorescent lightbulbs top our ratings.

By the Numbers: Virgin Earth Challenge calls for innovative ways to reduce greenhouse gases

$25 million

Prize in the Virgin Earth Challenge, which will be awarded to the individual or team to come up with a commercially viable design that accomplishes or appears capable of achieving the net removal of significant volumes of man-made greenhouse gases annually for at least 10 years.

Sir Richard Branson, of the Virgin Group, and former Vice President Al Gore are two of the six judges for the competition, which was launched in February 2007. As of the end of September, 900 entries had been received. A review of entries that made the first cut will take place next February.—Kimberly Janeway | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential reading: Use less energy and save up to $1,500 on your annual utility bills. Read our reports on pellet stoves and solar water heaters and find out which compact fluorescent lightbulbs top our ratings (available to subscribers).

Roundup of the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative: What's coming next for energy efficiency at home

The fifth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative resulted in 284 "commitments to action" valued at $9.4 billion. As we reported last week from the event, energy efficiency dominated much of the discussion, and if adopted, this year's commitment-to-action initiatives could eliminate 30 million metric tons of greenhouse-gas emissions a year; bring clean energy to an additional 7 million people worldwide; and engage 1.5 million new people in climate-change efforts.

"I think we can say with some certainty that this [commitment to action] model actually does work," said former President Bill Clinton during the CGI's closing ceremony. "People don't have to have the same politics, the same religion, or speak the same language to work together and to have an impact. We all have things to learn from each other. What we need is a shared mechanism to achieve common goals."

While most of the commitments were prepared in advance, some happened spontaneously, underscoring Clinton's call for collaboration. For example, CGI member Mouhsine Serrar, CEO of Prakti Design Lab, developed a commitment at the meeting to deliver efficient kitchen appliances to the people of Haiti.

Another commitment that bears closer watching came from Jack Hidary, chairman of SmartTransportation.org and the man behind the Car Allowance Rebate System, or cash for clunkers, which he unveiled at last year's CGI meeting. Hidary is now setting his sights on the country's inefficient housing stock, with a commitment to bring low-cost financing for energy-efficient retrofits. The illustration above, from the National Energy Technology Laboratory, shows energy-saving opportunities in a typical home.

The October 2009 issue of Consumer Reports details ways to make your home more efficient and cut your annual utility bill by $1,500. But upfront costs can be steep, especially if you install a pellet stove or a solar water heater.

Hidary's plan would alleviate that burden by letting you pay the costs over several years using the savings from your lower energy bills. Look for more details in our upcoming 10 Questions for . . . interview with Hidary.—Daniel DiClerico | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Visit our new Energy Saving & Green Living guide for more advice on how to save money on heating and cooling your home.

Pellet stoves are a hot topic with consumers

As high energy prices and federal tax incentives continue to spur interest in pellet stoves, the number of online discussions about these appliances seems to be on the rise. Among the topics of interest to potential buyers and seasoned users are which pellets to buy, their proper storage and cleanup, and even possible pellet shortages during peak heating season. The Napoleon NPS40 stove, $2,350, is shown.

You'll be happy to learn that the "supply of pellets stoves and fuel is good," according to Leslie G. Wheeler, director of communications for the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association.

The HPBA advises that you keep pellets dry and not handle them more than necessary, since they can breakup into smaller pieces. Also note that wood pellets in 40-pound bags are easier to store, keep dry, and tote to a stove than loose pellets, which require some sort of large bin.

Storage area can definitely be a concern with wood pellets. "You need some space to store the pellets; I have 4 tons in my basement," says John McAloon, a project leader in the Consumer Reports Technical Division. McAloon schleps the 40-pound bags of pellets into his basement by himself, but innovative bulk-delivery systems could become a more-attractive alternative.

As for water damage, "I've had water get into one or two bags stacked near the bottom of the pallet, but it ruined only a small amount of pellets," McAloon adds.

The HPBA suggests that you burn only grades of pellet recommended by the manufacturer of the stove and clean your stove(s) at least once a week regardless of which grade of pellet you burn.

"The stove requires some cleaning, but I haven't had problems with dust, and the pellets do burn pretty efficiently. Each week, after burning 300 to 400 pounds of pellets, I might find just a few clinkers—large ash deposits,"  says McAloon.

Two manufacturers whose pellet stoves were tested four our recent report—Harman Home Heating and England's Stove Works—offer valuable safety and troubleshooting advice on their Web sites.

Share your own tips or insights about using pellet stoves, which fuels to buy, and other subjects by leaving a comment below. Our future coverage will look at these burning topics.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential Information: The October 2009 issue of Consumer Reports includes expert advice on ways to slash your energy bills, ratings of compact fluorescent lightbulbs, and coverage of solar water heaters (stories and ratings are available to subscribers). Look for more ways to save in our new Energy Saving & Green Living guide.