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ErkMcGurk t1_ixvv084 wrote

Reply to comment by jabbanobada in I want to get off the grid. What are my options for heat and hot water? by pencil_2b

>Just say no to pellets. Not environmentally friendly at all and a pain in the ass

I'm curious why you say pellets aren't environmentally friendly. They're nearly carbon-neutral, and otherwise would be a waste product. Many wood-burning appliances are highly efficient.

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pencil_2b OP t1_ixwdmdp wrote

From what I understand there are whole forests being razed in eastern Europe and the SE US. I was under the impression that it's possible to buy sustainably produced pellets but that's not across the board.

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BossCrabMeat t1_ixx1m1f wrote

Most of the pellets produced in NE USA is sawmill waste, ie byproduct of hardwood flooring production.

I have a pellet stove and it works great no matter how cold it gets. Your only problem would be storing the pellets.

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jabbanobada t1_ixxi8qh wrote

There’s only so much waste wood and it can also go to particle board. Burning pellets will always pull from a market that also makes pellets out of forests. It’s only carbon neutral on long time frames, if you cut down a tree and plant a new one in its place, it takes a century to catch up.

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ErkMcGurk t1_ixxselm wrote

Ok, wood comes from trees that got cut down, but is it actually a worse energy source environmentally-speaking than photovoltaic? While growing, trees provide food and habitat for wildlife, and require little maintenance to produce. PV solar, besides the environmental costs of producing the panels themselves, also depends typically on lead or lithium-based batteries, and all of the equipment needs to be replaced on a regular basis (5-10 years for batteries, 25 years for panels). Large-scale solar farms often occupy space that trees could instead, and I wonder whether the trees would be more efficient at capturing solar energy.

I'm sure improvements could be made in the forestry industry, but wood burning seems to be less of an environmental concern than burning fossil fuels, and is an economical source of heat in areas where wood is abundant.

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