An opportunity to shape policy

[lowroadacres]

I hope that this is the right place to post this.....

As a wood heat practitioner it drives me up the wall when experts talk about saving energy on heating but refuse to discuss solid fuel ( wood or pellet) as a viable means of reducing the use of electricity or fossil fuels for heating.

Here in Manitoba our publicly owned utility company has a program known as "powersmart" which provides financing and incentives to help home owners reduce the amount of electricity that they use.

There are all sorts of programs that they offer but none are visibly including solid fuel heating.

In the very near future the MB Hydro company is offering three open houses and the opportunity for online submissions where the public can, in theory, have a say as to how the powersmart program moves forward.

I plan on being in attendance on Monday evening to bang the drum for wood heat.

http://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.html?item=19630

It drives me crazy that they will finance geothermal and natural gas upgrades but they won't, at least to is point, consider financing of upgrading say an open fireplace to an EPA approved fireplace insert.

Thoughts?

 

[woodgeek]

Go bang the drum. I would research winter air-quality issues in Winnepeg, if any, in case someone raised that concern.

 

[lowroadacres]

At this point in time there has been no discussion, that I am aware of, in our province about air quality connected with wood heat.

The very thing that makes us prairie, flat with lots of wind, also prevents much of the issue of air quality even in communities where a lot of people heat with wood.

There a likely isolated places where a neighbour complains about a close by wood heat user but those could be addressed individually.

Your point is valid and my first and I think easy counter point would be only approve EPA certified units for the program.

After that it is up to individual users to use dry wood

 

[lowroadacres]

A quick update.....

Last evening's open house for the "powersmart" program was interesting to say the least as only about 12 people showed up ..... We reside on the edge of a city of 50,000 people in a trade area serving more than 100,000 people.

12 people showed up to listen, to learn or to put forward ideas to help the "powersmart" program get better.

Without boring anyone with details of policy beyond what I went there to discuss I will say this....

We, that is our local stove shop and I, received verbal approval to utilize the "powersmart" financing program to install an EPA approved fireplace insert in our home.

The term "pilot project" was used several times.

Next step is to fill out the paperwork with the program, which provides low interest loans that are administered via one's utility bills (gas or electric), to verify that we a good to go with an install.

A close second step is to have the stove shop come to our house with their tape measure and camera to figure out our options for an install.

Stay tuned.

 

[lowroadacres]

Stove shop is now recognized as an approved vendor for the program with our local utility.

We have been approved for the "pilot project"

Insurance company is excited to know that we might be moving away from a wood stove to a "fireplace" which means ht they are quite willing to remove the woodheat surcharge on the policy.

All in all a pretty nice bit of news today.

Will keep updates coming and will start with photos when we get a bit further along.

I will likely discontinue this thread and move everything into this thread.....

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/i-have-my-hopes-up-again-looking-for-recommendations.119366/