Idea for rating woodboiler

[Birdman]

I can remember in March of last year reading on this site and investigating all the woodboilers and trying to decide if it was the right path... ie.. buying a wood gasifier. I thought it might be cool to have some sort of rating system made by owners who frequent this site to help others. For example a questionaire for each owner and compile the date here fo those people who are looking for info? Like

1. What boiler do you own?
2. Give your boiler a rating as to your happiness with it so far? ( 1-10) 10 being the highest
3. How much wood do you use per year during th eheating season and what sq ft are you heating?
4. Etc
5. Etc



Maybe other owners could add questions and answers and someone could compile the data? Maybe this is what the dealers should be doing? Just random idea and thoughts. Maybe make a better questionaire for the experts like at what point does your flux capictor turn on and so forth? how much heat are you squeezing from a stick of wood at what altidude? so forth

 

[Nofossil]

Nice idea, but it might be hard to get any kind of solid data. People's satisfaction would be good data, but comparisons involve so many variables that it would be tough to make sense of it.

Much as I don't tend to advocate a role for government in much of anything, it would be quite helpful to have a relatively simple standard test along with a regulation that states something like this:

"IF you make any claims about efficiency or emissions, you MUST include the results of this test along with the name of the organization performing the test, and the test report must be publicly available."

The test doesn't have to be very complex, but there needs to be some well understood basis for comparison. Right now, manufacturers and dealers can make any claim that they want.

Something along the lines of an 'energy star' sticker would help. I'd make it voluntary, but make sure that if you have it, it means something.

Just my $.02

 

[pybyr]

I too think it is a great idea- but there is that phenomenon, as Nofo alludes to, that peoples' expectations vary, and there is a tendency on most people's parts, unless they have bought a real lemon, to notice the things that they like about a big purchase because it helps them be comfortable thinking that they made the best decision. I call it the Ford/Chevy/Dodge pickup phenomenon (I suppose now you need to add Toyota) where everyone tends to think whatever they are already driving is somehow vastly superior to the other options, even though they all have their shortfalls (which vary), and it's partly a matter of which trade-offs fit a given owner well. Then you have the folks who have unreasonable expectations or don't use something right, and they assume the problem is the product.

I will say, after disclosing that I probably have the same tendency to tend to see things that confirm the decisions I already made (except for on those occasions when something really reeks), that one of several things that impressed me about Econoburn is that they _did_ go for and receive true Energy Star rating, and that label is on the unit, even though there is not a % figure, due to the fact that there are not yet any uniform "units" to compare one wood unit to another in an apples-to-apples way.

Hope we maybe see new trends of competitiveness and disclosure of supporting ratings early in '09, when the potential new tax credit for highly efficient biomass appliances kicks in-- that may incent makers and marketers to really test and prove things.

Unfortunately for me, Congress only passed that after I'd bought my boiler and I think it only applies to units placed in service during or aftr January 09 (although at the rate I am going, maybe mine won't be "in service" rather in progress until then). My guess, and it is purely my uneducated guess, is that right now, Econoburn and anyone else are not going to trumpet the incentive before the incentive is fully in effect (no sensible maker or marketer sends a message to the effect of "don't buy our product yet because there may be an incentive later" -especially in this economy....