Pellet Heat Approaches Liftoff with Residential Consumers
by Ajji Ummah Researcher“We’re this far from taking off,” said a speaker at a pellet
boiler firm’s recent sales meeting in Portland, Maine, while holding his thumb
and index finger two inches apart. At the same time, another major pellet
boiler firm in Maine is pounding the television airwaves with a commercial
comparing the price of pellet fuel to heating oil, and Maine’s state energy
agency recently announced an incentive program whereby up to 50 residential
pellet boiler purchasers will receive rebates up to $5,000. The boiler firms
and installers hope that this incentive will prove so popular that it will be
extended beyond the initial funding.
Speaking at the 2013
Kedel (a Danish pellet boiler) Summit in Portland, former Biomass Thermal
Energy Council Chairman Charlie Niebling was asked what it will take for
residential pellet boiler sales in Maine and New Hampshire to achieve liftoff.
Niebling suggested that increased tension in the Middle East, thereby spiking
oil prices, would be an obvious stimulus. Absent such a spike, Niebling stated
that while the pellet sector is “poised to significantly expand,” it behooves
the industry to undertake a strong education and promotion program.
Other speakers at the meeting cited the need to answer
consumer questions about bulk delivery, the long-term price outlook for
pellets, the resale value of homes with central pellet heat, and greenhouse gas
emissions. A panel of customers speaking at the end of the meeting emphasized
that the desire to “get away from oil,” for both economic and environmental
reasons, trumped whatever unanswered questions they had about switching to
pellets. A secondary reason cited was a desire to spend their fuel dollars in
support of Maine’s forest products economy.
Sales staff at the meeting spoke with confidence, noting
that the 20-year longevity of oil burners means that every year, five percent
of Maine homeowners are in the marketplace for a new heating system. The
marketing pitch is “pellets are half the price of oil, and emit one-tenth the
greenhouse gas.”
Will Maine be a significant partner in achieving pellet heat
liftoff? According to its critics, the outlook among some trustees and staff at
the state’s energy agency, Efficiency Maine, is that economic development
considerations—the huge multiplier effect of a heating system using a locally
produced fuel—are not central to the agency’s mission. In addition, the “insulation uber alles”
crowd continues to demand that no home receive funds for a heating system
change-out without the building envelope first being secured, a proposition
that often leaves the homeowner with only enough funds for a new oil burner.
There are indications that the insulationists’ shrill
arguments, threatening legal action if Efficiency Maine does not interpret an
ambiguous section of new state law in their favor, are losing sway at the state
agency. Also, Efficiency Maine recently made a modest grant to assist the
Northern Forest Center’s promising Model Neighborhood project, which
incentivizes pellet boiler installations in a concentrated area of homeowners.
At any rate, Efficiency Maine has just announced a wide
range of incentives designed to reduce both energy demand and heating costs.
Pellet stove purchasers will receive a $250 rebate provided the stove is
EPA-approved and makeup air is ducted into the unit. Homeowners installing heat
pumps or efficient new gas, propane, or oil furnaces will receive $500 rebates.
The first 50 homeowners to install pellet boilers meeting HUD Energy Saver
standards—or geothermal heat—will receive a $5,000 rebate, which is
approximately the incentive amount that has proved most effective in selling
pellet boilers.
Our industry up here obviously hopes that this incentive,
sales force enthusiasm, the media advertising being done by one boiler
firm—Maine Energy Systems—promoting pellet heat in general, and word-of-mouth
recognition of our product quality will get us into a sharply upward flight
path.
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