WATCH: Greg Pahl’s Sustainably Heated Home: A Fireplace Insert
Categories:
Green Building, Renewable Energy
Posted on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 at 1:56 pm by webeditor
|
Tweet this story! Support our efforts for a sustainable world.
|
|
Greg Pahl, author of Natural Home Heating: The Complete Guide to Renewable Energy Options, has performed an energy overhaul on his 1950s tract home in northern Vermont. He has transformed a house that was built with no consideration for energy efficiency or sustainability into a naturally heated home using sustainable fuel sources.
In this video, Greg explains the conversion of his decorative living room fireplace—a “smoke alarm tester,” as he puts it—into a usable and efficient home heating appliance. He’ll explain what’s involved in installing one in your own home, saving you money and energy this winter.
Also available on ChelseaGreenTV.
This video is part of a series. See also:
- Greg Pahl Explains His Solar Domestic Hot Water System
- Greg Pahl Explains His Pellet Boiler
- Greg Pahl Explores a Sustainable Green Home
December 17th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I watched your ‘Fireplace Insert’ video with interest, as I have been thinking of in stalling one in both my house and my parent’s house. I was disappointed at the dearth of substantive information, however. While I recognize that a short video cannot convey the kind of information that may exist in the book, or place this particular project of Pahl’s in the context of the other efficiency / sustainability projects he has done in his home, I’m left with more questions than answers. The information-rich images went by too fast and without enough commentary; there was inadequate discussion of why you might hire a contractor (I can stand on my roof with a long pipe; but I may not know where to source it; or the right mastic to buy, or EPA regulations, issues regarding catalytic converters, restrictions, etc., etc…)
Perhaps most disappointing was the brush-aside comment about not needing to think about ‘payback’. By comparing his insert to a new boat or car, and furthermore admitting it is only for emergency situations, Pahl situates the project in the realm of luxury goods: They make us feel good, but are of dubious benefit to the larger system, which I thought was the point here (anyone remember ’sustainability?’). Global climate change _is_ an issue of payback: if you were to spend $3000 to address the issue, should you put it into an insert you rarely use, or should you buy a generator to run a heat pump tied to the exhaust line, and spend the $2500 you saved on solar panels for rural electrification in Haiti? Or insulation and weatherstripping for low-income homeowners / renters?
I apologize if my response sounds overly harsh. Perhaps I should assume Pahl and everyone at Chelsea Green (and perhaps watching this video) is already aware of these issues. But I get frustrated at what seems like double-talk and a lack of precision/rigor in the environmentally focused community. If it’s about global climate change, then let’s talk about that. If it’s about increasing your household’s security, that’s a different issue. Unduly conflating the two misses an opportunity to enrich the larger discussion.
With thanks for all the good work you do,
David
December 17th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Hi David,
Thank you for your comment. You’re right. It is hard to stuff a lot of information about living sustainably into a 4 minute video while doing justice to the topic at hand. That’s why we’ve broken up this video series into several segments. This fireplace insert video is just one piece of Greg Pahl’s sustainably heated home.
I’ve updated the post above to include links to the other videos. Please watch the other episodes and let us know what you think. All feedback is valuable for our future videos.
Thanks,
Jesse
December 17th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Hi David,
Yes, thanks for the comment. The video is 3:42 to be precise, and Jesse is right, you can only cram so much into that short a segment. I just watched the video for the first time, and I must say we didn’t do all that badly, in my humble opinion.
I even said that the question of “payback time” is a legitimate one that is worth asking. But I will admit to being just slightly annoyed when that subject comes up immediately when renewables are mentioned. Never came up when someone talked about buying a new SUV or motor home, or recreational boat. As it turns out, those were bad investments. Renewable energy almost never is a bad investment.
The pellet-fired boiler we installed as a replacement for our old, oil-fired boiler in the basement (see Pellet Boiler video) cost about $10,000, installed. I know, that’s a lot of money for some folks. But it’s already paid for itself in four years. Okay? It’s a bit harder to monetize the fireplace insert because we don’t use it as often. But it did get us through a couple of power outages and one boiler electronic control system problem last year (the one, and only, major problem we’ve had with the boiler in four years). So, in my opinion, the fireplace insert has already paid for itself in terms of peace of mind and heating security.
Thanks,
Greg
January 14th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I agree unlike oil, gas and coal, wood is a renewable resource, and as long as forests are properly replenished, we can heat homes with wood without depleting the earth’s natural resources. Wood is also a more economical means to home heating than relying solely on an oil or gas furnace. Gathering wood is a healthy activity, adding a level of exercise to the day. And of course, huddling in front of a smoldering fire after coming in from the cold is one of life’s small pleasures Burning wood is allot of work and can be vary dirty but their is a major gratification to seeing that low heating bill and knowing that your house is as warm as you want it with out turning up that thermostat. I recently took the grate out of my fireplace and replaced it with a grate heater and now I’m heating my whole house with my fireplace. A fireplace is about 5% heat efficient and this they claim makes it a 120,000 BTU per hour furnace and I believe it you can’t make to big of a fire or you will run you’re self out. I bought the grate heater on ebay it was called insertafurnace it was the only one with a screen. I also found the website http://www.insertafurnace.com/
June 13th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
[…] WATCH Greg Pahl Sustainably Heated Home A Fireplace Insert Posted by root 9 minutes ago (http://www.chelseagreen.com) Thank you for your comment you 39 re right it is hard to stuff a lot of information about fire after coming in from the cold is one of life small pleasures burning wood is allot of chelsea green is proudly powered by wordpress Discuss | Bury | News | WATCH Greg Pahl Sustainably Heated Home A Fireplace Insert […]
December 3rd, 2009 at 7:26 pm
I had problems seeing your blog correctlly in the most recent release of Opera. Looks good in IE7 and Firefox though.