School Wood Pellet Heating Helps Clear The Air

School conversions to wood pellet heating helping communities clear the air

New Zealand schools and Nature's Flame are helping clear the air by converting heating systems to run on clean-burning wood pellets.

In Christchurch today (22 June) the Hon. Lianne Dalziel, MP, will officially open Central New Brighton School's converted boiler. The nearby Rudolf Steiner School has also recently converted its boiler to run on wood pellet fuel. A year ago, Rotorua Girls' High School was the first to make the change and Nature's Flame and its parent company Solid Energy are working with a number of other school boards around the country as they assess future heating options.

Christchurch is among a growing number of New Zealand districts where pressure from national air quality targets means regional councils are increasingly focussing on lower emissions options and plant retrofits. In many cases, existing boiler plant and infrastructure can be easily modified to use wood pellets, avoiding the need for a major capital outlay on new equipment.

Andy Matheson, Solid Energy's Energy Developments General Manager, says the increasing interest from school boards is pleasing.

"Solid Energy believes it can make a positive contribution to the air we breathe. In 2004 we announced our decision to progressively withdraw from supplying the household coal market and, through Nature's Flame, have been working to offer a clean, affordable heating solution through wood pellet fuel. For schools that are close to one of our pellet plants and have equipment that can easily be converted, it certainly stacks up," he says.

"Apart from the fast-growing home pellet appliance customer base we are also seeing interest nationally from commercial diesel, LPG and solid fuel users who wish to change to a competitive, low cost, locally sourced renewable fuel."

Liarne Tamaiparea, Chair of Central New Brighton School's Board of Trustees, says the change made sense.

"At the very most we might have been able to continue as we were for another five years but it would have cost several thousand dollars to go through the process of having that consented," she says. "We got a costed analysis of the alternatives and, from that, learned our boiler was in good nick and quite capable of running on this new fuel. We had to fit a new door on our bunker and reline the floor, but the changeover to wood pellets wasn't expensive. We also aim, in phase two, to heat our swimming pool with it."

Brian Anderson, a Mechanical Engineer at Powell Fenwick Consultants Ltd in Christchurch, managed the two most recent conversions and says a move to wood pellets gives schools an opportunity to not only contribute to a more healthy community environment but also use energy more efficiently.

"There's a little more to conversion than just changing to pellet fuel, but provided it's thought through, in most cases it's pretty straightforward," he says. "Additionally, there are little things that schools are adding that don't cost a lot but make quite marked efficiency gains. We're installing thermostatic valves on classroom radiators so they have more room-by-room control of temperatures. We're also adding a fairly simple control system on the boiler itself that senses what kind of day it's going to be and 'decides' how early in the morning the plant needs to fire up. If it senses there's a stinking cold southerly on the way, it'll trigger the boiler to run a couple of hours earlier."

ENDS

Notes:

* Nature's Flame is New Zealand's leading biomass company, producing wood pellets at plants in Rotorua and Rolleston from recycled wood waste. An increasing number of homeowners are switching to the specially designed wood pellet fireplaces for their home heating.

* Solid Energy is committed to helping the country transition to clean and affordable heating solutions. Nature's Flame is integral to Solid Energy's strategy of developing a diversified bioenergy portfolio alongside its coal business. The company has recently acquired a biodiesel business.

© Scoop Media