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Nov 12, 2024

Sunapee Middle-High School switches to wood for heating

The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox. Sunapee Middle-High School is swapping out its old oil-fueled heating system and switching to renewable wood fuel. At an unveiling

The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox.

Sunapee Middle-High School is swapping out its old oil-fueled heating system and switching to renewable wood fuel.

At an unveiling at the school Friday, officials showed how the new biomass wood boiler heating system will work.

Wood chips are deposited into a big metal silo and then carried by a conveyor belt into a boiler, which uses forced hot water to heat the building.

Project leaders and energy experts said one of the best things about the new system is that all of the wood heat will be processed, dried and screened at a plant in Keene, so 100% of the fuel will be locally sourced.

"It's a local, sustainable fuel. It funds local forestry and logging jobs, and it helps you save money," said Sam Evans-Brown, executive director of NH Clean Energy. "They're going after these ancient oil fire boilers that were 50 years old when the town bought them and it's going to a modern, more efficient heating set up."

>> Link: Fuel prices in New Hampshire

Officials said the swap has been a long time coming, and the state put in $800,000 in grants to help fund it.

The companies that worked on the project said heating buildings with renewable biomass heat is a more environmentally sustainable option than oil.

"The district, before we started working here, was using over 70,000 gallons of oil a year, which is about two Olympic-sized swimming pools," said Eric Lafayette of EEI. "That is now being converted to 350 tons of local wood chips."

The new system is meant to be a more energy-resilient and cost-efficient option for heating the school that project leaders said will benefit the entire Sunapee community.

Evans-Brown said the state has rebate programs available to New Hampshire residents and an additional program may be available to help finance heat pumps.

"There's federal money that's coming down the pipe for low and moderate-income people," he said. "You can get up to $8,000 for putting a heat pump in your house. The one caveat is that money comes through what's called the Inflation Act, and Donald Trump has said he might try to claw those dollars back, so a lot depends on how Congress decides they want in act in the coming months."