How Does Wood Biofuel Work

When it comes to the subject of biofuel many people think about biodiesel. In the past biodiesel was thought of as being our Saviour - it would allow us to continue our extravagant Western lifestyle but without harming the environment. Unfortunately there has been more evidence to suggest that this isn't really the way to go because to grow crops for biodiesel it means that deforestation has happened in many parts of the world and also there have been problems with food shortages.

However there are really a number of different types of biofuel and they aren't necessarily all bad. For instance you can simply use wood to feed into a stove that can heat your home. Although on the face of it this could mean deforestation, however there is so much wood being disposed of these days you could really think of it as being a form of recycling. So how to choose a wood burning stove?

If you go to your local dump chances are you will see lots of wood piled up. This might be from people remodeling their homes and throwing the wood out or perhaps they have had to chop down an old tree in their garden. Whatever the reason, this wood is no longer being used and would simply go to waste.

The difficulty with burning solid wood is the fact that you have to keep an eye on it. The wood can get burnt at quite a fast rate and if you don't keep adding wood to the stove it will eventually come to an end and your home will end up pretty cold.

An alternative to solid wood burning stoves is wood pellet stoves. The pellets require more processing to turn them from solid chunk of wood into pellets, however saw dust can be obtained from sawmills who produce saw dust as a byproduct.

They offer more convenience to the homeowner. Basically they have a special feeding system called a "hopper" and also a thermostat. So you can set the temperature you like and as long as you have given the stove enough pellets, you can allow it to do it's stuff. Basically you don't have to keep a constant eye on it. The larger the hopper you have the longer your stove will be able to continue burning the pellets.

There is also a feature that sucks air from your room, transfers it through the stove and then sends the hot air back into your room or some sort of venting system.

When storing your wood pellets, make sure you keep them somewhere that's dry. You certainly don't want them to get wet because it simply won't provide you the benefits of heat that you are looking for. A good place to keep them is in a garage, shed or perhaps a basement. You need to be able to have easy reach of them. Make sure that you don't allow them to have contact with the ground if you think that there will be a problem with them getting damp.

There are many places you can buy wooden pellets including home improvement stores such as Home Depot, Ace Hardware and even on Amazon.