The Green Homes Challenge
makes it fun and easy to save energy,
adopt environmentally-friendly practices,
and use renewable energy.
- Learn about actions you can take
- Set goals and track your progress
- Join a Green Team to stay motivated
Residential biomass furnaces and stoves are an alternative to heating oil furnaces or electric systems; they burn renewable materials like wood, wood pellets, corn, or nutshells. Biomass is a renewable energy source because the carbon dioxide emitted when it is burned can be recaptured if the biological source used is replanted. Depending on home size and layout, free-standing biomass stoves can provide all of a home’s heating needs or supplement traditional heating systems. Biomass furnaces and boilers are designed to replace traditional furnaces.
The Maryland Energy Administration’s (MEA) Clean Burning Wood Stove Grant Program offers $400 grants for approved wood-burning stoves and $600 for approved pellet-burning stoves. A wide variety of stove and furnace options are available; enter “biomass stove” or “biomass furnace” into your internet browser to review products on the market, or review the lists of stoves eligible for the grant program.
Opinions differ on how “green” biomass stoves and furnaces are. See How Green are Biomass Stoves and Furnaces? for more information.
Take Action:
Links to more information: