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Many people have been lead to believe that using biofuel and other forms of alternative energy is impractical and not economical. For most, it’s just an idea that will hopefully be available in the future. But many people are already using a form of biofuel in their homes that is not talked about much.

For thousands of years this fuel has been used. It is very abundant in some places and in a lot of cases over abundant. what I am talking about is wood. Wood sometimes has a bad reputation because to many the idea of burning wood sounds like it would be bad for the environment.

When many people, who are concerned about the environment, think of burning wood, the first things they think about is smoke and clearing forests to get the wood. Smoke from wood stoves and fireplaces can be a problem, especially in urban areas and areas with poor air circulation like valleys.

Modern wood stoves have come a long way in helping the air pollution problem.

Many of them now can burn with very little if any visible smoke. And a more practical way for most people to use wood as fuel is to burn wood pellets. Pellets burn clean and are almost as convenient to use and install as a gas or electric furnace.

As far as destroying forests to burn for energy, it really isn’t happening in the modern industrialized world. There is plenty of waste wood from the wood products industry and forest enhancement projects that is not being utilized. The forest products industry knows that most larger trees are too valuable for other products to be cutting them down to make firewood or wood pellets.

Most of our forests have way too many trees to begin with.

From past mismanagement and other factors, our forests have become severely overcrowded. Trees have to compete with each other which slows their growth and makes them more vulnerable to fire and disease. In thinning operations, foresters will leave the bigger healthy trees and remove the competing smaller and slower growing trees. Many of these are too small or not the right quality for making lumber and other products.

This small low grade material can be ideal for making firewood or pellets. Unfortunately the demand is not great enough to utilize all this material. Most of it ends up being burned on site or left to rot. If more people would start heating their homes with pellets, this material could be used instead of going to waste. Whether it is burned in your home, in the forest or left to rot, either way the CO2 is released into the atmosphere. So we might as well be extracting the energy from it instead of burning non renewable fossil fuels.

Burning wood may not be for everyone, but burning wood pellets may be feasible for most. If you are interested in using alternative energy, do some research into wood pellets or a wood stove.

Learn more about firewood including how to measure a cord of wood.