SUN JOURNAL • December 9, 2023
Les Otten’s dismissal of heat pumps in favor of pellet stoves skipped over a few facts that complicate the picture. Mr. Otten’s brisk summary of heating appliance efficiency fails to note that while wood pellet stoves might achieve 85%, heat pumps are actually 400% efficient at moderate outdoor temperatures, and they produce zero waste heat. Even at sub-zero outdoor temperatures the heat pump efficiency is 200%. Otten claims that it is “an undeniable truth” that “wood indisputably has the best carbon footprint.” The carbon neutrality of biomass burning is much in dispute due to the timescale of carbon dioxide uptake. The CO2 from a tree burned today will take 30-plus years to be taken up in regrowth. We don’t have those 30 years to address the problem. Furthermore, any biomass not burned is that much less CO2 produced. ~ Paul Stancioff is a University of Maine Farmington professor emeritus of Physics. Cynthia Stancioff is a retired English major seeking climate solutions