Coalpail.com Forum

The wood and pellet guys are advertising a component of the 2009 Stimulus Program. This program expands upon the Bush plan in that it allows a 30% (as opposed to $300) tax credit on the purchase of biomass heating units achieving efficiencies of at least 75%. It maxes out at $1500. That's real money. A $4500 wood or pellet boiler could now be more like $3000. Sure coal is still cheaper per BTU (by far), but sooner or later, we will be getting a "fossil fuel BTU tax" just like in Europe. It's just a matter of time.

I know that most of us are coal burners, but in my case it had more to do with overall economics, automation, and function. For those of us with family or friends considering a solid fuel choice, that cash could definitely tip the scales toward wood. If those incentives are out there, everybody should know about them.

Most of the tax credits for energy upgrades have been doubled under the new stimulus plan. Details here

https://www.energystar.gov/about/federal_tax_credits

As far as I'm concerned, coal is "the ultimate" biomass fuel. It's just not from the current model year !!

So buy one that burns coal too. Scott

Hey, there are NO bio-fuel boilers for 4500 greenbacks. Isn't happening this year or next, soooooooo

Even with a rebate a lot of people will not save money. Lowes has a 40 lb. bag of pellets listed at $6.49

To keep it simple lets say $6 per 40 lb. bag of coal or $300 per ton BUT we need about 1.5 tons of pellets to equal 1 ton of coal. So we have about $450 compared to whatever you're paying for coal per ton... It's a significant difference. In my case about It would cost me $2000 more in heating season if I used pellets.