New sales tax exemption added to VT state incentives for renewable wood pellet boilers and furnaces

by Jeff Rubin | August 6, 2018

New sales tax exemption added to VT state incentives for renewable wood pellet boilers and furnaces

Did you know that Vermont has had a fully-operational wood pellet central heating industry for more than ten years? It is a model of private-public partnership.

Renewable wood pellet heating fuel is low cost, price stable, and keeps $.78 of every heating dollar in our region instead of sending it to the petroleum industrial complex. Wood pellet central heating supports local jobs, and sustainable forests throughout our region, all while cleaning up greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas heating systems.

The new generation of hands-free, clean-heat wood pellet boilers and furnaces is a key technology for reaching Vermont’s clean energy goals, but so far we are behind schedule.

It takes more technology to heat with a solid fuel than it does a liquid or gas so pellet boilers and furnaces cost more to install. Yet, over the life of the system they will save you tens of thousand of dollars and hundreds of tons of greenhouse gas emissions,

In order to level the playing-field Vermont has invested in the following incentives:

Part A: $3,000 RERC incentive
Paid directly to the installer
http://www.rerc-vt.org/incentives-program/eligibility

Part B: $3,000 Efficiency Vermont Incentive
Paid the installer, homeowner, or boiler company
https://www.efficiencyvermont.com/rebates/list/central-wood-pellet-furnaces-boilers-residential

Part C:  Sales Tax exemption for pellet boilers
The exemption is on qualifying equipment and directly associated equipment must meet the following requirements:  (A) installed as a
primary central heating system; (B) rated as high-efficiency, meaning a higher heating value or gross calorific value of 85 percent or more;
(C) containing at least a one week fuel-storage, automated startup and shutdown, and fuel feed; and (D) meeting other efficiency and air
emissions standards established by the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Heat Loss

The two variables of of heat loss are a) geographic location, and b) building performance. Together they will determine the quantity of heat needed to maintain comfort.

Geographic location drives the building's “design day." Your design day is the difference in temperature between the inside and outside of your house on the theoretical coldest day of the year; so in the northeast we calculate a day that is -10ºf outside and comfortable 68ºf inside. This is referred to as the “delta-T” value. A typical delta-T for the northeast is 78º.

Building performance is the big one because there’s nothing we can do about geographic location. Today we can build a really tight thermal envelope, but most of our heating pollution comes from the millions of homes built over the last 100-150 years. We are getting better at buttoning-up those old buildings with insulation and weather sealing but weatherization is still  never going to be enough to overcome the heat loss from a 78º delta-T. That means we need heating systems that can quickly put a whole lot of heat back into those old houses on the days that are really cold.