@cjd
What's the advantage gained by converting it into pellets, rather than burning it as logs?
@TMakarios
Standardization. Which enables automation. You fill a hopper with pellets, you turn it on and go to sleep and it keeps you warm.
There are wood boilers but they're super dirty because they need to somehow keep the fire going all of the time and then when you call for heat then they turn on a blower and make a mushroom cloud of smoke. That's your wood going up the chimney un-burned.
Wood pellets don't replace a wood stove, they replace an oil furnace.
@cjd @TMakarios There's a lot of good things about wood, but there are downsides. I'm not sure if there's enough to go around and emissions from it are pretty bad. Air quality sucks in an area where everyone is burning wood. Furnace designs can help with this somewhat. I've always wondered if we could grow enough dried algae pellets in the ocean and run them through modified coal plants.
@dazinism @cjd @TMakarios That does stink. The concept becoming mainstream has done some good though because people know they can get by with a lot less energy usage. People used to chop wood like madmen to make it through winter and I always thought they might be better off if they used it for insulation rather than burning it.