Wood, solar heating and heat pumps

Tuesday, April 24, 2007   (updated Monday, August 20, 2007)

About 300 of Samsø’s private homes outside the local district heating systems have invested in individual renewable energy heating systems. Some have solar thermal panels on the roof to heat hot water and contribute to the heating of the house. Others have replaced their oil furnace with a wood pellet boiler, a Finnish mass fireplace or other biomass boilers. And some have installed the ever more popular heat pumps, either large ground-heat systems that supply the house with all its heat or smaller air-to-air heat pumps that heat the room where they are installed. 

The island has about 1200 winterized homes outside the district heating areas and thus 25% of these now rely in whole or in part on renewable energy resources.

Houses with oil furnaces save both money and reduce CO2 emissions by replacing the oil burner with renewable energy solutions. Samsø’s citizens have since the energy island project began had access to energy consultants who visit your house free of charge to suggest insulation improvements and renewable energy alternatives.

Samsø’s local plumbers, carpenters and other tradesmen are ambassadors
Many of Samsø’s plumbers promote, sell and service solar thermal systems, wood pellet boilers, heat pumps and other renewable energy heating solutions. The Samsø Energy and Environment Office cooperates actively with the island tradesmen, among other ways by arranging training courses that keep them up-to-date with the newest technology.

This collaboration has been an important factor in the general task of converting to renewable energy. Citizens contact their plumber or furnace repairman when the furnace quits working. Traditionally, the customer would be advised to buy a new oil furnace to replace the old one. Today, they are offered professional advice on a broad range of products from wood pellets to heat pumps and solar energy. One of the local firms even produces solar thermal panels on the island, importing the necessary know-how and parts from a solar panel company based on the eastern mainland, Sealand.

Economic wood pellets or maintenance-free heat pumps
Consumers focus largely on the economics of these energy investments, but other factors also play an important rôle when decisions are made for conversion to renewable energy.

The environmental aspect is a critical parameter for many, but also the question of daily operation and maintenance is an important factor. For example, using wood pellets as fuel is inexpensive, but the furnace has to be cleaner regularly, and wood pellets have to be ordered and in some cases loaded manually, operations some find hard to envisage doing regularly. Heat pumps solutions are a little more expensive in running costs, but they require even less maintenance than an oil furnace. You don’t even have to order fuel!