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Empower Yourself!

Our mission is to help Central Wisconsin residents empower themselves by taking charge of their energy use with renewable energy and smart energy choices.

Performance Energy Inc. is the first company in Wausau to offer compete solar energy services. We can also help you save money and energy through home performance testing, insulation and other services.

Find out more at www.PerformanceEnergyInc.com.

Performance Energy, Inc.
P.O. Box 578
Wausau, WI 54402
(715)218-1373
thesolarguy@verizon.net

Read this before you buy a wood boiler in Wisconsin

Econoburn boiler

The Econoburn is available with the H stamp, or ASME certification.

Just got this in from our Econoburn rep:

“I just got off the phone with Rick Merkle, Boiler Chief for the State of Wisconsin. He did verify that any pressurized boiler, regardless of installation location (indoor or outdoor), needs to have the {H}-Stamp and a National Board number.”

In case you’re not familiar with it, the H stamp he’s referring to is the mark indicating ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) certification.  ASME certification is the gold standard for safety in pressurized boilers.

Econoburn is one of only two (as far as we know) gasification boilers available that are ASME certified.   If you are currently running one that’s not, be warned:  boilers not bearing the H stamp (presently including all foreign-built wood gasification boilers)  can and will be shut down by the State of Wisconsin.

If you’d like to see an Econoburn boiler in person, please call us at 715-218-1373 and we’ll be happy to set up a viewing.


EconoBurn Boiler on display in Wausau

December 4th, 2009 by Dan in Wausau, Wisconsin, Wood heat, renewable energy

Our first EconoBurn wood boiler unit is now on display at 1699 Schofield Ave. Suite 304 in Schofield, Wisconsin. It is solid. I just learned today that it is the only pressurized wood boiler to meet code requirements. All the outdoor wood boilers are open vessel, which means they rust out fast. A pressure vessel has no air and always the same water so there is no internal rust.

To view the boiler, please call me at 715-218-8654 for available times.

Dan Michelsen


Econoburn: A clean-burning alternative to outdoor wood boilers

September 20th, 2009 by Admin in Clean energy, Uncategorized, Wausau, Wisconsin, Wood heat
The Econoburn wood boiler boasts an impressive 87% total thermal efficiency.

The Econoburn wood boiler boasts an impressive 87% total thermal efficiency.

When you live in Wisconsin, one of the most abundant sources of renewable energy around is wood!  Trees are everywhere.  Even if you don’t have a wood lot of your own, you can most likely beg, borrow or buy inexpensive wood fuel from a friend or neighbor.

Trouble is, “renewable energy” doesn’t always mean “clean energy.”  There’s been a big bruhaha in recent months about outdoor wood boilers.  Seems that the neighbors of outdoor wood boiler owners don’t appreciate the fact that said owners are saving money.  Rather, for some reason the neighbors are upset by the great clouds of noxious black smoke that regularly engulf their homes and yards whenever the aforementioned outdoor wood furnaces are fired up.

Imagine.

Seriously, I’m being a little snide here, but smoke from outdoor wood boilers really is a big problem in rural neighborhoods.  According to the State of Washington Department of Ecology:

(T)ests done by the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM) found that the average fine particle emissions (a particularly harmful pollutant) from one OWB are equivalent to the emissions from 22 EPA certified wood stoves, 205 oil furnaces, or as many as 8,000 natural gas furnaces. One OWB can emit as much fine particle matter as four heavy duty diesel trucks on a grams per hour basis.

Yuck.

And think about it – if outdoor wood boilers burn that dirty, surely their owners must be spending twice the amount of time they really need splitting and shoveling wood.

A clean-burning wood boiler alternative

In the interests of upholding wood as a viable renewable energy source, we decided to look for a cleaner-burning alternative to outdoor wood boilers.  And we found one we think is a real winner.

We’d like to introduce the Econoburn wood gasification boiler to Central and Northern Wisconsin.  It’s got a lot of endearing features, which we’ll highlight in future posts.  But for now I’ll start off by mentioning that Econoburn wood boilers get an amazing 87% total efficiency – approaching the efficiency of a natural gas boiler.

Now that’s making clean energy out of a renewable resource!

Visit our website to find out more.