The above-grade steel silo that stores 42 tons of screened dry wood chips, delivered by blower truck
Weare, NH – John Stark High School (SAU 24) is now being heated by a dry wood chip boiler system installed by Froling Energy of Peterborough.
At the new heating system’s core is a 1.7 million BTU/hour Schmid UTSK biomass boiler. It is being fed screened semidry wood chips (Froling Energy’s PDCs) from a steel 42 ton above-grade silo, that is key to the cost-effectiveness of this concept. The vertical wood chip silo is refilled by a blower truck.
John Stark High School students painted this mural on the outside wall of the school.
In the system’s first heating season the school consumed over 300 tons of dry wood chips which cost $36,000. This is the equivalent of over 28,000 gallons of No. 2 fuel oil, which at $2.30 a gallon would cost $64,400. The estimated first-year fuel savings should be $36,000, compared to oil. They will save even more with the generation of about 900 NH Class 1 Thermal RECs, which should net at more than $16 each, creating $14,400 in income.
The Swiss Schmid biomass boiler with 1.7 million BTU per hour output
An auger in the base of the silo feeds wood chips directly into the boiler
Total first-year savings from the new system should be over $50,000. Because the boiler system was commissioned in mid-December, savings are expected to be even better in future years.
The general contractor for the project was Energy Efficient Investments, an energy performance contractor based in Merrimack.
Froling Energy was the project’s mechanical contractor that completely renovated John Stark High School’s boiler room.
