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Alternative Heating

Damariscotta Hardware provides a variety of fuels to fit all your heating needs. Whether you need fuel for a campfire or to heat your home, Damariscotta Hardware has just what you need. Our product line includes Premium Wood pellets for use in pellet stoves, bagged anthracite coal for use in coal stoves and Bio-fuel bricks, and firewood for use in woodstoves, fireplaces or firepits. The Stove Center at Damariscotta Hardware in Damariscotta Maine and Lincoln County sells stoves for burning all of these fuels as well as propane.

Bio-fuel Bricks

These are an environmentally sound alternative to natural cordwood. They offer many benefits that cordwood does not. They’re a compressed all wood product made from clean, dry recycled hardwood sawdust and shavings with no additives. They are ideally sized for woodstoves. One pallet of these brings as much heat to your home as a cord of seasoned cordwood. They are cheaper than fuel oil, burn cleaner and are greenhouse gas neutral. Damariscotta Hardware currently offers 3 types of bio-fuel bricks, Envi & Envi8 Blocks, and Fiber Fuel Bricks to serve our customers in Damariscotta Maine.

Wood Pellets

Wood pellets are an environmentally friendly, natural renewable fuel made from clean sawdust and other wood waste. They are made specifically for pellet burning stoves. Damariscotta Hardware stocks wood pellets from  H.J.Crabbe, and La Crete softwood pellets.  See the EPA site.

Coal

Anthracite(hard coal) is one of the cleanest and economic solid fuels today. It has an even heat flow and high BTU output which makes it one of the warmest and comfortable heat sources. It produces virtually no smoke or pollution, therefore making it an environmentally sound fuel. This is due to it’s low sulfur and high carbon content. Damariscotta Hardware stocks on site 40lb. bags in nut and pea size, from Blaschak Coal. Coal is the least expensive fuel per BTU output.

Hazards relating to stove appliances

Fire

Chimney fires will be on the news this winter. There are two major reasons for chimney fires:

  • Creosote build up within the chimney ignites. If it sounds like a freight train is in your chimney, shut down your stove and call the fire department. Intense heat can crack open a chimney and cause the fire to spread quickly.
  • Cracks and crevices inside the chimney. Even if the chimney is lined with clay tiles. Age and weather may have worked their evil ways to open opportunities for the hot exhaust get into the structure.

Embers falling out of any stove can easily ignite combustible material such as rugs and furniture. That’s why “clearance to combustibles” is very important to observe. Along the same lines, radiant heat from a stove can ignite walls, molding, etc. if the stove is too close. Get a smoke/fire alarm. Have a fire extinguisher handy. Use floor and wall protection. Observe clearances to combustibles.

Carbon Monoxide

Burning fossil fuels creates carbon monoxide. It is a colorless, oderless, tasteless, highly toxic gas.

  • 0.1 ppm – natural background atmosphere level
  • 0.5 to 5 ppm – average background level in homes
  • 5 to 15 ppm – levels near properly adjusted gas stoves in homes
  • 100-200 ppm – Mexico City central area from autos etc
  • 5,000 ppm – chimney of a home wood fire
  • 7,000 ppm – undiluted warm car exhaust – without catalytic converter
  • 30,000 ppm – undiluted cigarette smoke
  • Get a carbon monoxide detector and keep the batteries fresh

Smoke

Smoke inhalation is the primary cause of death in victims of indoor fires. Get a smoke detector and keep the batteries fresh.

Gas

Propane is heavier than air. If a leak in a propane fuel system occurs, the gas will have a tendency to sink into any enclosed area and thus poses a risk of explosion and fire. If you smell gas, shut off the gas and call your gas company from your neighbor’s phone.