Windsor schools set to heat with wood pellets
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By Josh O'Gorman STAFF WRITER - Published: May 16, 2009
WINDSOR — The Windsor School District expects to save about $16,000 this winter with the installation of a new wood pellet heating system.
The district has signed a 10-year contract with International WoodFuels, of Portland, Maine, allowing the company to install a boiler, pellet silo and provide maintenance and pellet delivery.
The installation will be done this summer in time for the fall school year at no cost to the district, said Scott Coffran, director of buildings and grounds for the Windsor School District.
The district had looked into other biomass heating systems, including wood chips, Coffran said, but those systems were quite large and would not fit on-site without eliminating parking or places to pile snow during the winter.
The entire system, including storage silo, is the size of a small trailer, said Matt Hagerty, spokesman for International WoodFuels, which began business in 2007 and now counts the Windsor School District as its second customer after Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire.
In addition to installing the system, Hagerty said, his company will monitor it remotely and know when it needs repairs or more pellets. Rather than pay for the pellets by weight, the district will be metered and pay for the heat they produce. The price is renegotiated once a year and is determined by the Consumer Price Index, the average yearly cost of fossil fuels and the average market cost of whole logs.
International WoodFuels is promising lower fuel costs than heating with fuel oil or propane. This year, the district paid about $109,000 for heat, Coffran said, and expects to save about $16,000 this winter.
The system will heat the roughly 120,000 square feet within State Street School and Windsor Junior/Senior High School. At the conclusion of the contract, Hagerty said, the district will have the choice of signing another contract, having the system removed at no cost to the district or purchasing it at fair market value.
International WoodFuels is in negotiations to open wood pellet production facilities and is scouting possible locations in Vermont, Hagerty said.
josh.ogorman@rutlandherald.com
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