Your outdated heating appliance — whether it’s an old wood-burning stove or oil stove — costs you money due to inefficient heating. With Maryland’s Clean Burning Wood Stove Grant Program, you can save money when you upgrade your outdated fireplace insert or heating stove. In an effort to encourage residents to invest in clean energy for their home-heating needs, the Maryland Energy Agency is offering grants who replace their outdated, inefficient electric, wood-burning, or non-natural gas stove with an EPA-certified wood-burning or pellet stove. Under the grant program, purchases of EPA-certified wood-burning stoves are eligible for a $500 incentive, while purchases of pellet stoves are eligible for a $700 incentive.
Benefits of upgrading your fireplace or stove
Wood-burning stoves that are more than 20 years old burn inefficiently and produce significant amounts of air pollution through the smoke that exits your chimney. Much of that pollution stays in your neighborhood, or makes its way back into your home, where it’s a danger to your family’s heath. In fact, smoke from old, inefficient stoves and open-hearth fireplaces has brought warning from groups including the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and the EPA. It goes without saying that old oil and coal-burning stoves are inefficient and incredibly dirty. They produce significant amount of smoke that both pollutes the air and adds grime to your chimney and, potentially, your home. Your electric fireplace may seem like an ideal home-heating option, as they burn efficiently on your end, keeping your home warm and your home-heating bills reasonable while providing no air pollution. However, the power plants that fuel your electric fireplace almost always run on coal, making them a poor choice for those looking to reduce their environmental impact.
Upgrade options under Maryland’s grant program 
For homeowners who prefer the traditional look of burning logs, Maryland’s incentive program will provide grants for woodstoves or fireplace inserts that are EPA certified and emit 3 grams or less of particulate matter per hour. If you’re looking for an even more efficient option, and prefer not to haul and store firewood, pellet stoves are an extremely efficient, clean option. Under the grant program, pellet stoves must meet Washington state emission standards and emit 2 grams or less of particulate matter per hour. Pellets are lauded by environmentalists as one of the best home-heating options, as they burn wood byproducts or biofuel such as corn, cherry pits, or wheat hulls. Because the wood pellets are dehydrated, they contain little moisture and let off very little particulate matter when burned. Pellets are convenient, as they can be purchased in 40 pound bags at many hardware stores and big-box retailers. Both log-burning and pellet-burning stoves are carbon neutral, since the carbon released during burning is carbon that would have been released as wood decomposed over time, and wood is a renewable resource.
Consult the experts
If you’re considering upgrading your stove under the Maryland Clean Burning Wood Stove Grant Program, Magic Broom can help you determine the type of stove that is right for you. Visit our showroom to consult with our experts and see what options are available to you. We’ll have you enjoying the warmth and efficiency of a new stove in no time!