Burt's Greenhouses - Biomass heating system

May 17, 2007

How time flies... The last two years have been very busy for us.

Despite being busy we have always been concerned about the environment. This is why we introduced our no pesticide approach to greenhouse insect control.

Also we were concerned about the fuel we use to heat our greenhouses. We have prided ourselves on our attention to detail in making our boilers run as efficiently as possible, but we knew there was a better way of heating the greenhouses with less demand on fossil fuels.

In the summer of 2005 we made the decision to install a Biomass heating system. Biomass heating systems are designed to use renewable fuels, in particular wood, which is a renewable fuel.

This would be the biggest project we have tackled to date and it proved to be no easy task. We worked through the fall of 2005 and throughout the winter, but we had to break for spring 2006. We found a local supply of waste wood and got the system operating in August of 2006.

We decided to heat for an extended period in order to make sure the new system was operating properly. The consequence of that is an extra stock of perennials that we propagated and overwintered.

The system is now operational and has reduced our oil consumption to less than 5% of previous levels. In addition to avoiding the consumption of fossil fuels we have diverted a large volume of waste wood from being otherwise sent to a landfill.

Burt's Greenhouses is constantly working to improve our environment and provide a quality service to our customers. For further information about this and our other environmental projects please contact Brian Burt at (613) 386-3426.