31-plattj

1. John Platt 273 Lincoln Rd. My wife Laura and I use an in-door wood boiler to heat our home. It is designed, tested, legal, and intended to be installed in-side the home. We welcome performance-based wood stove regulations because we know our appliance will easily pass them.We selected this advanced model of indoor boiler because it burns so cleanly. Our boiler burns renewable fuel safely and cleanly at very high temperatures using gasification technology and a ceramic post combustion chamber. Often we cannot even tell that it is running because the exhaust gasses are completely clear. It burns much, much cleaner than the conventional cast iron wood stove which we also own. It is really quite clever and interesting. We invite anyone who is interested to look at the web site or come visit me and take the tour. See alternateheatingsystems.comWhen fire chief Dunn and building inspector Jack Hepting granted us approval to install our boiler we decided to locate it out-doors because that is where the wood pile is.I met Bob McDonald and Peter Glass 2 months ago and I encouraged them to come see our heating unit. The McDonald/Glass article 31 does not account for the fact that our boiler runs clean......because they did not come to see it.Article 31 effectively bans almost all Sudbury homeowners from installing a renewable fuel boiler as we have because almost no one in Sudbury can meet the arbitrary 500 foot setback it proposes. It would ban our installation and we would probably go back to using our less clean cast iron stove. Ironically, the proposal would have the opposite of its intended effect on air quality for our neighbors.Article 31 bans or allows renewable fuel appliances not based on whether they produce clean combustion gasses. Rather, it bans them based on whether they happen to be installed inside the home or beside it.Article 31 imposes a permanent bylaw on the entire community in an attempt to address a temporary dispute between 2 neighbors. Passing or rejecting article 31 makes only one of them a winner. By the way, I am familiar with the technical design and operation of the type of boiler on Hudson Road and I know of at least 3 technical approaches that would make it burn even cleaner than it does now. We believe in the future of renewable and sustainable energy. Clean bio fuel technology like has been widely applied at the home level all over the progressive European Union regulatory environment for 20 years. It is now easily accessible by US consumers on the web.Tonight we challenge the interested parties to bring the voters a performance based standard for renewable fuel appliances, a win/win standard that we can all feel good about. Thank you.