Wood Heat
Wood Heat Energy Experience
In 2009 Spec Resources Inc was awarded a $1,600,000.00 tendered contract to design, supply, install and commission a complete wood chip heating system, including a 1.1 MW boiler, steel building, chip storage bunker and chip transfer equipment at University St Anne in Church Point NS.
Spec Resources supplied all the site excavation and concrete work and chose experienced local contractors to supply and install the steel building, and all the electrical, piping and mechanical equipment. Only the boiler supplier (Ideal Combustion Ltd) was from out of province (Quebec), as no local suppliers met the RFP requirements. The system was installed in accordance with all applicable acts, codes, regulations, and laws related to institutional applications.
The goal of this project was to significantly reduce the amount of fossil fuel usage, which was approximately 650,000 liters of heating oil per year, with the plan to install a second boiler in the same building in the future to possibly eliminate fossil fuel usage. The second boiler was installed in 2013 by the Quebec boiler supplier (Ideal Combustion Ltd).
Since the boiler was commissioned, Spec Resources has been the supplier of up to 2000 tonnes of dry boiler wood chips annually. Spec had to invest in a self-unloading trailer, chipping and wood handling equipment and storage buildings to store the wood chips for delivery throughout the winter months.
Spec Resources Inc. has been a driver of Clean Wood Heat Energy with dry wood chips in the area since 2009. From our location in Concession, we have all the wood processing equipment required to convert low grade primary wood into quality dry wood chips for use in high efficiency gasification boilers.
As of 2023 we have 7 facilities that we supply or service for wood chip heating.
We process approximately 2600 tonnes of dry wood chips annually, which we could easily double with the processing equipment that we have on-site. We also have large buildings available which can be converted to wood chip storage if required.
The low-grade primary wood is only acquired from sustainable harvesting from private woodlot owners of Southwestern Nova Scotia. We store the low-grade round wood outside in rows for months, so it has time to drop its moisture content below 30% before processing into high quality boiler wood chips. The wood chips are then stored inside for delivery throughout the winter months.
Herz Installations
- 60kw Herz wood-chip boiler in Concession NS to heat a 4000 sq. ft. home.
- 149kw Herz wood-chip boiler at NSCC COGS campus in Lawrencetown NS.
- 149kw Herz wood-chip boiler in Concession to heat an office and various work buildings.
- 45kw Herz wood-chip boiler in Concession to heat a 2500 sq. ft. home.
- 500kw Herz wood-chip boiler in Meteghan to heat a Seniors Complex.
Support your local economy.
We have partnered with the Western Woodlot Services Co-op (WWSC) who has over 450 woodlot owners as members which have over 100,000 acres under sustainable forest management in Western Nova Scotia. They supply us with low grade round wood that is not suitable for sawmills. This wood is a byproduct of various partial harvest and silviculture operations. Tours are available to view completed various forest management activities. Visit their website at www.westernwoodlotcoop.com to learn more.
Reliable state-of-the-art boiler technology
Our Partner for the biomass boiler technology is Herz Energietechnik GmbH from Austria. They are one of the two leading producers of commercial and industrial wood chip boilers in Europe. Their high efficiency gasification boilers are recognized as a highly efficient and environmentally friendly heat source for commercial and institutional buildings. Gasification boilers are unique as they monitor the O2 and CO2 within the boiler to maintain efficient combustion which ensures minimized emissions. Herz is over 120 years old, has multiple production sites and operate in more that 100 countries.
Technical support, boilers and parts.
Our partner in supplying the Herz Boilers and technical support is Wood4Heating Canada based in PEI. Wood4heating owns and operates more than 20 wood chip boiler facilities in PEI and Nova Scotia, while having supplied and installed additional boilers for industrial customers. They are well-versed in designing, installing and maintaining biomass heating plants. Through our long-term established partnership with Wood4heating we have access to the technical support and supply of boiler parts that will allow us to offer our customers all required services when expanding our woodchip and heating business.
