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Our Building Is Switching to Biofuel — Brooklynian

Our Building Is Switching to Biofuel

sterling2000
sterling2000
edited November -1 in Prospect Heights
Just this past week, the Board of our building (of which I am President) made the decision to switch to biofuel over oil for our heating needs.

With the cost of oil continuing to skyrocket, significant dependence on foreign oil and ever-escalating news of global warming impacts, we made the decision even though there is a slightly higher cost annually.

I would invite other buildings and homeowners to look into this for themselves at http://www.tristatebiodiesel.com/. The process has been easy thus far and we believe it will be of huge benefit to our 20-unit building and the neighborhood at large over time.

Comments

  • alafairnadia
    alafairnadia
    I'm going to talk to my co-op board treasurer about this. I've noticed that my apartment, in comparison to previous years, is way overheated this year. that bugs me because it just means I'm going to pay a boatload more in maintenance ... supporting an aspect of our economy that genuinely pisses me off. so yay! thanks for telling us this - gives me a reason to bring it up next time I run into someone with authority.
  • fjord
    fjord
    I am now on the board of my bldg (oh yeah) and will certainly look into this...although I am not sure if we use oil heat. I am for some reason doubtful about this...

    TriState is the real McCoy. Just read on their Web site only B20 or B100 biodiesel! Very cool.

    Sterling2000:What kind of alterations do you need to make to the existing system to run it on biodiesel? As someone who has experience with this, I would guess that they recommend a fuel polishing (filtering) system of some sort? I am curious.
  • jasonliu
    jasonliu
    yeah but you know biofuel is made from soybeans, which requires potassium nitrate as a fertilizer, which is made from...drumroll...fossil fuels!

    not to rain on your parade, and I applaud what you're doing. Using biofuels will reduce CO2 emissions. But just saying this environmental problem is alot more complex than alot of people suppose.
  • fjord
    fjord
    yeah but you know biofuel is made from soybeans, which requires potassium nitrate as a fertilizer, which is made from...drumroll...fossil fuels!
    that's a bit of an oversimplification that is not quite true, but not false either. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of biofuel is made via waste oils collected at restaurants, etc. And not all soybeans are grown non-organically, i.e, with caustic fertilizers.
  • sterling2000
    sterling2000
    jasonliu wrote: not to rain on your parade
    I in no way mean to represent biofuel or any specific company as the end-all-be-all magic wand solution to the world's ills. We've been taking a look at alternative energy solutions for about two years now, so we've weighed a lot of data and considerations in the decision. In the end, it was right for our building as a first step. It may not be right for every building.

    I was sharing information useful to the readers of the board. It would be nice to see at least one post on DailyHeights not degenerate into another round of online one-upmanship.
  • arches
    arches
    jasonliu wrote: yeah but you know biofuel is made from soybeans, which requires potassium nitrate as a fertilizer, which is made from...drumroll...fossil fuels!

    not to rain on your parade, and I applaud what you're doing. Using biofuels will reduce CO2 emissions. But just saying this environmental problem is alot more complex than alot of people suppose.

    Soybeans are able to absorb atmospheric nitrogen through nitrogen-fixing root nodules, so the requirements for fossil fuel based fertilizers are relatively low (typically about 1/5th of that required for corn). The potassium portion of fertilzer typically comes from potash, which is mined from the ground (in Canada, mostly), and not synthesized from fossil fuel. Not that mining is exactly a boon to the environment. I agree that biofuels have their environmental drawbacks, but I think fertilizer usage is the wrong tree to bark up in this instance. If he told us they switched to ethanol heat, i'd be a lot more worried :)

    Sterling2000...can you tell us in rough terms the per gallon premium of biofuel vs your traditional fuel oil supply?

    I agree with other posters that overheated apartment is a very annoying phenonmenon - both environmentally and financially. From what I gather, most large apartment buildings control heat based on _outside_ temperature, rather than the temperature inside individual apartments. When its colder outside, the heat stays on longer. Pretty crude system. Anyone had their building themostat upgraded to something more modern?
  • shishkab
    shishkab
    getting back to the biofuel for a moment:

    has anyone made the switch yet who can report on it? what, if anything, does it take to switch over? i am always interested in reducing my footprint.
  • pitu
    pitu
    MOD NOTE: overheated buildings clearly have a life of their own...split off to http://brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=39859
  • sterlingguy
    sterlingguy
    A few responses to questions above...

    I am also on the board of Sterling2000's building and spoke with the guy who represents TriState. In terms of the transition to biofuel, there is nothing to do except switch out the old filters, which will gum up a bit more than usual as the regular fuel cycles out from our tank. Once that has happened, biofeul requires much less frequent filter changes overall.

    But for those who asked and are interested in what the transition really means for your old boiler in a medium-to-large building, Sterling2000 and I can keep you posted through the winter, with a final report in spring.

    Oh, and the contract with TriState basically matches the rack rate our management company had secured, so the price is comparable. Plus they matched our service contract. Our management company was so impressed with these guys that they are proposing biofuel to the rest of their buildings in Bay Ridge and the Park Slope/Prospect Heights area.

    Lastly, turning down the heat in your medium-to-large building (ours is 20 units) IS a possibility -- just go to the boiler room and turn it down. We started turning down the temperature a couple winters ago and basically kept doing it until the first floor told us it was too cold for them (it is never too cold on the top floors due to rising ambient heat). You may need to be careful with this, since there are laws about adequate building heat.

    Now, who knows anything about windmills and solar panels...? :)
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