Wood: fastest growing heating fuel in America

Fuente:
USCensus/IHB
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Recently official released statistics from the US Census Bureau reveal that wood or wood pellets are again the fastest growing heating fuel in America. In 2012, 63.566 more families used wood or pellets as a primary heating fuel, a 2.6% increase over 2011.

Wood and pellet home heating grew by 34% in 10 years (2000-2010), ''faster than any other of the fossil fuels, including solar and natural gas'', says US Census. Moreover, oil and propane use continuously declined since 2010.

At the present, 2.5 million American households use wood as a primary heating fuel. Comparing with 500.000 that use solar panels and only 50.000 that use solar termal heating, wood is by far the most used renewable energy in the United States.

2.1% of Americans use wood or wood pellets as a primary heating fuel (2000: 1,6%) and 7,7% US households use it as a secondary heating fuel, according to the 2009 EIA Renewable Energy Consumption Survey.

The US Census Bureau started recording heating data in 1950. Since then, wood heating has had some discordant fluctuations: in 1950, 10% of the US population was using wood as a heating method; to drop at 1,3% in 1970 at an all-time low. By 1990, this percentage went up to 3,9%, to drop again at 1.6% in 2000.

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