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Energy Saver: Furnace, Boiler & Woodstove Combustion
(continued ...) There are higher energy efficient combustible hydrocarbon equipment choices. Nothing in the 95% area but 75% is possible with a catalytic wood stove. These work by preheating a second combustion air stream and sometimes providing a secondary ignition source to burn the volatile gases left from the initial combustion process.
With all that said, you are likely in one of three groups. The first group already has a high energy efficient machine. The second group is those that own a standard energy efficient unit of some type; it is operating just fine and it is not near its end-of-life. The third group is the people that need a new piece of equipment for whatever reason. I suspect that most people want to be responsible world citizens. However, unless it makes financial sense to make an equipment change, it likely will not happen. If you happen to be in the third group, hands down, you should consider a high energy efficiency piece of equipment. The difference in cost for the high energy efficiency units of virtually any variety will pay for itself in about 3 years and it is the right thing to do. If you happen to be blessed with financial resources such that the financial incentive importance is below responsible world citizen importance, then by all means consider yourself in the third group and replace your equipment with the latest high energy efficient equipment right away.
Now, for the second group that I just described, you need to do everything you can to keep your equipment operating at prime performance. For fossil fuels, it doesn't take much to slide from 80% down to 70 or 60% energy efficiency. Likewise, for wood burning stoves, slipping to 30% is easy to ignore while it happens. If you kind of feel like you didn't burn this much wood last year; you're probably right.