BANGOR – With heating fuel costs hitting record highs, city and school officials have been looking for cheaper ways to keep their buildings warm in winter.

After a citywide energy audit performed by consultants from Westbrook-based Honeywell Building Solutions, many now think wood heat could be part of the solution.

Honeywell engineer Bob Marcotte recommended to a council committee Tuesday that the city convert the heating systems for two of its largest heating oil consumers – namely Bangor High School and Bangor International Airport – to wood heat.

Marcotte’s comparison of the costs of various types of fuel needed to generate 1 million Btu of heat suggests that the conversion could allow Bangor to get the same amount of wood heat at about a quarter of the cost of oil heat.

Marcotte presented his analysis Tuesday evening to the City Council’s transportation and infrastructure committee, chaired by Councilor Geoffrey Gratwick. It looked at electricity, natural gas and wood pellets as well as oil and wood chips, using what Marcotte described as “conservative” unit cost figures.

The upshot was that the cost of buying and installing the units aside, the city could generate 1 million Btu of heat for $37.95 if oil cost $4.25 a gallon, but that wood chips at $60 a ton would yield the same amount of heat at a cost of $8.93.

Honeywell consultants pegged the cost of installing a wood chip boiler at the high school, which consumes more than 125,000 gallons of heating fuel a year, at $2.3 million.

The airport boiler, which would serve the domestic and international arrival buildings and four large hangars, would cost $3.8 million.

Overall oil consumption at BIA exceeds $189,000 a year, though that figure includes some buildings that would not be served by the wood chip boiler, according to a preliminary feasibility report Honeywell presented to the city last December. No breakdown of oil usage by individual buildings at BIA was provided Tuesday.

Though no decisions have been made with regard to either proposal, the city is giving wood heat some serious consideration.

As City Councilor Patricia Blanchette sees it, Bangor can take a leadership role in Maine’s effort to wean itself off its dependency on foreign petroleum products.

“We can do it by cutting off Saudi Arabia’s gold mine,” she said, adding that with crude oil prices standing this week at $130 to $140 a barrel, not taking steps to curb consumption “is absolutely obscene when we live in a timber state.”

Councilor Gerry Palmer, however, was not yet convinced the city had all the facts it needs before authorizing the multimillion-dollar expenditures.

“This has been a good pitch for wood chip boilers,” he said. He said, however, he wanted more information on natural gas heat, which he thought also might be a good option.

Palmer said Bangor Gas is extending its distribution system to BIA to serve the Four Points Sheraton hotel, which is undergoing an $8 million facelift. He said he was told that the line there would be large enough to accommodate the airport’s needs.

He also said a Bangor Gas official indicated that the system could be extended to serve the high school.

Despite the availability of natural gas, however, Marcotte said that Honeywell was not recommending that the city turn to natural gas, though it made sense for some of its smaller buildings. That largely is because natural gas prices also have been volatile, historically tracking oil prices, he said.

If the city should decide to convert to wood chip boiler systems for the high school and airport, however, city councilors would have to amend the city’s 2-year-old ordinances regarding the construction and maintenance of solid fuel boilers.

As it stands, city ordinances allow such boilers to be used, but only if they are located within the primary structure that they serve. In the case of the airport and high school, Honeywell engineers recommend that the boilers be installed in auxiliary buildings.

A new stand-alone structure is proposed for the school, while the airport system would be located in one of the hangars. Though the airport boiler would heat the hangar it’s in, the current ordinance language would not allow for it to heat any other off-premises structures.

A draft ordinance amendment that would pave the way for the two boiler projects went before the council for a first reading in May. After committee-level discussions on June 3 and Tuesday night, councilors wanted more information before finishing the amendment and sending it back to the council for a second reading and adoption.

The amendment would apply only to certain zoning districts, specifically government and institution service, industrial and service, urban industrial, and airport development.

“I’m all for looking at this,” Blanchette said, though she said the city ought to give careful consideration to the appropriateness of allowing wood-burning boilers to be used in large downtown buildings.

The debate over wood chip boilers will resume during the committee’s next meting, set for 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 22.

dgagnon@bangordailynews.net

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