Corrugated stainless steel tubing (CSST) is a promising alternative to traditional threaded black-iron gas piping for residential, commercial and industrial applications. Its light weight, flexibility, and need for fewer connections and fittings can make it easier to install than traditional threaded black-iron piping. These benefits can add up to substantial labor savings for installers and cost savings for builders.

Since 1989 over 150 million feet has been installed in residential, commercial, and industrial structures. During 2002, approximately 45 million feet of CSST was sold and installed in the U. S. - an indication of the rapid increase in use of CSST in recent years.

Corrugated stainless steel gas tubing (CSST) consists of a continuous, flexible, stainless steel pipe with an exterior PVC covering. The piping is produced in coils that are air-tested for leaks. It is most often installed in a central manifold configuration (also called parallel configuration) with "home run" lines that extend to gas appliances. Flexible gas piping is lightweight and requires fewer connections than traditional gas piping because it can be bent easily and routed around obstacles.

The multiport manifold allow for easy, future expansion of the system for room additions or additional appliances. CSST has the potential for higher levels of system safety because connections and joints behind the wall, common in black iron pipe, are essentially eliminated. In addition, builders and installers have noted a reduction in employee injuries by eliminating the heavy equipment and apparatus associated with traditional black iron pipe installations.

Shopping online has several advantages. One of the foremost advantages of online shopping is that of convenience. You can do all the shopping in the comfortable ambience of your home. The product is delivered to your door step. Another major advantage of online shopping is that of discounts. Online stores usually offer higher discounts than their offline counterparts. This is because online stores usually buy products directly from the manufacturers. Since no middlemen are involved, they can offer better discounts.

Buy CSST gas line here

June 13 ^th , 2011

NAPA Fuel Stories / NY Times and GMA

Good morning. On Saturday June 11, the New York Times ran a story on NAPA Home Inc. Ethanol Gel Fuel and discussed in detail two cases in which a consumer was badly injured using this product. The link is: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/nyregion/a-firepot-a-safe-label-and-2-horrible-explosions.html?_r=1

This morning Good Morning America ran a story as well and that link is: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/injuries-result-exploding-ceramic-pots-send-flaming-gel/story?id=13825462

Both of these stories are focused on NAPA Home Inc. and their ethanol based fuel. At this time, NAPA Home Inc. is the only company involved in these incidents. However, both stories also speak very generally of gel fuels as a category.

We would like to clarify that our pour gel fuel is not the same product and does not have the same qualities. The main ingredients and formulas are much different and in our tests have not shown the same burning characteristics.

Key differences about Real Flame:

• Real Flame pour gel is an Isopropyl Alcoho l - not Ethanol - based gel fuel. It is a proprietary formula specifically designed and tested for use in our products. It has been sold safely in the US for close to 30 years.
• Real Flame Gel Fuel has been thoroughly tested by independent labs and has proven to be safe when used as directed. Furthermore it has been approved for burning by the Atlanta, Chicago, and Las Vegas Fire Departments to be used at industry trade shows. Records of those tests are on file.
• The labels of our pour gel and canned fuel were designed in conjunction with, and approved by Health Canada, which regulates these types of products and whose standards for labeling are very strict and beyond US requirements.
• This ensures that your customers are well informed regarding the safe use of this flammable gel fuel product.
• We have included pictures of our existing Real Flame Pour Gel labels. You can see that in the directions we boldly state not to add fuel to the reservoir while it is burning.
• Real Flame has been designing, testing and introducing gel-fueled fireplaces for the past 30 years. We have a very reputable name in the industry and the safety of our customers is our top priority. We have compiled years of testing data that demonstrates that commitment.

Our thoughts go out to the injured, and today we have voluntarily contacted and spoken with the US Consumer Products Safety Agency to help them better understand gel fuel technology and to assist them in any way we can.

In the meantime, you can be assured that when used as directed our product continues to be very safe, with more than 250,000 bottles of pour gel sold in the past two years without a single incident.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this please feel free to contact me at anytime.

Best Regards,

John Ridgeway

jridgeway@realflame.com

Vice President Sales and Marketing

Real Flame Company

During the cold winter nights, you want to stay warm and cozy inside, than you need a wood burning stove. When you think of winter nights, you will also think of warm fires. Having a cozy wood stove in your home can make your winter nights more romantic and comfortable with your family. You can find some great wood stove designs at Copperfield Chimney Supply.

Wood Burning Stove are Constructed with Sturdy Materials

Wood burning stoves are a sturdy, reliable method of heating your home. With the solid construction of the stoves sold at Copperfield Chimney Supply on their web site www.woodstoves-fireplaces.com . You can rest assured that your home will be safe from the flames dancing only a few inches away. With steel top and sides, a cast iron door, a firebrick lined interior and thick, resistant glass for viewing, their wood stoves will provide your home, and family, with many days and nights of warmth and beauty.

Fireplaces are shockingly inefficient, which, as far as Cameron Scott understands it, means that you're basking in a mere 10 percent of the heat generated. The rest goes up the chimney. And burning wood creates substantial particulate pollution, which is why fires are banned on Spare the Air days. Must you, then, give up the exquisite pleasure of a fire? No; thankfully, there's the fireplace insert. More

Wood stoves are serious business in New Hampshire – as many as a quarter of homes in the state use firewood or pellet stoves as primary or secondary heat – so lots of people are likely to be interested in a project that could pay $1,000 or more to replace old, inefficient stoves.

If so, they had better hurry. A similar program in western Massachusetts ran out of money in less than a month, and it had more money to give out.

“It launched December 6, and I’ve already got 60 applications,” Michelle Edwards, of the American Lung Association, said three days after the Wood Stove Changeout program began.

The program has $183,000 to disperse, which means at least a third of it was spoken for by Friday noon. (The Massachusetts program had more than $200,000.)

The money came from a settlement between the federal EPA and G&K Services, the parent company of a Manchester laundry that washes towels contaminated with industrial oils and solvents. It violated air pollution rules and agreed to pay a penalty, part of which is being used in this program.

The Wood Stove Changeout program involves stoves made before 1990, when EPA standards for emissions kicked in. These devices emit relatively large amounts of soot and other pollutants, both indoors and out.

“Older stoves not only pollute externally, but they give off a lot of smoke and particulate matter when you open the stove and it comes into the room,” Edwards said.

That pollution can worsen asthma and other breathing disorders, hence the America Lung Association’s participation.

Covering part of the cost of replacing old fixtures or items is often considered a cost-effective way to improve pollution or energy efficiency.

The highest-profile example was the $1 billion federal Cash for Clunkers program, which gave people up to $4,500 when they traded in an old car for a new one with higher fuel economy. New Hampshire has also had state programs offering rebates if people upgrade their home heating systems and another one that gave vouchers if you turned in an old refrigerator/freezer.

Last year, the state even ran a program offering vouchers of $1,000 if people replaced old wood stoves.

It was confined to the Keene area, where weather patterns can trap pollution from stoves.

This latest program is open to all of Hillsborough County, as well as Rockingham County on the Seacoast and Merrimack County, which includes Concord.

People who have stoves built before 1990, when stricter air-pollution controls became mandatory, can get vouchers for use at participating dealers. You have to turn in your old stove, which will be recycled or destroyed.

Vouchers include:

$1,000 to switch from an old wood stove to one that’s EPA certified.

$1,500 to switch from a wood stove to a new pellet stove or gas stove.

$2,000 to retrofit an existing wood stove with a new catalyst or retrofit an outdoor boiler with cleaner components.

$3,000 for a switchout if you receive Medicaid or participate in the Low Income Heating Assistance Program or the Women’s Infant and Children’s nutrition program.

$4,000 for switching an outdoor wood boiler, also known as a hydronic heater.

Edwards said most applications so far seek to replace a wood stove with a newer stove, rather than a pellet stove or other technology – perhaps because firewood stoves can burn even when the power is out and thus make better backup heaters.

The largest payout concerns outdoor boilers because units more than a couple years old slipped through a regulatory loophole and have little or no pollution controls.

Shop Wood Stoves Here

If you haven’t started storing wood for your fireplace or wood-burning stove, I’d get started now. The days are already getting shorter, and before you know it summer will be over, and fall’s first chill will be in the air.

But if you’re only stocking wood for a fireplace, and burning wood for its esthetic value rather than as an energy source, there’s still time to gather enough good wood for the winter. If you buy wood, and have it stacked or stack it yourself, you can virtually wait to the last minute.

If you heat your home predominantly by wood, as I do, you should have started stowing wood weeks ago. Compared to most folks who heat their homes by oil, gas, or electricity, I’m among a small minority who heat their homes entirely by wood. I cut it, haul, split, and stack it. That translates to a lot of work. If I can recruit my son to help out, the job is a little easier. More often than not I do the entire, tedious job myself. Since it’s a tough, tiring job that takes a toll on my body, especially arms and legs, I spread it out over four weeks.

Every year, my goal is to find seasoned wood, or wood that is well on its way to being totally seasoned. By just looking at a log or branch, I can tell whether it’s seasoned. Typically, seasoned wood is lighter than unseasoned wood; has a hollow like sound when dropped on the ground; and when cut, it has many cracks from the centre to its ends.

Technically, seasoned wood is dry wood that has a moisture content of 15 per cent to 20 per cent. Most important, it burns hotter and more efficiently, and it reduces wood consumption as much as 25 per cent. That’s why seasoned wood costs a lot more than partially seasoned wood.

If you burn as much wood as I do, which is about eight cords during the chilly and cold months, it’s almost impossible to stock only seasoned wood. Depending upon the state of the wood, whether it’s a recently-cut dead tree or one that has been sitting on the ground for a couple years, it can take six months to a year for wood to dry out. Some experts insist that it takes two years to season wood.

That’s a matter of opinion, because it depends upon the type of wood you’re burning, and how it’s stored. If properly stacked, which is an art in itself, so the wood has plenty of air and light, it will dry pretty quickly, as opposed to wood that is stored in an enclosed area with little or no natural light.

Also, the type of wood burned has a great deal to do with the quality and duration of heat. All wood isn’t the same. Wood aficionados can tell what type of wood is burned by its smell, because every wood has its own distinct smell. That said, I wish I could burn only quality wood, but I have little say in the matter. Mother Nature calls the shots, and I take what I find. Each year it’s different. I can count on a few dead trees on my own property that either fall by themselves following a storm or that I cut down once I’m sure they’re dead.

If you wander North America’s woods and forests, you’ll find a rich variety of hard woods. But the best burning woods are black walnut, sycamore, red and white oak, maple and white and green ash. But there are many other woods that come pretty close.

If you buy wood, it pays to ask about the type of wood you’re getting. The average wood buyer doesn’t know one wood from the other, but it pays to learn something about wood so you know you’re getting quality wood. Reputable loggers selling a variety of seasoned woods should be happy to tell you.