Wood pellet central heating

[Kernow]

Hi all, I'm in the middle of renovating my house and looking at different options for central heating. I have been told that the wood pellet system is very economical and reasonably eco friendly, I do not know any one who has this system. It would have to heat water and run 9 -10 radiators. Does anyone have this system, if so what do you think of it, is it as good as people say. Your feedback would be appreciated.

[Mickey]

My friend has a wood pellet burner installed in her sitting room. It is not connected to radiators or anything so I don't know if it can sustain that. She says it's very economical for her, it's just her and her daughter and they use it for a bit in the evenings when watching tv. The house is a small 2 bed log cabin and the pllet burner suits their needs perfectly. It has a remote control and everything, you can set the timer to come on just like central heating and teh man who installed it delivers the pellets to her. It is very clean and eco-friendly I believe. She had some trouble with it the other day though and it had to be looked at as it kept going out, but I think it was something to do with the timer. I'll ask when I see her and let you all know running costs and such :o).

[johncol]

We have a pellet boiler installed , it supplies heating to upstairs and downstairs underfloor and hot water. Still playing around with settings so our initial use of pellets was high enough. One tonne of pellets costs approx 300Euro bagged, and about 200Euro loose. You do need the bulk storage to store over 3.5 tonnes to gain the financial benefits. 2 Tonnes of pellets is approx 1000l of oil I believe. Its a bit more labour intensive as ours has to be emptied of ash once a week and given a clean out once a month.

[Kernow]

Thanks, still not sure was type to choose?

[julfren]

Hi
Perhaps you might do a research into geothermal / underfloor heating. It can be quite disruptive to install into an existing house (eg digging up floors etc) but if your renovation is very extensive it might be worth considering. If your choices are between pellet and oil - it seems like the pellet system would be the way to go if we believe the forecasts of future oil prices. But I agree that you would have to be able instal the hopper system where it feeds automatically into your boiler in order to make it less labour intensive and less costly.
good luck
Jul

[misstake]

My sister has a large two story house and got solar panels on her house i believe she got help with this through a grant Anyway she had gas heating already Now all her heating is run from her solar panels she hasent used the gas in over twelve months
Ihave a coal burner an old parkray and wouldent be without it My house is warm and ive loads of hot water it takes three bags of coal a week but is well worth it

[Kernow]

My only current source of heating is a Stanley range, and yes it kicks out a lot of heat, and I have more hot water than I know what to do with, but I can be doing without the ashes, My living room has a constant layer of ash dust. I have definatly fallen out of love with solid fuel C.H.!!!!!!!!
As for digging up the floors, this wouldn't really be pratical as the ground floor has an original(ish) slate floor, and I wouldn't want to disturb it. Still undecided.

[julfren]

Hi again

I understand the feeling about ashes. We have a wood -burning stove in the living room. I hate the dust and ashes it creates though the ashes are compostible and are cleaner than coal. If you want to eliminate solid fuel the options are gas, oil, perhaps night rate electricity where the radiators are heated at a lower tariff at night and they give out the heat then in the daytime but not a cheap way if your house is in any way large. A grant can be got for the pellet stove system.Then if you go the green route there's solar, wind, heat recovery systems which all need to be studied. Solar panels will provide hot water but would not as far as I know be able to provide enough energy to heat the house without some other backup system. If you can install a pellet boiler and have a place to store bulk quantities of pellets, it is not the worst way to go. It is still much more efficient than either open fires or solid fuel ranges and doesn't produce anything like the amount of dust. The cleaning of the boiler is not a very big job I hear, but I have not first hand experience. It would be good if you could get to see a pellet boiler system in action before you have to make your decision.

The very best of luck
Jul

[muddtrek]

Hi.
I had to replace a obsolete oil boiler last year and took the opportunity to install a pellet boiler system. I choose a Windhager pellet boiler ( 15kW ) and combined this with a 300lt hot water tank and a 3.5 tonne hopper for the pellets. So far the system has performed problem free. According to the boiler control panel it has operated for ~1000hrs and consumed ~ 2 tonnes of pellets. I have had to clean the boiler 3 times in that period. The system supplies 5 double radiators and 5 single radiators and also provides hot water for domestic use. The system was not cheap but I was able to obtain a SEI grant to offset some of the costs.

[4eyes]

I believe the grant is E800 or so for the pellet burner, which costs from E2300.00
Personally I believe one should not put all their eggs in one basket, ie not all the one heating system.
An oil burner is brilliant and some sort of other heating as well.
At the moment we have a solid fuel Stanley cooker in kitchen, oil central heating, a gas fire in sitting room and wait for it, having a multi-fuel stove installed in living room later in year.
Also take into consideration if for any reason there is a power cut, you can be mighty cold!!!!!!!!

[julfren]

Hi 4 Eyes
Great range of heating options you have! the multi-fuel stove sounds fascinating. Does it burn wood, coal? And is there a boiler in it to heat water? And is it expensive? Sorry about the questions but it sounds like a flexible time of option in these days of rising fuel prices.

[4eyes]

We are putting in a non-boiler for several reasons
1) The existing fireplace did not have a back boiler as this takes greatly from the heat of the fire.
2)The boilers are on the top of the firebox so less heat is thrown out into the room also I intend to be able to simmer a saucepan or kettle on top, another economy tip.
3) The range heats the water and we have an immersion also.

We intend to take out the existing fireplace, and put the stove on a plinth not set into the fireplace ie out from the wall as the heat goes up the chimney otherwise, not too high as it will only heat your face.

It will burn wood, briquettes, coal and the odd cornflakes box etc will be great for getting rid of stuff.

They vary in price from about E350 up and make lots of enquiries as to the KW and area it is supposed to heat.

We visited a house over Christmas and stove was far too big for size of room, door had to be left open, then there was a draught.

Happy hunting,

[julfren]

Thanks for taking the trouble to explain the stove. I think I know some stoves like that. They give a very nice overall heat to the room and even to above if you have rooms overhead or indeed nearby rooms. Good luck with it.

Jul