wood pellet boilers

pdeery

hi there, i am at foundation level on my new house which will be about 2500sq. ft. i intend going with underfloor heating but am in a quandry anout oil or pellets.

i would like to do my bit for the environment by using a pellet boiler but have been told that they arent as efficient as an oil boiler and are more hassle because of storage of the pellets etc.

has anyone else got one and what are your views or experiences. would i just be better going with an oil boiler in a really well insulated house.

any help would be great cos i just cant make up my mind and its time to piss or get off the pot.

cheers
P

Dirk Gently

I'm in a similar situation to you. there is a lot of information in the gardening / Diy section on wood pellet boilers.
I am building a 3 bed house in my parents garden and want to heat the space and water using a wood pellet boiler. check out www.ecostoves.ie for info on the wood pellet system. they have showrooms in Dunboyne with working pellet systems. I also have an issue with the storage but 6 cubic metres is recommened for the storage of 3 tonnes of pellets. I've worked out that one tonne of pellets will heat my small house for the year which will reduce the storage space i need. one tonne of pellets will cost me about 150 euro. Doubt i could heat my house using oil for 150 euro a year and the price of oil will only increase. Look out for rooferpete in the DIY fourm as he can answer most questions you have. I plan to visit the showrooms soon and find out exactly how much storage space I need and which type of pellet system i need.
also the grant for wood pellet boilers is 4,200 euro. you can download the greenhomes scheme application form from www.sei.ie/greenerhomes

endplate

Why don't you consider aerothermal check out this link http://www.sweco.ie/aerothermal.htm. A grant of €4000 is available from SEI. It works similar to geothermal but doesn't use a network of pipes in the garden. It's compact and only relies on ESB to run it I heard from a mate who is going to install it that a friend of his is only paying about €20 a week to heat his house and provide hot water up to 70degrees C (geothermal can't get this heat without a booster but areothermal can) and he has it running day and night in a 3000sq ft house. Another problem with wood pellets is that the price is unregulated and Balcas are refusing to offer a price freeze. A place in Wexford (I think) which sells bags a few months ago were selling at €2.50 a bag are now €7.00 a bag

Evergreen

All All,

Wood pellet boilers can have efficiences as poor as 75% or as high as 94% depending on the make and model you go for. My advice to you is check out every detail of a boiler before you make a decision on the type to use, you will find that the lower efficiency models are also cheaper and in the long run give much more heartache for it's owner. Whereas the more expensive models are highly efficient, reliable and leave nothing for the owner to do other than remove ashes once every 3 months.

There is a good grant available now for pellet boiler, EUR 4,200 - however, if you are approved spend this money wisely. If you install a cheaper boiler that needs replacement in 4 or 5 years time you won't get a second grant from SEI. Better to put in a good system up front that will last for 15 to 20 years.

In relation to Aero and Geo thermal - we have been hearing lot's of reports of 6 and 7 year old units failing in Germany with some of the worst offenders being dug up and binned. Thread carefully in this direction and when getting quotes make sure that the sales guy sizes your house properly. Competition is so hot out there that competing companies are undersizing systems in order to make a sale, this means that when the cold weather bites the system has to fall back on electricity to make up the rest. My cousin got caught out badly like this, his electricity bill for Jan-Feb this year was EUR 600 - they are just a married couple with no kids so the house is empty for most of the day.

If you are planning an underfloor system then some pellet boilers are very well suited to this, there are boilers available that have a built in heat management system which means you will not require an expensive Sytem Link module in your cupboard.

If you have any questions in relation to this feel free to contact me on a PM

Regards,
Ned


I

King sound

Hi there, does anybody have experience of Hercules eco wood pellet boilers ?I am currently building a 4 bedroom house in Galway and got a reasonably good quote for a Hercules boiler with underfloor heating.

Chimpster

I have a Kedco boiler running for the last few months, it has a Danish burner and the boiler itself is Czech. I'm running it with UFH upstairs and down, happy enough so far but the winter will be the real test efficiency wise as some of the stats on the south side of house haven't called for heat in a few months. I'll post figures on this in the future once the winter rolls in... Overall it was good value for money as it looks like a decent product, So far anyway!