Has anyone changed over from Oil to Wood Pellet Boiler - what was your experience?

bthomb

We are looking to change our home heating from oil to wood pellet boiler. So far I have heard some negative feedback 1. the efficiency of the boiler not as good as oil 2. It can be difficult to get good quality wood pellets delivered. 3. I have heard of one family that have changed back to oil again.

We have a two storey house appro 2300 sq ft.

I am interested to hear from anyone who has changed over from oil to wood pellet and to hear your feedback both positive and negative.

endplate

TBH if your insulation is good and your not using hugh quantities of oil I'd stick with what you have. I'm currently building a 3100sqft house and I can't justify the cost of this 'renewable' stuff I feel it's a bandwagon everybody is jumping on and also been pushed into so I'll be installing an oil condenser boiler. I'm willing to bet in a few years time there will be another bandwagon to jump onto in my lifetime we've had acid rain, ozone, millennium bug and greenhouses gasses wonder what's next? But I have made provisions in the attic space for a wood pellet silo in the garage for such a time I feel pellets are the way to go. Think carefully about it also remember the more people that get pellets the more farmers are tempted to turn their food producing land into forests for central heating.

BTW I've heard the same negative stories as you have about pellets and people not happy with their systems

No6

I have changed over from oil to wood pellet and on the positive side have found it considerably cheaper to run about 1200 for last winters heating season compared to about 1800 in oil for the year before (when oil was at 55cent a litre). It works just the same heats the water and gives the same heat. On the negivate side I've had a few problems, firstly with getting the boiler set up right but a few visits from the installers and it was sorted, one or two slight leaks in my silo, sorted with a tube of silicone and then you have to remember to load the small silo every week in the winter my system will run out of pellets, And over this very damp summer my augur has siezed from lack of use, but nothing a bit of wd40 and a hammer cant sort out. If you want an easy life and heating system stick with oil if you're prepared to put a little effort into it then wood pellets are great and if you're unsure keep the oil and plumb your system so you can switch back if required, i did and I havnt turned the oil on since I switched over, I must give it a run just to keep it alive!! If you want any details of suppliers i've used of anything feel free to PM me.

endplate

Cheaper to run maybe but how much did it cost you to fit and install and going by current oil prices what's the payback

No6

endplate wrote: »

Cheaper to run maybe but how much did it cost you to fit and install and going by current oil prices what's the payback

9.8K less 4.2K grant = 5.6K saving this year approx 1000 payback in 5.6 years!! The higher Oil rises the quicker the payback!! I've just order some more pellets last night and the price has gone up by about 10 euro a tonne since last year, probably to cover transport otherwise not too bad when comapred to oil / gas / electricty

Chimpster

You have also greatly decoupled yourself from any form of carbon tax, whether it be fuel linked or property linked. I'm not sure about how much of a factor this is going to be but its not part of a BER cert for the fun of it. That information will be used to extract money from the tax payer eventually!

No6

Chimpster wrote: »

You have also greatly decoupled yourself from any form of carbon tax, whether it be fuel linked or property linked. I'm not sure about how much of a factor this is going to be but its not part of a BER cert for the fun of it. That information will be used to extract money from the tax payer eventually!

And it is coming if its not here already with the current price of oil!! The greens will bring it in before they die in the next election!!!

abakan

endplate wrote: »

I'm willing to bet in a few years time there will be another bandwagon to jump onto in my lifetime we've had acid rain, ozone, millennium bug and greenhouses gasses wonder what's next?

:rolleyes: when was the last time you seen acid rain in ireland!!!! our actions put a stop to it.

Wood pellets are good - only thing is the more people that start to use them the price will go up, supply and demand.
but still way cheaper than using oil.

insulation and triple glazing and ull be paying next to nothing for your heating - depends on how many of the opposite sex there is in the house :rolleyes:

Doctor_L

We have upgraded the insulation in our exterior walls and increased our attic insulation from 200mm to 450mm. We are currently in the process of organizing the installation of solar panels for domestic hot water. We will then wait and see if our heating bills will be significantly reduced this winter heating season.

Like several posters on this thread I know of people who have replaced their pellet boilers with oil. I have yet to see an expensive boiler being replaced as these models have a self cleaning facility and are usually supplied with a 1000 litre buffer tank.

This can greatly affect the performance as the build up of ash affects the transfer of heat.The self cleaning makes pellet systems more akin to oil i.e push button operation.

The buffer tank means that for the first 15-20 mins of operation the heat is drawn from the buffer tank. During that time the pellet boiler is coming up to optimum temp so as to heat the water in the buffer tank. This longer burn is more efficient on the use of pellets. The grant only recognises the boiler however not the buffer tank.

These 17 - 23 kw domestic solutions with self cleaning and a buffer tank tend to cost 16K plus. These boilers typically clean themselves by scraping down the sides twice a day.

I was informed last week that there is a new domestic boiler being sold by a large heating/plumbing distributor for 9K that cleans the boiler by pulling brushes through it at startup. I have yet to see the spec on the system so I cannot comment fully on the system.

When I can buy a decent self cleaning pellet boiler with a tolerance to moisture I will probably switch, if the price is right.

Liam

No6

Doctor L I can appreciate the automatic self cleaning, type boilers but I fail to understand the reson behind a 1000 litre buffer tank, why heat all the water in your heating system plus 1000 litre's how is that going to be fuel efficient even with the most efficient boiler?? Maybe I'm missing something. I do agree with heating your Domestic Hot Water with the system but whats wrong with a standard size cylinder??

Doctor_L

Hi No6,

The domestic heating system connects to the buffer tank and circulates the water from the buffer tank around the heating system, A thermostat on the insulated buffer tank can switch the wood pellet boiler on when the temp has dropped a certain amount.

The size of the buffer tank is dependant on the sq footage of the building. A 1000 litre buffer tank would be needed for a building like a creche e.g 5000 sq feet a smaller tank such as 500 litres could be used for a domestic house. The main raison d'etre for the tank is having heat on demand. When the circulation pump for the heating is switched on there is a buffer tank of hot water ready to circulate. The pellet boiler is not as fast as oil to reach optimum temp for heating oil.

If the pellet boiler is self cleaning and has a built in 500 litre capacity well and good. I would consider buying it.

Regards

Liam

boots1

DR L,

Could you pls post details of the system you heard about for a domestic setting retailing at circa €9K? Thanks in advance, boots

NickTellis

boots1 wrote: »

DR L,

Could you pls post details of the system you heard about for a domestic setting retailing at circa €9K? Thanks in advance, boots

I'd also be interested in this info. Thanks.

Doctor_L

I am having difficulty getting info on the boiler that was recommended to me.

There are several 25 kw wood pellet boiler out there that are self cleaning that retail for under 9000 euros. The problem is most of them have efficiencies of 85%.

The Irish Bioenergy association recommend an efficeincy of 90% plus. They provide some good general advice in an article

http://www.irbea.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=407&Itemid=88

I would recommend Tony McGinleys website to anyone considering wood pellet boilers. He has some very strong opinions on the subject and the prices being charged.

http://wood-pellet-ireland.blogspot.com/2006/07/wood-pellet-ireland-update.html

I spoke to a company that sell pellet boilers and they recommend a buffer tank of 300L for a standard house for greater efficency, 300L buffer tank costs 1000 euros approx

Rathlynin

I installed a new Gerkros Woodpecker in July- it has self cleaning and de-ashing... smashing looking job

The housefolder actually took out the old wood pellet boiler that was not self cleaning as they had a 6,000 sq ft house and the boiler had to be cleaned every few weeks......They are delighted with the new system.... It cost me €6k

NickTellis

Rathlynin wrote: »

It cost me €6k

And what did it cost them?

CivilEx

I have recently installed a 30kW Wood pellet boiler in my garage. Previously used oil for about 7 years and the cost of oil for heating my house (approx 2700 sq. ft) last winter was heading north of €2000. I built a silo myself that will hold approx 6.5 cubic metres which should be over 4.5 tonnes of pellets.

While the system is only running a couple of weeks, I have no issues to report yet but its early days.

The cost of the boiler was €5700 and commissioning was €500 to give a total purchase cost of €6200. The insulated flue and flashing through the roof cost another €600 or so and if I add in the cost of the plywood (€140) for the silo and the camlock fitting / pipe (€140 / €50), the total cost was over €7100. If I had bought a silo at approx €3000, the total cost would have been about €9200.

I got in at the €3000 grant level from SEI, so I am out of pocket by €4100 all told.

I am expecting my fuel bill to drop to around €950 per annum based on what a neighbour is paying for his and on this basis I will be saving approx €1100 per year. Even allowing for oil to drop back from current levels and wood pellett prices to rise, the savings should still be €800- €1000 per annum for me. It will take me four years at this rate to get my money back.

I have hedged my bets though and left my oil boiler in place beside the Wood Pellet boiler in the event that oil levels fall back again to very low levels. Overall I'd say that this is not a huge cash saving, but it looks like wood pellet is here to stay and is more sustainable.

I hope this helps for anyone considering the change.....

murph08

CivilEX, how did you make your silo? I'm thinking of making my own aswell and am just wondering whats the best way to build it?

MicktheMan

CivilEx wrote: »

The silo is made up in my garage, using two of the existing blockwork walls to make the "box". I had some rafters and purlin left over from building the garage and used these to make a frame on which plywood was placed to make the floor of the "box" and I fixed this frame to the wall using express nails. The floor is level at the moment with the hopper and maybe I'll raise it in the future to give a slope to the hopper. The 9x3 purlins were used to give the box a leg on the corner. The walls of the silo are made with ply, fixed at the bottom to my frame and at the top fixed into the joists from upstairs. The hopper is also incorporated into the "box" at one end.

I bought a camlock fitting, fixed it just above the floor of the silo and used some four inch piping with two soft bends to direct the pellets towards the end with the hopper. I'll try and post up a photo later to give you a better idea of what my wordy description looks like

Hi Civilex,
I dont want to alarm you but :
shouldn't the camlock be towards the top of the silo rather than the bottom? I'm by no means an expert but I dont see how it can be filled with the camlock at the bottom.
Also, from a fire safety point of view, shouldn't there be a minimum of 1 or 2m between the boiler and the silo?
Did the installation company not advise you on these issues?

CivilEx

You are right in that the camlock has to be at chest height for the delivery driver and they won't deliver if they have to stretch. If my case there is a four inch pipe attached to the camlock with two soft bends directing the delivery towards the top of the silo. The silo won't fill if the camlock is at the bottom