unica boiler v stove

ltz400

I am looking know if anyone has come across the unica moderator sensor boiler as i was looking a getting a 30kw stove but seen this was thinkin which would be better i would want it to heat 16 rads and the hot water

Any idea?

louisjnr

I was weighing up the same thing myself. I have a small stove in my kitchen and was going to upgrade it to one with a back boiler, when I came across the moderator.

I went with the Moderator Unica 30w Sensor for the following reasons.

- I could fit it beside my condenser boiler in the garage with only minor disruption.
- No more messing with ashes and turf/wood in the house every day
- No rooting to do inside to run pipes etc.

I've only had it installed yesterday, so I'm new to it. The plumber who installed it has one himself and said he hasn't lit his stove or used any oil since he fitted it. He also said it'll take a while to figure out the best settings (Thermostat, fan, etc..) for getting the most out of it.

My house has underfloor heating downstairs and rads upstairs and we've been using around €200 per month on oil, so I think I'm onto a winner here.

I hope this helps.

demanufactured

louisjnr wrote: »

I was weighing up the same thing myself. I have a small stove in my kitchen and was going to upgrade it to one with a back boiler, when I came across the moderator.

I went with the Moderator Unica 30w Sensor for the following reasons.

- I could fit it beside my condenser boiler in the garage with only minor disruption.
- No more messing with ashes and turf/wood in the house every day
- No rooting to do inside to run pipes etc.

I've only had it installed yesterday, so I'm new to it. The plumber who installed it has one himself and said he hasn't lit his stove or used any oil since he fitted it. He also said it'll take a while to figure out the best settings (Thermostat, fan, etc..) for getting the most out of it.

My house has underfloor heating downstairs and rads upstairs and we've been using around €200 per month on oil, so I think I'm onto a winner here.

I hope this helps.

What do you burn in it?.

nelser

I just had a plumper over last night who suggested this idea...I have to say I didn't even know it was an option and now very interested....would you recomend...I'm in the same position as ltz400 about 16 Rads and have loads of room to fit it beside my condenser boiler in the garage

shanekoaks

Hi all,
Back now after about 6 weeks using my Moderator Unica boiler for heating my house. It is a great job for heating and we turned our oil at all since.

Here my observations:

-My plumber had said to set it around 60c, but I've now dropped it to 55c which seems to be more efficient with fuel consumption. I may drop it even more to see how low I can go to heat the house adequately.

-I was burning turf on it's own, but as the quality of turf varies and produces quite a bit of ash, I'm now burning a mix of hardwood and turf. (I bought a trailer full of timber). The mix is lasting a lot longer and seems to be giving off a more uniform degree of heat.

-Timber embers are a lot easier to re-ignite in the mornings when the boiler needs to be re-loaded.

- I'm still fiddling with it so it takes a bit of patience.

Pro's and Cons:

-I suppose it does take a bit of work - I'm currently burning around 2 1/2 bags of turf/timber a day, so It would need to be filled 3 or 4 times a day.

- The ashes need to be emptied around every 5 days.

- Some days it can get quite smokey and your clothes can be smelly from it when loading. It's recommended to turn off the machine when loading to minimise the amount of smoke coming out.

-It giving us great heating the house, something I feel we never had from the condenser boiler.

- At the end of the day, It takes a bit of work to keep it maintained, but it's saving me a fortune on oil bills, so I'm quite happy!

glic83

How much did it cost you for the boiler and install, also how much per month are you now spending on fuel?

nelser

Hi Shane...

Glad to hear your happy with the savings....have you tried to burn any coal..or mix it with the other fuels.

I met with a dealer last weekend and he advised me to upgrade to Unica Vento Eko (Pellet Burner), he said it was expensive to run the Unica Sensor if you don't have a free supply of timber from a farm or something.

The costs I've been quoted at the moment are:
Unica Vento Eko - €3900
OR
Unica Sensor - €2000

Twin wall flue pipe and fittings installed - €800
Plumbing - €500
Pumps and extras - aprox €500

How much did it cost you for the boiler and install, also how much per month are you now spending on fuel?

Like i said I'll can just jump onto the pipes from my oil burner in my garage.

ltz400

well am thinking i will go for the unica sensor but am getting a hunter 80b solid fuel stove so heres how i would like to plumb it.

run the stove through a 1"coil in a buffer tank so i can have it vented
and run the unica sensor into the buffer and use the buffer to heat the rads and the dhw cyclindeer so to have this unvented.

any idea good bad or in between on this setup

oikster

ltz400 wrote: »

well am thinking i will go for the unica sensor but am getting a hunter 80b solid fuel stove so heres how i would like to plumb it.

run the stove through a 1"coil in a buffer tank so i can have it vented
and run the unica sensor into the buffer and use the buffer to heat the rads and the dhw cyclindeer so to have this unvented.

any idea good bad or in between on this setup[/QUOT


The 80B is quite a lump of a stove. You will be burning a serious amount of fuel.
The other thing is the room the stove is going into,how big is it? Be sure to size your buffer so as to give yourself plenty backup.Why not feed the stove directly into the buffer and use your buffer to feed your U/V cylinder.

ltz400

sorry for late reply oikster ur right about 80b is quite a lump.

answer 1 the room where the stove will going is 12ft x 10ft
answer 2 was going to put in a 1500l buffer tank
i think there was a mixup i want to run the rads unvented and i no ya cant have a solid fuel stove unvented so i was thinkin runnin the stove vented to the dhw tank and run the pump to the buffer via a 1" coil
hope this clears things up

drl

shanekoaks wrote: »

Hi all,
Back now after about 6 weeks using my Moderator Unica boiler for heating my house. It is a great job for heating and we turned our oil at all since.

Here my observations:

-My plumber had said to set it around 60c, but I've now dropped it to 55c which seems to be more efficient with fuel consumption. I may drop it even more to see how low I can go to heat the house adequately.

-I was burning turf on it's own, but as the quality of turf varies and produces quite a bit of ash, I'm now burning a mix of hardwood and turf. (I bought a trailer full of timber). The mix is lasting a lot longer and seems to be giving off a more uniform degree of heat.

-Timber embers are a lot easier to re-ignite in the mornings when the boiler needs to be re-loaded.

- I'm still fiddling with it so it takes a bit of patience.

Pro's and Cons:

-I suppose it does take a bit of work - I'm currently burning around 2 1/2 bags of turf/timber a day, so It would need to be filled 3 or 4 times a day.

- The ashes need to be emptied around every 5 days.

- Some days it can get quite smokey and your clothes can be smelly from it when loading. It's recommended to turn off the machine when loading to minimise the amount of smoke coming out.

-It giving us great heating the house, something I feel we never had from the condenser boiler.

- At the end of the day, It takes a bit of work to keep it maintained, but it's saving me a fortune on oil bills, so I'm quite happy!

Hi, just wondering now that you have had your moderator unica for a while would you recommend it ?, we are looking for an alternative to oil, we have underfloor heating

zoom_cool

How is the Unica moderator boiler going?