Wood Pellet Stove

Gatoh wrote: »

External boiler, cold weather 5 x10kg bags every 3 days ( frosty days )

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I fixed the pic for you.

That's cool, what about the maintenance and can you load the 5 x 10 Kg bags in at once ?

What about storing them in the shed in the cold ?

Gatoh wrote: »

I buy 10kg bagged , storage shed is just beside it, fits 2 pallets, works for me.
Deep cleaning every two weeks,20 minute job, very little ash.
Storage container takes 6 bags but cuts off before will get empty, some sort of safety measure I think.

Woodco recommended deep machine inspection and cleaning by technician every year once for 250 euro but I think I'll go with two year cycle, as you can see , it's quite well protected from the weather so I fear no premature issues with the boiler
If it was completely open for the weather conditions then possibly I would go with one year cycle

Sits on the old oil boiler place

Thanks for the replies.

Do you notice any savings over oil, current prices ?

Gatoh wrote: »

I don't know, I haven't use oil for ages. It was just sitting there as a backup and my main heater was outdoor solid fuel boiler. Solid fuel boiler was dirty and needed constant cleaning. And when was fully loaded and electricity went off then you had to be fast to be back home and unload fuel to assure something wont blow up.. Replaced double skin flue twice and all I can say it wont be cheap job. Smokless glow nuggets was so acidic that ruined my last flue less than a year so just got tired of it altogether and removed both heating systems last year and replaced with pellet boiler.

I was very tempted to install Air-to-Water heating system but my townhouse is not well insulated ( just a minimum regular 1990's standard whatever that was back then ) so in order to spend 10k for Air-to-Water system I should invest another 10k to pump the walls, foam the attic, etc. I just don't have money for this sort of investment. I'm happy with my pellet boiler, was cheap to install,very little attention needed and I think it's cheap to run. Smells good too - neighbors must think we having a barbecue every day

Well sounds like it's working out well for you congrats.

Yeah I'm in 80's Bungalow not the best insulated but considering how good heat pumps are these days and can heat water to 60 odd degrees it makes them an ideal replacement for oil boilers, I can always add more insulation later on but it would be difficult in the roof with the attic conversion which isn't even a proper conversion, the roof wasn't raised so access to the sides is next to impossible.

heat pumps ideally shouldn't cycle on and off like oil boilers and I now got a really cheap electricity rate via Energia and I also have night rate electricity to charge the car so if it worked out around the same to run the HP I'd be happy enough but the investment is pretty high but the pellet stove might be a more sensible approach if they can keep the cost of the pellets low enough in the future.

The reason I'd want to swing more towards HP is because pellet emissions are pretty high, not as bad as coal but high enough to cause health issues + some pellets come from industrial sources and give off toxic fumes in storage and when burned + I don't have to clean or refuel the heat Pump.

Being on a well using the water makes it much more efficient than Air to Water, I think a COP of 7:1 can be achieved or even higher depending on the temperature of the water needed. That means for every 1 Kw taken from the grid I would get 7 out compared to maybe 1 in and 4 out for air to water.

I would like to get away from oil either way but Oil boilers are ultra reliable and you never need to refuel apart from a fill up once or twice a year.