Wood pellet heating system

Shedgirl

Cheers Welda for that link. I'm learning lots from this forum! And Geotherm, -35C is bloody cold - mind you so is a -8 wind chill temperature. Which part of Italy do you live in?

lovesgshp

Hi Shedgirl.
We were down to -10 with windchill a couple of days ago!!! We live close to a town called Amandola in the Le Marche region, close to the Sibillini mountains. Looking out of the office window here I can see the snow covered mountains. If you look on the map in the attached link, we overlook the Lago San Ruffino from the Villa Carucci side of the lake.

http://www.italyworldclub.com/marche/fermo/amandola.htm

lovesgshp

Pellet stove noise.
Have looked on some of the forums about pellet stoves here in Italy, where they are used quite a lot and the main complaint seems to be noise.
This was one comment only today:
Pellet stoves are fine if you've got somewhere to store the pellets and don't mind the noise of the fan - I wouldn't use one in a "quiet" area

Shedgirl

Aaaaabsolutely stunning! I 'Googled' Amandola and wow you are so lucky to live there, with a warm house too! Paradise on earth by the looks of it. It's now my spiritual home

Yes, noise. Interesting. You would think that surely a device could be manifested which would solve the problem. This is useful to know thanks, because I have made up my mind completely now to go with the ugly boiler in the utility/ancient toilet room. Out of sight and earshot.

macman

Have you considered the availability and pricing of the pellets in your area? Do you have adequate access to and space for the external hopper required?

peat

Not that I wish to complicate matters but another issue should also be considered, an external hopper can be as expensive as the boiler itself but on the other hand, bulk pellets are cheaper than bagged pellets with which boilers with integral pellet storage are stoked.
I suppose it’s a choice between capital costs and running costs.
Stoking with bagged pellets every day or two is not a terribly onerous task.
I would suggest that you contact your local supplier/installer who should be willing to point you in the direction of one of his satisfied customers where you would be able to see/hear a pellet boiler in action.
Just make sure supplier and stove are MCS registered.

lovesgshp

Shedgirl
Another interesting comment that came up today over here:

"As far as consumption is concerned, the pellets we get have a stated energy content of around 4.9 killowatt hours per kilogram. This means that one 15 kg bag has about 73 killowatt hours of energy. I believe that pellet stoves work at an efficiency of up to 90%. Assuming that best-case scenario, each bag will have an usable energy of around 66 killowatt hours. Obviously, things are very different in Italy, but to give an idea of what that means in terms that most of us can relate to, I've seen figures stating that the average UK 3-bedroom home consumes something like 25,000 killowatt hours worth of gas in a year. In order to get that much energy in pellets, you'd need 380 bags: or nearly 6 tonnes of pellets.
So, on average, a little more than a bag a day, but that's all based on wild generalisations.
Here's some real-world specifics: in order to maintain the eight rooms that we occupy at a temperature of 20°, we've been getting through up to three bags of pellets a day during the coldest weather this winter. Our house is pretty much draught-free, but it's a traditional construction (read: without insulation) located in the hills of Abruzzo at 550 mslm. Pellets are by far the easiest and cheapest option for heating, but by no definition is it "cheap" to heat this place to a reasonable temperature even using them."

Shedgirl

Macman, the company who gave me a quote examined the space and it was found to be large enough for requirements - they also supply pellets, as do another local firm.

And Peat, I know what you mean. I work at home (very seldom go away) so I don't foresee a problem with the loading of pellets. Interesting points you make. My local cafe has a pellet stove and have found it a pretty economical system.

Geotherm, thanks for sharing that comment. Very useful indeed. And according to my local cafe, they burn on average 1 and a half to 2 bags per day at £2.50ish per bag....which for them is good going. Plenty of hot water and heat. I believe no form of heat is 'cheap' (if you take into consideration the installation cost of these new energy systems) but I'm trying to think long term - basically to see out my days in a reasonably warm house!! At the moment I have 3 storage heaters and a multifuel stove and although I am forking out a fortune on fuel, my house is still pretty baltic! Mmmmm something wrong there! The RHI scheme means that my landlord is happy in the long run, and I have a warm home for a reasonable amount of money.

The other thing to mention is INSULATION. I'm doing my best, as money allows, working room by room to improve heat loss etc. It's tricky being self-employed - whenever one has a spare amount of cash, it is spent on keeping the old bones warm! I wonder if we really are entering a mini ice age, as has been suggested?! (due to the sun's behaviour I think)