Gasification boiler?

hilaryh21

Hello

I am new to posting, but have gleaned a lot of useful information from this site over the years.

We have a detached (tenanted) property in the south-east, currently with electric heating and new woodburners. The electric heating is just not cutting it as it's just too expensive to keep at a level to maintain a toasty house. Am not wholly convinced of solar PV...just too darn expensive to install.

It's south facing, has a 35 degree roof and a twin-coil tank in situ so am thinking of solar thermal, but...how to heat the house? Was thinking of ASHP plus new radiators but a recent thread has been less than complimentary. Has anyone come across gasification boilers - I'd never heard of them. Does anyone know anything? And are they any good? If it helps discussion, we have a lean-to outhouse that could house it and the wood.

In the distant future, we're going to be moving back in, but would also like to keep our tenant warm in the meantime! Am strongly averse to LPG or oil, and there is no mains gas.

Thanks!

H

muckybutt

Gasification boilers ! they have been around for a good few years but havent made it main stream in the uk so to speak, have a look on youtube http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gasification+wood+boiler&oq=gasifi&aq=3&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=1&gs_upl=13197l14724l0l18622l6l6l0l1l1l0l126l611l0.5l5l0

You could also think about wood pellet boilers as well, there is also another different option which is similar to the gasification boiler, its an outdoor furnace as the yanks call them, company called woodmaster do them, they do have dealers in the uk, similar to a pellet boiler but will burn straw - barley - wheat - wood chip etc

Canucklehead

hilaryh21 wrote: »

Hello

I am new to posting, but have gleaned a lot of useful information from this site over the years.

We have a detached (tenanted) property in the south-east, currently with electric heating and new woodburners. The electric heating is just not cutting it as it's just too expensive to keep at a level to maintain a toasty house. Am not wholly convinced of solar PV...just too darn expensive to install.

It's south facing, has a 35 degree roof and a twin-coil tank in situ so am thinking of solar thermal, but...how to heat the house? Was thinking of ASHP plus new radiators but a recent thread has been less than complimentary. Has anyone come across gasification boilers - I'd never heard of them. Does anyone know anything? And are they any good? If it helps discussion, we have a lean-to outhouse that could house it and the wood.

In the distant future, we're going to be moving back in, but would also like to keep our tenant warm in the meantime! Am strongly averse to LPG or oil, and there is no mains gas.

Thanks!

H

Hi: an expensive option as the set up will require both the log boiler and an accumulator....see more @ Windhager. Consult a HETAS installer who holds Biomass certification...find one here.

HTH

Canucklehead

14Westfield

could you try using the solar-thermal with a woodburning/backboiler back up?

upsize the radiators so they run at a lower temperture (40degC) and use a large 500L thermal store with a couple of solar thermal coils heating it up.
this would need direct sunlight in winter when you use the heat most
and a way of boosting the heat with a secondary woodburner - which might be more manual hassle than its worth . . .

JANSPAM

Hi H,
We have a wood gasification boiler,an Attack 35kw system with a 2000l Accvithurm (i'm not sure if that how you spell it or not!)water cylinder, we had it installed in October 2009. We replaced an old LPG central heating system which was costing us a small fortune to run and as we don't have a gas supply to our property we decided to go down the wood gasification route. We had to have a boiler house built to house the system (2.5m x 3.6m ) as its quite a large system, all together including the boiler house the system cost a total £12,000. For us it has been well worth it as we are lucky enough to get our wood supply for free so our heating / hot water bill has been reduced from £3500 per annum to £0. I must point out however that it is a bit of a life style choice, I wouldn't recommend this type of heating system if your out at work all day, as in the hard winter months refuelling is required several times during the day to keep the water cylinder up to temperature but then again in the summer (what is summer I hear you cry!) we only need to light the boiler every couple of weeks for hot water. Cleaning the boiler out isn't a big hassle either, even in the winter we only clean it out once a week unlike a wood burning stove which needs cleaning every day. For us the positives far out way the negatives. If your at home a lot and have the room for the system and the wood storage (we use around 50 cubic metres of wood a year with our system) I would say go for it. There is supposed to be an incentive scheme staring in October which pays you for producing your own energy, a bit like the Governments solar panel incentive scheme called R.H.I. (renewable heat incentive) so there is a good chance that you could earn money from using this type of system too, which in turn can go towards the cost of your wood supply. I hope this helps with your decision and that I haven't confused you with my waffling!
Regards,
Janspam