Our Wood Pellet Boiler decisions.........

nemocharley

ModelCitizen wrote: »

I'm intending to install a biomass pellet boiler in the next couple of months and am trying to decide on which boiler, and whether I need a heat store and hopper. The
MCZ RED Compact24 is a contender solely due to its low price. Other boiler manufacturers suggested to us are Okufen, KWB and Froeling. Grant have not been offered as an option. Froeling look very good but are very expensive.

I am finding that the biggest problem is lack of information. None of the installers I've talked to agree and there is a noticeable lack of info on the web in English.

I'm very interested to know if the original poster is still happy with his MCZ RED Compact24 and filling it up every few days.

The Compact 24 can also be bought here in Denmark - it has a fair to good reputation is my impression. However its kw output really has to match the house´s kw need. If not its efficiency is quite low - a way to compensate is to use it in conjunction with a buffertank and eventually add solar heating (use the same tank and have a heat exchanger give you hot water for baths etc - fast paced heating in flow. For the price you´ll get a good boiler - but with the above reservations.

Another very interesting boiler is the Turkish Slimpel - it is gaining a fair share of the market rather quickly here in DK. Semi-automatic, good software, sturdy and reliable. I know it can be bought in Your neck of the woods as well. In DK the 15kw costs 3000£ or a little less. It has the same make-up as the "Austrian" boilers, but is more simple.

If You want to go "Austrian" I can recommend the Hoval Biolyt - it costs 7000£ here in DK. There are many good ones but they are all expensive.

The Polish company Kostrzewa also sells some very interesting boilers.

[Deleted User]

crawmo wrote: »

..A quick telephone query said that a Musa 15 /21 kw would be suitable - does anyone have any thoughts regarding this brand and output as our house is exposed to the elements and does get rather cold so we require something that would be fit for the job?

we have an mcz musa hydro 15 and live in a 4 bedroomed eco house ie the highest possible standards on insulation. It is an attractive reliable stove with a huge range of programmes and we tend to use about 5 kg a day in autumn/early spring with a max of 10 kg a day in a cold winter. We don`t use it in summer as we have solar panels for the hot water.

It heats the house and hot water efficiently in our house but I doubt it would be man enough for your house, you would have to use masses more pellets and would always be filling up the 15kg capacity hopper

UpsyDaisy2_2

we have had/are having a Trianco External Biomass Boiler fitted. This is to replace our solid fuel rayburn which we have had 22 years. We decided to go for the change as we are not getting any younger and 'heaving anthracite' about is not getting any easier. We liked what we where told, we wanted to go greener, we visited other people who had wood pellet boilers fitted and we wouldn't have the muck, dust & soot in the house, before we went ahead.
As an added extra we decided to have a hopper as well which would mean, the heating would still come on if we where away and should we get too infirm our children could come and top it up once every 2 weeks.
This started at the end of July, having the patio dug up for pipes, a hopper and storage shed built (we don't have a garage).
We have had lots of problems, bent boiler hopper lid, rust, the boiler door catches when you open it, rivets popped off. We then had problems with the hopper, the connection to the boiler, getting the auger to work, ( we have already had one burnt out motor on the auger). Blockages, because the settings for the type of pellets was set incorrectly. Today we woke up and had nothing, no heat, no hot water zilch. So called up the fitters, round they came, they think the pump has gone kaput, but on investigation there is nothing wrong with the pump. So off they go, then come back having phoned Trianco who will be sending an engineer as we are now 4 months into our 12 month 'everything' warranty.
On the plus side it is brilliant to be able to 'turn on' the heating and have decent heat on the radiators, lashings of hot water, no dust, muck, etc. what I have to get used to is not having the continual background heat a Rayburn gives you. Ours is run with continual hot water and currently timed heating. We used to order 3 tons of anthracite but reckon on using
currently 4 bags of pellets a week so think it will be between 3-4 tons a year of pellets. For your info we live in an 1860 terraced cottage, 3 bedrooms, large lounge and large kitchen. 5 radiators and an overflow rad in the bathroom.

MonsterMonster

victorfirst wrote: »

Anyone got a Grant Spira CONDENSING woodpellet boiler. I have one and find it is great and easy to work. Just works like an oil boiler

I keep looking at pellet boilers and the Grant Spira keeps popping up. They sound good but they were at one point not certified for the RHI scheme but this might have changed recently.

What have you got exactly and in what configuration? Do they need a buffer tank?

giantg

I am investigating biomass options.
Can those who have new systems running tell me how much they spent on heating oil with their old system compared to the annual cost of running a pellet system? This would make comparison easy unless there are other factors e.g. the house is much hotter/colder with the new system.
Thanks

giantg

Has anyone any advice re a system which can use logs and pellets?
e.g. a Solarfocus Therminator 2
I have enough space and time for some logs, but not enough of either to
go entirely to a log boiler.
Thanks

barcombewood

Hi Model Citizen
A big coincidence but I live in Barcombe and am going through the process of getting a pellet boiler installed. It would be good to share experiences

lotsofworktodo

Hi,
We are carrying out a lot of renovation work on an old property (part Georgian, part Victorian) and as part of the work are completely redoing the heating and plumbing systems. We want to install a wood pellet system and have had a couple of companies to quote who have both said that we need 40kW of output for the hw and ch. This seems high compared to what everyone else on this thread has, however it is a large house (4000 sqft) so maybe that is necessary. They then seem to think that we will use in the region of 12-14 tonnes of pellets a year. So, the first question is, does this sound reasonable?

Secondly, does anyone have any experience with Centrometal systems? Specifically the EKO-CK P boiler. I haven't seen it mentioned here and would love some thoughts on it!

Many thanks in advance.

Quintone

Hello lotsofworktodo. My day job is working for an energy efficiency advisory business - we don't sel specific bits of kit but advise owners of larger homes, estates etc on the best technology to use. we have come across the Centrometal systems. They are MCS approved now and we know a local (Southern England) distributor. Definitely worth a look if you are looking for a cost effective option. They don't yet have the brand cache of the Austrian and German systems but they work well.
You might also want to take a look at Grant's Spira system.
The key thing for you if you are doing a big renovation is to spend some time and no doubt money on insulation levels first. From there you should aim to get a heat loss calculation done from which you can begin to work out bolier sizes and fuel demands. A lot of people over-spec to be on the safe side but with a bit of graft there is no reason why you cannot come up with an accurate heat calc. Hope this helps....it's my first post!

Baltrasna2013

Hello All,
I am planning to install a grant spira with a 4m3 hopper and auger in a new build house with a relatively low energy consumption eg 10kw at -3 deg outside. I am worried about auger on hopper jamming and whether i need an accumulator or eg a 400 litre hot water tank as i have such a low energy demand. Any advise is appreciated.