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

DanRichards

DaveWSmith wrote: »

We have been using a Wood Pellet Boiler (Lincar 740) since Febuary, the original 1967 Oil boiler gave up the ghost on the 23 December, the oil tank was on its last legs, and was we where only able to Half fill it, we where looking into replacing the oil boiler the following summer, but had to bring forward these plans.
We had a 3rd pallet of pellets delivered last month, and it is worth searching around for the best price.
Good Luck on the install

Do you mind me asking what brand of pellets you are using? Our first pallet was Verdo, which have been great, but i'm starting to think about the next order, and was wondering what alternatives there are?
Cheers.

[Deleted User]

we have an MCZ musa hydro 15. The one below

http://www.mcz.it/en/p123-musa.html

We live in a 4 bedroomed eco house with very high levels of insulation and have used the stove for just over 2 years. It is lovely to look at and reliable. We do the recommended cleaning on time and get it serviced by the mcz engineer once a year. We get bagged wood pellets from liverpool wood pellets as they supply balcas brites in 10kg bags, which I, a 5` woman, can handle. £250 a tonne and we use less than a tonne a year but perhaps more if winter turns out to be dire

http://liverpoolwoodpellets.co.uk/ourshop/prod_287801-Premium-Balcas-Brites-Wood-Pellets-in-10-kg-small-bags-including-delivery-and-VAT-from.html

DanRichards

Wow! We're estimated to use 4 tonnes per year, so 1 is amazing! I think £250 per tonne is about right at the minute.

[Deleted User]

I think we will try verdo from white horse next as there is always a punctured couple of bags from liverpool pellets. I see verdo do 10kg bags so that would suit.

The amount of ash is tiny, just a small handful a day. The hopper holds 15kg when full and will last 2-3 days at least. Our system is linked in with solar panels for hot water, the stove heater is 1/3 down the tank and the solar heater is at the bottom as is the immersion heater. We did our first firing for winter today and in two hours the whole house was warm and the water at the top of the tank had increased by 13 degrees to 56. I set it on 5-9am daily and at 7 the flame calmed down to low. I love the huge range of programmes, over 60 different ones. I had been using the immersion for a few weeks now and hate to see it using 3000 watts per hour but the house was already warm with solar energy. It has been getting colder at the core and now is the right time for the stove. We cannot get hot water without ch but don`t need to. The stove is a lovely feature in the open plan lounge/dining/kitchen and is in front of a heat store wall with a small `snug` on the other side of the wall. No heating in the snug as it isn`t needed

DaveWSmith

Hi Dan, We originality had the Verdo , but they came with the boiler, and we had a few damaged bags, mostly due to unloading and storing them in our shed, so we then tried the the balcas , from White Horse, stronger bags, a whiter pellet than the Verdo, but we seemed to have a soot issue when cleaning the boiler, (fine soot over the work surface's) so this time we gone back to Verdo again from White horse, was impressed that the pallet was wrapped in a Verdo cover, and also cling filmed as well. We are currently using an average of 1 bag a day, and I think we have solved the soot issue by using a soot vacuum when we clean the boiler.
We also have a Solar Hot water system, so we don't use the boiler in the summer, if we get one next year..

DaveWSmith

Hi Kittie, Just looking at you system manual, impressed with the external temp sensor and network connections, wish mine had those, I currently using a Nanode device to monitor my solar heating, but intend to have it switch on the immersion heater automatically, if the boiler is not on, and there's not enough solar to heat the tank.

grahamc2003

We need a new tank and our house, not being on gas, has storage heaters. Nothing much wrong with those, but we've decided to upgrade the heating sytstem anyway. Last week I'd settled on a heatpump (and we're now waiting for vists and quotes), but having seen this thread, I'm wondering is a pellet burner would be better. I really like the look of Kittie's, something a heatpump lacks!

Any ballpark figures for complete install - burner plus tank plus probably 10/11 rads? I'm expecting the rhi to be extremely generous, and in a way I disagree with the idea behind it, but that wouldn't stop me taking advantage of it.

Also, I've seen several Utube videos - the control is very impressive. A qustion though - to start up, the input air is heated by electricity to start things going - once burning, is that electric element turned off, or does it always pre-heat the input air?

Really interesting thread, thanks.

[Deleted User]

Graham it needs electricity at all times. There is an auger inside which turns every few seconds, this delivers the pellets. There is also an electronic display and various sensors inside that can cut power at various points in case of emergency. The electronic sensors maintain pellet flow and burn rate according to external temperature

It was in the (new) house when we bought and I believe that it is very expensive, about £4k for the stove alone. We only have a master (big) rad in the utility downstairs and a tiny rad in the study on the north side. Upstairs there are two towel rails and 4 tiny rads in different rooms. That is it, don`t forget that this house is coded very high and is almost carbon neutral. The mcz hydro 15 copes well in this house but to heat 10 normal rads will be a different ball game. You need to get the heating sums done first then look for the appropriate output in a stove. If you need say 4 tonnes a year then I expect a stove with a much bigger hopper might be better

I don`t think it heats the pre-input air once ignited, the burning pellets seem to be the source after ignition. Imo the solar panels are much more cost effective and do a sterling job of heating the water but I love having the panels and stove in tandem

DS we just moved 40 balcas bags close to the house and all bags were in good condition. I`ll be talking to the white horse people in time

Re RHI we had no idea about this when we bought and the same for FIT. We will get RHI for the solar panels and stove output, it won`t be that much and tbh I wish they would keep prices down for everyone rather than pay FIT or RHI.

Graham, you are looking at a bells and whistles system, ours is simple rather than sophisticated. If we get enough solar energy then we just make sure the stove stays off as the house is heated via the sun and the water will then get to around 40 degrees from sun alone. The morning stove boost is all it needs to get to just under 60 at tank top and the tank is super insulated

DanRichards

grahamc2003 wrote: »

We need a new tank and our house, not being on gas, has storage heaters. Nothing much wrong with those, but we've decided to upgrade the heating sytstem anyway. Last week I'd settled on a heatpump (and we're now waiting for vists and quotes), but having seen this thread, I'm wondering is a pellet burner would be better. I really like the look of Kittie's, something a heatpump lacks!

Any ballpark figures for complete install - burner plus tank plus probably 10/11 rads? I'm expecting the rhi to be extremely generous, and in a way I disagree with the idea behind it, but that wouldn't stop me taking advantage of it.

Also, I've seen several Utube videos - the control is very impressive. A qustion though - to start up, the input air is heated by electricity to start things going - once burning, is that electric element turned off, or does it always pre-heat the input air?

Really interesting thread, thanks.

Hi Graham. It would definitely be worth getting some quotes for a pellet boiler at the same time as heat pumps, whats to lose?
Our install was in the 10k region for a boiler, new tank and 11 rads, but it all depends on the size of house and where the boiler is situated etc.
Currently using 12 bags per week, so i'll be looking at a new order of pellets soon. Ill more than likely be going back to white horse for the Verdo's
Also, im very interested in peoples opinions on a solar heating system. We're thinking about this for next year.

Davesnave

Just checking in to say this thread is proving very interesting for me too, as we're due to do a major refurb on a country bungalow next year.

At present, we just have a wood burner linked to 7 rads:rotfl:and an oil fired Aga, which does a bit of space heating, luke-warm water and a towel rail. As the bungalow is reasonably well-insulated and double-glazed, we don't exactly freeze, but everything we currently have on the heating/hot water front must go.

At present, I'm leaning towards a pellet boiler with assistance from a wood burner in the living area and some solar water heating from our south facing roof. Obviously, there will be times, like today, when the boiler might not be needed at all, as we get a certain amount of free or very cheap logs, which would keep us ticking along.

Anything has to beat the current arrangement, where we often need to open the doors on a sunny February day, because the Aga is putting out too much and we can't regulate it in any way!

Edited just to add that we could go GSHP, as we have the space, but the cost and the amount of messing with floors etc probably rules this out.