Wood Pellet Boiler or Oil ? UFH or Radiators

Kells54

In the middle of a new build house in the country, so no mains gas. After adding as much insulation as we can we have the dilemma of which heating system to install. It seems basically down to oil or wood pellets. I have researched GSHP and ASHP and heat recovery, which are not going to work out for us for various reasons.
insulation will be approx.
100mm Quinntherm in block cavity walls
125/150mm in the floors and a min of 300mm in the loft


Large S-SE facing Sunroom


Wood pellets seem to get mixed reviews, and oil , well is oil.
The £2500 boiler grant and the 7 year RHi Payback for the pellets seem to be very good and basically are working out at free heat for 7 years, as long as it continues!, but there is very little real life info out there on them.


Again thinking of running UFH downstairs and Rads Upstairs


Any thoughts or real life experience info appreciated
Thanks

motorguy

Kells54 wrote: »

In the middle of a new build house in the country, so no mains gas. After adding as much insulation as we can we have the dilemma of which heating system to install. It seems basically down to oil or wood pellets. I have researched GSHP and ASHP and heat recovery, which are not going to work out for us for various reasons.
insulation will be approx.
100mm Quinntherm in block cavity walls
125/150mm in the floors and a min of 300mm in the loft


Large S-SE facing Sunroom


Wood pellets seem to get mixed reviews, and oil , well is oil.
The £2500 boiler grant and the 7 year RHi Payback for the pellets seem to be very good and basically are working out at free heat for 7 years, as long as it continues!, but there is very little real life info out there on them.


Again thinking of running UFH downstairs and Rads Upstairs


Any thoughts or real life experience info appreciated
Thanks

Whats the mixed reviews on wood pellets?

We've a biomass wood pellet burner and have no real issues with it. Its definitely cheaper than oil and renewable which is a good thing. Savings over all prices maybe not as strong as they suggest.

We've UFH upstairs and downstairs, zoned in every room.

Couple of things i would say is to make sure any pipe between your burner (no matter what it is) and your house is extremely well insulated. If we'd used standard pipes we'd have lost 10 degrees across our back yard. That would be an extra 10 degrees the boiler would have to heat the water to, just to get it across the yard. We used very heavily insulated - basically like a big plastic pipe filled with foam and the two pipes running down the centre of it - pipes and we lose less than 2 degrees.

Also - your glass. Aim for as low a mu rating as possible. "standard" is 1.4, we went for 1.1 which didnt add a big premium.

Look at the air tightness of your house. Simple things can help greatly.

Your sunroom. Invariably you will need some sort of blinds. We got ones that clip in between the glass and frame and have a high thermal rating. They keep a lot of the suns heat out during the summer and a lot of the heat in during the winter.

Any more specific questions - let me know. Happy to help

Kells54

PM'd Thanks

captainhindsight_2

Biomass 100% over Oil!

Make sure you go for a recognized brand I would recommend ETA or Frolling.

And you must choose a good installer.

Then it comes down to wood pellets or wood chip.

Chip is cheaper but you need to be able to take large tipped deliveries, this will depend on the size of your house and size of boiler etc.

If you are only going to be taking relatively small deliverys just a few ton a year, you would have to go for wood pellets. slightly more expensive than chip but the boiler and delivery equipment from the hopper to the boiler is cheaper. So swings and roundabouts really.

UFH where you can have it, remember if you have underfloor heating upstairs you will not be able to access anything in the voids very easily if there are any leaks or electrical problems. I have it on all floors in my house, but it is something that people over look

CEON44

Been making a few enquiries regarding wood pellet boilers, thanks to motorguy's advice on a different thread. Spoke to a guy at GET-Renewables and plan to visit to see their gear. Really interested in the grant available plus the "cashback" for 7 years. Is there anyone who can explain this in more detail? The grant itself seems straightforward, ie after installation the Government will refund £2500 of the purchase price. But hoe exactly does the 7 year payback work? The guy at GET said that basically it is based on your house size. So, if your house is say 2000 sq feet then the payback would equate to about half of that, ie £1000. But is it that simple? Is it a straight payment based on the size of your house? Surely its more likely to be based on usage? I mean lets say my house was 2000sq feet, but I decided( hypothetically) not to run the boiler all year. Would I still get the £1000. Any info on this would be greatly appreciated. Also are there other suppliers out there apart from GET-Renewables? does anyone know the current price per kg of wood pellets

GlynD

I'd love to get it but I'm not sure I'd get the benefit of it in this bungalow. It's just not big enough and the groundwork we'd need to do would be massive.

motorguy

Kells54 wrote: »

PM'd Thanks

Replied!!

Cheers

captainhindsight_2

CEON44 wrote: »

Been making a few enquiries regarding wood pellet boilers, thanks to motorguy's advice on a different thread. Spoke to a guy at GET-Renewables and plan to visit to see their gear. Really interested in the grant available plus the "cashback" for 7 years. Is there anyone who can explain this in more detail? The grant itself seems straightforward, ie after installation the Government will refund £2500 of the purchase price. But hoe exactly does the 7 year payback work? The guy at GET said that basically it is based on your house size. So, if your house is say 2000 sq feet then the payback would equate to about half of that, ie £1000. But is it that simple? Is it a straight payment based on the size of your house? Surely its more likely to be based on usage? I mean lets say my house was 2000sq feet, but I decided( hypothetically) not to run the boiler all year. Would I still get the £1000. Any info on this would be greatly appreciated. Also are there other suppliers out there apart from GET-Renewables? does anyone know the current price per kg of wood pellets

About £210 per ton for wood pellets, this varies depending on size and method of delivery.

I'e a small blown delivery will be more then this, a large tipped delivery will be considerably less but £210 is a good ball park, this works out at around 4.4p/kWh

standard RHI works by multiplying the heat demand shown on the EPC by the current rate for biomass.

So in England the rate is 12.2p/kWh, so say the heat demand shown on the EPC is 20,000kWh pa this would be £2,440 a year for seven years.

Or if you want you can choose to have it metered, this is only worth while if you are a high user because you will get 12.2p/kWh which only cost you 4.4p/kWh.

So in theory, you could leave you heating running all day long with the windows open etc and actually earn money.

Farmers do this with empty outbuildings and sheds, heat them even if they are empty because they are profiting by doing so.

motorguy

captainhindsight wrote: »

Biomass 100% over Oil!

Make sure you go for a recognized brand I would recommend ETA or Frolling.

And you must choose a good installer.

Then it comes down to wood pellets or wood chip.

Chip is cheaper but you need to be able to take large tipped deliveries, this will depend on the size of your house and size of boiler etc.

If you are only going to be taking relatively small deliverys just a few ton a year, you would have to go for wood pellets. slightly more expensive than chip but the boiler and delivery equipment from the hopper to the boiler is cheaper. So swings and roundabouts really.

UFH where you can have it, remember if you have underfloor heating upstairs you will not be able to access anything in the voids very easily if there are any leaks or electrical problems. I have it on all floors in my house, but it is something that people over look

Just to add, Balcas will blow in Pellets by the tonne if you have a big enough bin. They'll advise on bin design too

motorguy

CEON44 wrote: »

Been making a few enquiries regarding wood pellet boilers, thanks to motorguy's advice on a different thread. Spoke to a guy at GET-Renewables and plan to visit to see their gear. Really interested in the grant available plus the "cashback" for 7 years. Is there anyone who can explain this in more detail? The grant itself seems straightforward, ie after installation the Government will refund £2500 of the purchase price. But hoe exactly does the 7 year payback work? The guy at GET said that basically it is based on your house size. So, if your house is say 2000 sq feet then the payback would equate to about half of that, ie £1000. But is it that simple? Is it a straight payment based on the size of your house? Surely its more likely to be based on usage? I mean lets say my house was 2000sq feet, but I decided( hypothetically) not to run the boiler all year. Would I still get the £1000. Any info on this would be greatly appreciated. Also are there other suppliers out there apart from GET-Renewables? does anyone know the current price per kg of wood pellets

Thats who we used. We installed pre grant though

GlynD

motorguy wrote: »

Thats who we used. We installed pre grant though

Unlike us who refurbished after the grants had finished.