Okofen pellet heating

rockchick113

I've got a rep from okofen wood pellets boilers coming on Thursday.
Has anybody had any experience of these heating systems?
What questions should I ask to make sure I knowcwhat I'm getting.
These heating systems will also take solar expansion I think,
Thanks for any info.

tonyh66

okofen is one of the best, but make sure your sitting down when he tells you the price.

rockchick113

Update.
I wasn't surprised by the 14k price tag, but it's a large amount of money, just need to work out if it's for us.
If anyone has any info on using these type of heating systems,
Running costs etc.
Cheers.

farmerboy

We've had a 24kw manual feed Okofen in since mid October last year. Our instalation was around £17500 for all the boiler, 11 rads, new HWC and all pipework.

Been running heating on a 4hrs morning and 6 hrs evening cycle with house (5 bed 1850's stone farm house with loft ins and double glazing) set at 20, DHW only runs in the morning. Using 70kg pellets/week (£21) in coldest weeks currently using 30kg/week (£9). We top it up once a week in the summer and twice a week in the winter, the hopper holds 130kg.

Not had a service yet, and the only problems we have had have been in setting the program, but back up from Organic energy has been first class. It was commisioned by their owner as ours is one of the first manual fed of that size. Also having glitches with the online side, can only access the boiler on the home network and then only occasionally (rebooting the boiler gets it back online) Never been able to access over the net, but not that bothered. It does email you any faults that occur (good as is in an out building).

Its self cleaning, we have the manual ash box and this only needs emptying when we finish a pallet of pellets (1ton). The only downside I would say is that it can be too clever for its own good. It monitors outside temp and inside. Plus it runs a program on a Monday to ensure there are no harmful bacteria in the system, meaning it will be running when you have programmed it not to, very annoying at first but ok once you know the reason why.

All in all I would recommend anyone buying one, and am glad we upgraded from our original choice of a Trianco

captainhindsight_2

Oakfen are a good boiler, but not the best something like hargassner is probably the best. But for a domestic use you don't need to spend that kind of money, as the austrian ones tend to share components with their core range of 200kW+ boilers hence why they are so expensive. domusa is probably one of the best domestic boilers and best value for money pellet biomass boilers on the market and completely automatic, the company has been around for much longer than any of the austrian ones but they have been making gas and oil boilers hence why they are such good value for money because they are just adding another boiler to the production line.

Silent_Dancer

Before buying I'd suggest reading this blog post and comments. http://blog.greenwisebusiness.co.uk/2013/04/10-things-your-installer-wont-tell-you-before-you-purchase-a-biomass-boiler/

captainhindsight_2

Silent_Dancer wrote: »

Before buying I'd suggest reading this blog post and comments. http://blog.greenwisebusiness.co.uk/2013/04/10-things-your-installer-wont-tell-you-before-you-purchase-a-biomass-boiler/

That article is complete rubbish, and is widely regarded as that. It is a two year old arcticle talking about an industry 8 year prior to the article being written. A lot has changed in 10 years!

Silent_Dancer

I think the article is very sensible and measured after all it is written by a green journalist.

I think the rules with pellet boilers are :

1) find a good installer who understand system design.

2) speak to some of his customers to verify his work and find out what it is like living with a pellet boiler.

3) let the installer choose the brand.

captainhindsight_2

Silent_Dancer wrote: »

I think the article is very sensible and measured after all it is written by a green journalist.

I think the rules with pellet boilers are :

1) find a good installer who understand system design.

2) speak to some of his customers to verify his work and find out what it is like living with a pellet boiler.

3) let the installer choose the brand.

If it is sensible and measured it is sensible and measured about the market 10 years ago, again a lot has changed since then!

Silent_Dancer

captainhindsight wrote: »

If it is sensible and measured it is sensible and measured about the market 10 years ago, again a lot has changed since then!

How has it changed then?

captainhindsight_2

Silent_Dancer wrote: »

How has it changed then?

Technology has moved on massively since then, even in the last 12 months biomass boilers in the UK have moved on with pretty much every boiler now being auto cleaning, their are now 100s of installers around the UK and 1000s of trained engineers where as when this article was written there would have been very few. Some of the biggest names in the biomass industry didn't even exist when this article was written. Your statement just demonstrates how little you know about the industry.