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Wood pellet boiler in 2 yr old house

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  • 24-04-2006 12:01pm
    #1
    emul
    Registered Users Posts: 228 ✭✭


    We are currently running Natural Gas for heating / water. Our bill (Jan/Feb) was EUR288 so I am looking at installing a WP boiler, which it appears from costs (EUR5 - 6K) will pay for itself in 2-3 years, with grant from SEI. I have the following newbie questions

    1. What size of WP boiler do I need to be looking at, house is just over 2000sq Ft, detached, built 2.5 years ago.

    2. I assume I need to install boiler near / beside existing gas boiler in order for pipes etc to be rerouted

    2.A As the WP boiler is inside how do I automatically feed the WP boiler

    3. How near / far can a WP storage tank be from/to the boiler

    4. When looking for quotes do I have all covered in terms of costs

    a. cost of boiler
    b. cost of installation, rerouting of existing pipe etc
    c. cost of storage tank

    5. Will existing time switches / thermostats (analog) work with this system?

    Any other comments / thoughts welcome?

    Eoin


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    #2
    Dirk Gently
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,784 ✭✭✭Dirk Gently


    check out www.ecostoves.com
    they have showrooms in dunboyne with working wood pellet systems.
    A guy here on boards callled rooferpete knows all there is to know about these woodpellet boilers.
    have a look at the other threads in the gardening/diy section and if in doubt sent rooferpete a private message with your questions.

    the website above will tell you what size output you will need for the size of your house.


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    #3
    Evergreen
    Registered Users Posts: 254 ✭✭Evergreen


    Hello Emul,

    a couple of things you might want to bear in mind if you are considering installing a WP boiler

    1. For a 2000 sq ft house it is probably just on the boarder of requiring a 15kW or 25 kW boiler. You should do a heat load survey on your house to find the exact requirement. This takes into account the type of walls, insulation, windows, doors, etc that you have installed rather than giving you a standard plumbers calculation based on the number of radiators.

    2. If you wish to locate the boiler close to your existing installation then this may be the easiest solution, however you are not limited to this. You can install the boiler quite a distance away from your house and feed hot water though highly efficient pre-insulated underground pipe to your house. This pipe is expensive though at around EUR 35 per meter, don't fool yourself into thinking you can make up a home made alternative, you can't.

    3. Varies from boiler to boiler. The best system you can install uses a vacuum feed system. With such a system the pellet store can be up to 20 meters away from the boiler, for example the ETA PE25 has a built in vacuum feed system check out this link http://www.evergreenenergy.ie/page17.html

    4. Don't be fooled by a price of EUR 5 top EUR 6k for an installation and be aware of the cheaper versions because they may cost you less but you will end up doing a lot of maintenance on them while they are running - remember you only get one grant, don't waste it on something that you will have to replace in 4 or 5 years time. Here is a list of the items you should consider when installing a WP boiler system.
    a.) Main Boiler
    b.) Room sensors
    c.) On board pellet hopper
    d.) Pellet feed system (either vacuum or auger)
    e.) Pellet store location and make up
    f.) Pellet store floor auger
    g.) Is you house plumbing open or closed circuited?
    h.) Heat management system
    i.) Burn back valve in fuel line (HIGHLY IMPORTANT)
    j.) Heat exchanger cleaning (auto or not?)
    k.) Grate design (type of pellets required? high dust content a problem?)
    l.) Boiler integration with other heat sources such as solar?
    m.) Chimney costs
    n.) Underground pipe work costs (where necessary)?

    5. Existing switches and sensors, If you have a System Link then some boilers can plug straight into them and you can use your existing setup without a problem. If you do not have such a setup then you may have to replace your sensors to units that are compatible with your new boiler.

    Extra Comments:
    If you are going to go to the bother of installing a WPB then you should make some extra changes to your plumbing system. For example most Irish houses have the hot water cylinder installed inline with the radiator circuit. With a good WPB you can have a separate circuit for you hot water so that the boiler can heat this (automatically) in the Summer without heating the rest of your house.

    If you need any advice then please feel free to contact me, I am in this business and may be a bit biased towards the systems we deal with, however, you are better off to ask around loads of suppliers and make an informed decision about your installation rather than wrong decision.

    Regards


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