Woodpellet boiler installation

Darwin

I have a few questions regarding the installation of a wood pellet boiler (we currently have a indoor kerosene boiler). I've read as much as I can about this, but I'm useless at everything DIY related, so apologies if the points are vague or unclear.
1) The wood pellet boiler will obviously be installed in its own structure outside. In my situation, it will go in an area about 5-6 metres from the house, but across a tarmacadam driveway. I guess the hot water pipe from the outside boiler will go under the driveway. Will this make installation very expensive?
2) We are thinking of building a large concrete shed principally for storage of gardening equipment and other odds and ends. Would the design of the shed require much modification to house the boiler and pellets or are these best kept in their own specific structures?
3) I understand kerosene boilers can be modified to burn biofuel/rape seed oil - would this be a better alternative to installing a wood pellet boiler (particularly for a home with an existing boiler)? Are there any heating companies that provide this service?

Thanks for any help!

Kashkai

Darwin wrote:

I have a few questions regarding the installation of a wood pellet boiler (we currently have a indoor kerosene boiler). I've read as much as I can about this, but I'm useless at everything DIY related, so apologies if the points are vague or unclear.
1) The wood pellet boiler will obviously be installed in its own structure outside. In my situation, it will go in an area about 5-6 metres from the house, but across a tarmacadam driveway. I guess the hot water pipe from the outside boiler will go under the driveway. Will this make installation very expensive?
2) We are thinking of building a large concrete shed principally for storage of gardening equipment and other odds and ends. Would the design of the shed require much modification to house the boiler and pellets or are these best kept in their own specific structures?
3) I understand kerosene boilers can be modified to burn biofuel/rape seed oil - would this be a better alternative to installing a wood pellet boiler (particularly for a home with an existing boiler)? Are there any heating companies that provide this service?

Thanks for any help!

1. With any boiler thats positioned away from the main house, no matter how well insulated the pipe feeding the hot water into the house is, it will still be losing heat as it travels to the house. I'm getting a new kerosene boiler installed (forgot about getting a wood pellet one instead - more later) at the moment and I was thinking of putting it in a detached garage but the plumber told me that I'd end up having a well heated patch of ground between the garage and house - he was exaggerating of course but you get the point. You'll also have to dig up part of the driveway which will mean a fresh tarmacadam job.

2. If you plan on instanlling a large wood pellet boiler in the shed, you'll also need to allow abot 6ft x 3ft for the storage hopper to feed the pellets into the boiler. When taken together, they'll take up considerable space. This is the reason I changed my mind about getting one of the large wood pellet boilers. The pellets also need to be kept as dry as possible otherwise they'll clog the burner.

3. Don't know about the rape seed as a fuel supply. If its cheaper than oil and doesn't wreck the boiler, I too would be interested in this.