Specs for boiler house

NickTellis

Planning on adding a boiler house/pellet storage room on to the side of my house - rough designs are coming in at about 6.5 X 2.5 X 2.5 metres (L X W X H). Are there any sort of recommended specifications for this sort of building in terms of wall thickness, foundations, etc?

RKQ

Two questions there with two very different answers. A boiler house for an oil boiler can be single skin block work if detached and finished to match dwelling ( Not forward of building line - read Planning Permission exemptions) Some people find that a galvanised cover unit is practical and more economical than a shed structure.

There are lots of ideas for storing pellets. I'm sure existing users will advise, but consider the following. Wood chip or pellets are different, as they must be kept dry. Storage ideally designed around an auger, in a damp proof structure, with insulated walls and floor - possible lighting on timer to warm room etc. Loft space to store pellets above auger with loft window / hatch for deliveries.

NickTellis

Thanks for the reply RKQ. I should have said that the room(s) needs to be damp and (reasonably) sound proof. The plan is to have a 2.5 x 2.5 x 2.4 metre pellet storage room, a 1.8 x 2.5 x 2.4 metre boiler room housing a wood pellet boiler and an oil-fired boiler (as backup) and a 1.8 x 2.5 x 2.4 metre area for storage (bikes, tools, mother-in-law, etc).

See attached for my initial design - any thoughts on specs would be appreciated (i.e, would there need to be foundations or would a concrete slab suffice, cavity wall construction or single leaf, any need for insulation, etc).

Carlow52

the pellet people will spec the foundation requirements for you, so I wont comment on it.

The dampness risk in our climate for wood pellets is high so u need to be v careful on this.

In passing have u considered a multi-fuel burner rather than the wood pellets?
There is much less hardware to go wrong:)

In passing it does strike me that the HW and CH pipe runs could be very long in this set up.

NickTellis

Carlow52 wrote: »

the pellet people will spec the foundation requirements for you, so I wont comment on it.

The dampness risk in our climate for wood pellets is high so u need to be v careful on this.

In passing have u considered a multi-fuel burner rather than the wood pellets?
There is much less hardware to go wrong:)

In passing it does strike me that the HW and CH pipe runs could be very long in this set up.

Thanks for the reply.
I think we're set on a wood pellet boiler as we're also going to have a pellet stove in the main living space plus we'll still have our oil burner for backup if pellets don't work out.
What does HW and CH mean?

Carlow52

NickTellis wrote: »

Thanks for the reply.
I think we're set on a wood pellet boiler as we're also going to have a pellet stove in the main living space plus we'll still have our oil burner for backup if pellets don't work out.
What does HW and CH mean?

sorry : HW is hot water and the issue is that if the cylinder is a long way from the taps u waste a lot of both cold and hot water

CH is central heating and referrs to long loops to the cylinder and rads, meaning that there is a lot of water heated in the pipes

in passing, I presume u know that all wood pellet boilers need a permanent power supply so if there is no esb neither will work.

NickTellis

Carlow52 wrote: »

sorry : HW is hot water and the issue is that if the cylinder is a long way from the taps u waste a lot of both cold and hot water

CH is central heating and referrs to long loops to the cylinder and rads, meaning that there is a lot of water heated in the pipes

in passing, I presume u know that all wood pellet boilers need a permanent power supply so if there is no esb neither will work.

Yes I'm aware of the electrical requirements for the wood pellets boilers and stoves - it's one of my main issues with these systems... the fan noise.

To be honest I'm not 100% sure what heating system layout we're going to go with but the one thing we are certain about is that the boiler needs to be located where it is. We're planning on supplementing the DHW using solar panels (see I can use abbreviations too) and to use UFH downstairs and rads upstairs but in terms of the system design and layout we're open to ideas especially with regard to cylinder locations, buffer tanks (if needed), etc.

Any advise in terms of what system to use in our situation would be greatly appreciated.