Solid Fuel Burner in Garage vs. Stove in Fireplace

Dali Farmer

Hi,
Sorry for the delay in replying (I'm an infrequent user). I have had the burner in for a year (14 months) now, and have to say we are largely happy with it. I have totted up what we put into it over the year and it comes to 7,100kgs. We have being burning coal only. We have being purchasing coal in NI so no carbon tax. We have being paying €285 per ton, so €2000 for the year (€5.50 per day)

The advantages for us have been the saving financially, we were spending more on oil for an awful lot less heat. I would say that this would suit a house which is occupied a lot. We have young children and(one of us) are at home 24/7. If we were only home for a few hours in the evening I'm not sure it would suit as well. Also we have very very hot water 24/7. The after sales service has been superb. I needed advice a couple of times from Greenburn MD Rob Cleary which was always required late in the evening or at the weekend. Rob always answered the phone or got back to me very quickly. He was very helpful, even when the cause of my concern may not have been anything to do with the boiler (eg when the pressure dropped out of my system due to a leak).

The disadvantages are having to clean the boiler (20mins once a week), and filling the hopper full of coal. I usually put 140kgs in at a time. I fill it every 8 or so days at the moment, but during coal weather I was putting in 140kgs every 5 days.

In response to a question above there was no upheaval in the house at all (one of the reasons we put it in). Rob plumbed it in after our oil boiler, and required no work in the house at all. Rob needed access to the hotpress for some kind of plumbing stuff, but that was it. Installation (including ancillaries like pumps, copper etc) was included in the purchase price of €5,500.

Hope this helps

jodaw

Thanks very much for your detailed reply DaliFarmer. It is the best thread or first hand information i could find out there on solid fuel boilers. The savings seem to increase as the house size increases.

Do greenburn offer a thermal store option or did you consider the pluses and minuses of this option when installing the system?

I have been looking at the Stropuva system and it seems ok with a long burn time but i am uncertain of the positives and negatives of the different systems in Ireland.

It is difficult to find first hand info on these. Guess people in Ireland would be more inclined to install stoves or ranges for solid fuel.

pcfriendlyire

Hi purchased a defro 25kw slack boiler..anyone suggest best fuel to use

Seamus1964

...Slack ?