Wood Pellet Boilers
For many years we have been looking at alternative fuel sources for the house. As I have already mentioned by insulation and then the investment in a woodburning stove we reduced our gas use to between one fifth and one sixth of our original use. However, this was still gas. Our problem was that alternative heat sources were big, bulky and expensive.
When we had our Energy Saving Trust assessment visit in February 2010 I had the chance to discuss how we might replace our gas central heating.
We looked at Air and Ground Source Heat Pumps, both of which are better with underfloorheating than radiators due to the temperature they raise the water to. They also provide a constant temperature day and night, take about 12 hours to get a house up to temperature, depending on outside temperatures, insulation, intial indoor temperature and size of pump. I discussed it with Swedish friends who have a heat pump and they confirmed these constraints.
A log boiler would allow for the burning of logs given to us or grown by us. But it would need to be manually filled, in winter probably daily. This would mean going away would be tricky and I'm not convinced I want to be manually filling a log boiler in twenty years time.
A wood pellet boiler though reliant on a good source of wood pellets does allow for a more automated system meaning we don't need to manually fill. All systems are a compromise and this one we felt was ours.
In spring 2010 I contacted every wood pellet boiler intaller on the mcs renewables list for Scotland. Several came back with a guide quote of £20,000! An equivalent gas boiler, at that time, would have cost about £2,000, and pellets and gas are similar prices so it was hard to justify.
However, the Energy Saving Trust were until mid 2010 doing interest free loans for renewable heating. These were stopped when the Renewable Heat Incentive was being looked at. We managed to get a loan which made it a bit more feasible and we found a company - Greenflame - who not only came to do a site visit and assessment but also gave a quote of £11,000. So in September 2010 we put down a deposit for the work to start in November.
At the start of October our installers did a up date visit to look at the site again in the light of the changes that had been made to the plans since the inital visit. The main out come was that the fuse board needed moved and the incoming electrics checked to ensure the wiring is capable of coping with an immersion if needed. At that point, by mutual agreement, we changed the install date to the start of January 2011.
We arranged for our local electrician to come and do the work just before Christmas 2010. We also ordered 100 x 10kg bags of pellets to start us off until the bulk hopper for the pellets was ready.
Over the Christmas holidays we cleared the cupboard where the tank was to be placed, and the garage area - a great way to get rid of a load of unwanted stuff. On the 12th of January they arrived.
When we had our Energy Saving Trust assessment visit in February 2010 I had the chance to discuss how we might replace our gas central heating.
We looked at Air and Ground Source Heat Pumps, both of which are better with underfloorheating than radiators due to the temperature they raise the water to. They also provide a constant temperature day and night, take about 12 hours to get a house up to temperature, depending on outside temperatures, insulation, intial indoor temperature and size of pump. I discussed it with Swedish friends who have a heat pump and they confirmed these constraints.
A log boiler would allow for the burning of logs given to us or grown by us. But it would need to be manually filled, in winter probably daily. This would mean going away would be tricky and I'm not convinced I want to be manually filling a log boiler in twenty years time.
A wood pellet boiler though reliant on a good source of wood pellets does allow for a more automated system meaning we don't need to manually fill. All systems are a compromise and this one we felt was ours.
In spring 2010 I contacted every wood pellet boiler intaller on the mcs renewables list for Scotland. Several came back with a guide quote of £20,000! An equivalent gas boiler, at that time, would have cost about £2,000, and pellets and gas are similar prices so it was hard to justify.
However, the Energy Saving Trust were until mid 2010 doing interest free loans for renewable heating. These were stopped when the Renewable Heat Incentive was being looked at. We managed to get a loan which made it a bit more feasible and we found a company - Greenflame - who not only came to do a site visit and assessment but also gave a quote of £11,000. So in September 2010 we put down a deposit for the work to start in November.
At the start of October our installers did a up date visit to look at the site again in the light of the changes that had been made to the plans since the inital visit. The main out come was that the fuse board needed moved and the incoming electrics checked to ensure the wiring is capable of coping with an immersion if needed. At that point, by mutual agreement, we changed the install date to the start of January 2011.
We arranged for our local electrician to come and do the work just before Christmas 2010. We also ordered 100 x 10kg bags of pellets to start us off until the bulk hopper for the pellets was ready.
Over the Christmas holidays we cleared the cupboard where the tank was to be placed, and the garage area - a great way to get rid of a load of unwanted stuff. On the 12th of January they arrived.
12th January 2011
Coming from Granton-on-Spey the installers arrived just after 10am and set to building the pellet store in the corner of the garage. Despite clearing this area we hadn't marked out the length of the car which also needs to fit in the garage. So I did a bit of internet trawling through Parker's guide and got the figures and then we marked out the area available this is where we were at the end of ady one.
13th January 2011
Today the pipework to the house was fitted. It runs in an below ground trench and then in to the house. Unfortunately there was a miss judgement with the driling and the soil pipe vent was slightly damaged. However, all clouds have silver linings, on assessing the damage and realising it was minor we discovered the soil pipe vent went no where so we will get that sorted at the same time.
14th January 2011
The pellet store is now virtually finished. The flue is through the wall ready for connection, the path at the back of the garage has been re-laid. We have sorted out the final run of the pipes for next week and all is looking good.
The garage is sodden due to we cars at the start of the week and wet boards laterly. We needed to spend the weekend drying things out, but this is the risk when the work is done in the winter.
The garage is sodden due to we cars at the start of the week and wet boards laterly. We needed to spend the weekend drying things out, but this is the risk when the work is done in the winter.
17th January 2011
The flue has now been put into place and the piperuns in the house under the floors are in place. Work continues on finishing the pellet store and the electrician will be back tomorrow to start connecting up.
The garage floor is continuing to dry out, thankfully the weather is being kind.
The garage floor is continuing to dry out, thankfully the weather is being kind.
18th January 2011
The electricians spent a large part of today wiring in for the boiler, pump, immersions and programmer, there are a lot of man hours needed to put this together, no wonder they are so expensive.
The installers continue with putting in the pipework ready for the hot water tank to go in tomorrow. The boiler is capable of running the heating system directly, without using a thermal store (hot water tank) to hold hot water and release it to the radiators when needed. The hot water tank is there purely to provide hot water.
The installers continue with putting in the pipework ready for the hot water tank to go in tomorrow. The boiler is capable of running the heating system directly, without using a thermal store (hot water tank) to hold hot water and release it to the radiators when needed. The hot water tank is there purely to provide hot water.
19th January 2011
The installers and electrician were here all day again. It felt like Picadilly Circus. The tank is now in place and plumbed in. One of the radiators needs to be repiped to allow the heating circuit to work, that will be done tomorrow, though all the drilling and preparation work is done. You can see from the pipe in the picture the amount of work needed and there is an expansion tank above the hot water tank, so despite being a slim tank it needs a reasonable amount of space.
20th January 2011
This afternoon the boiler was fired into action. Our installer ran through the running and cleaning of it before leaving. It felt good coming into a house warmed by wood. We were also fortunate to have our delivery of wood pellets arrive this evening. we had bought a tonne of bagged pellets to start off, but a further 4 tonnes will hopefully see us through the winter.
