Wood pellets or oil, ufh or rads

Wood pellets or oil, ufh or rads

Author
Discussion

jason61c

5,978 posts

173 months

Thursday 30th October 2014
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RedLeicester said:
I don't get the "emerging" or "new" technology thing. Domestic Biomass log/pellet boilers have been around for 20-30 years, just not in this country, and farm log boilers have been around in this country for years too. It's a well established technology hence why things have moved from a bunch of logs in a cast iron shell to log gasification systems, lambda sensors, ceramic ignition, automatic ignition, self-cleaning, self-dousing, network connectivity, multi-zone and multi-thermostat systems and so on. Yes there are only so many ways you can burn wood, but there are a hell of a lot of efficiencies in the process and manner in which it is done. It's a bit like saying a gas boiler is just a gas boiler, yes and no. As I mentioned before, I nearly died laughing when the manufacturer of mine sent out an engineer to run a firmware update!

District / commercial systems are fairly widespread too (our local council built new offices a couple of years back which are all log chip fed, one boiler for multiple buildings) and again overseas it's common for entire housing estates to have centralised heating. In 2006, over 10% of Austria's heating was biomass, Lech ski resort is heated by biomass too and it's a similar story in Scandinavia, though ironically they actually import a lot of their wood. As always, the UK is late to the party. The grants/incentives certainly help and lessen the pain, but as my earlier calculations showed, even without them the savings are colossal in the right circumstances. There are certainly some new an interesting companies on the market, along with an awful lot of dross too. We narrowed ourselves down to the Finnish / Austrian makes who have been at this game for decades so have a long proven track record and seemed to know what they were about.

Jason - may be worth having a chat with Euroheat who are the UK importer for SHT and HDG, two of the big Teutonic brands.
I will do, thanks.

I'm only looking at German, Swiss etc.



RedLeicester

6,869 posts

244 months

Thursday 30th October 2014
quotequote all
jason61c said:
I'm only looking at German, Swiss etc.
Good plan, don't rule out the Nordics either, they've been at this game for years too.

jason61c

5,978 posts

173 months

Thursday 30th October 2014
quotequote all
RedLeicester said:
Good plan, don't rule out the Nordics either, they've been at this game for years too.
Yes, sorry, they were included in my 'etc' smile

RedLeicester

6,869 posts

244 months

Thursday 30th October 2014
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hehe

FlipFlopGriff

7,144 posts

246 months

Friday 31st October 2014
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jason61c said:
Yes, treco have started supplying the Effecta biomass boilers for that reason, as a move into the domestic market with a proven boiler, I've googled it till i'm blue in the face and it puts them in the top 4 with windhager/froling etc etc.

did you go for a buffer/accumulator tank also?
Yes, its a Range Tribute HE 180ltr, with 2 small expansion tanks on the wall - one white and one looks like a bell end. Only 2 of us, only having showers, and plenty of hot water. The water timer is on an hour in the morning and 3/4 hour at night so it can't lose much heat over the 24 hours.
FFG

Scuffers

20,887 posts

273 months

Thursday 4th December 2014
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Scuffers said:
Oils down to 49p, and yes it probably will go back up, but so will everything else.
down to 42p now...

I am sure it will bottom out eventually, but no signs of that happening any time soon.

CK11

Original Poster:

273 posts

183 months

Wednesday 10th December 2014
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Making oil very attractive at the moment for sure

CK11

Original Poster:

273 posts

183 months

Wednesday 10th December 2014
quotequote all
jason61c said:
Awesome, just had this confirmed too smile The best £150 I've spent. Ever!

I'm currently doing some walls in lime hemp at the minute, its good stuff but does take an age to dry. I do plan on putting something breathable on the inside like yourself on the exposed walls.

Just waiting on some people coming round to give fixed quotes, looking at Froling/Effecta/hoval/ETA. I'd like something that will outlast the 7 year RHI.

I'm quite excited smile
Any decisions made yet?

TimJMS

2,584 posts

250 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
quotequote all
CK11 said:
Making oil very attractive at the moment for sure
Even though I suggested oil, don't let current prices sway you. The Saudi's and their ilk are happily pumping at cost purely as spoiling tactics to discourage fracking and renewables. It wont last.

Scuffers

20,887 posts

273 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
quotequote all
TimJMS said:
CK11 said:
Making oil very attractive at the moment for sure
Even though I suggested oil, don't let current prices sway you. The Saudi's and their ilk are happily pumping at cost purely as spoiling tactics to discourage fracking and renewables. It wont last.
suspect it's more about trying to screw the US funds from manipulating the market.

all that said, even if the Saudi's shut off all their production today, demand is just not that high and they don't control enough % of production to control the market like they used to.


jason61c

5,978 posts

173 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
quotequote all
CK11 said:
jason61c said:
Awesome, just had this confirmed too smile The best £150 I've spent. Ever!

I'm currently doing some walls in lime hemp at the minute, its good stuff but does take an age to dry. I do plan on putting something breathable on the inside like yourself on the exposed walls.

Just waiting on some people coming round to give fixed quotes, looking at Froling/Effecta/hoval/ETA. I'd like something that will outlast the 7 year RHI.

I'm quite excited smile
Any decisions made yet?
Hi

yes, it arrives tomorrow, Going for an Effecta.

http://www.rainbowheatandpower.co.uk/products/abou...

I'm going to do a bit of a 'build/install' thread smile I'm genuinely excited about tomorrow!

CK11

Original Poster:

273 posts

183 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
quotequote all
Good luck with it, let us know how it fairs out
How many kW? What size is your house?

jason61c

5,978 posts

173 months

Thursday 11th December 2014
quotequote all
CK11 said:
Good luck with it, let us know how it fairs out
How many kW? What size is your house?
We're having the 35kw one, its got a larger water content. Also suits the house's heat requirement.

House is old, about 2200-2300sq Ft. Or 200ish SQ M.

bennyboydurham

1,617 posts

173 months

Sunday 14th December 2014
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In our new build we have (mains) gas and under floor heating. If you are on the gas main it's still the cheapest medium term option. If we didn't have mains gas we'd have gone for a ground source heat pump. We had one in our old place and it worked well and was pretty cheap to run.