Biomass burners

[Woodworks]

57 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

  Sounds a crazy amount of firewood for even a large uninsulated bungalow never mind one that should be up to modern insulation standards!

 

 

 

One thing that does strike me is we have pretty good regs for insulation but very poor follow up from building control. When building our place I had the BC out to check the laying of the concrete slab and asked him when he next wanted to inspect and he said: "when you're ready to move in". Literally never saw them through the whole above ground building process. You can have the most stringent regs in the world but if they are not overseen shortcuts will be taken by the unscrupulous and the naive.

 

Worked on a large extension for a chap who was doing a self-build. Putting in the roof timbers in for them and they were putting in the insulation. I mentioned it was worth filling all the gaps to avoid thermal bridging and all I got back was it will be covered before BC see it. Then had to fit the skirting boards in the same place. There was a howling draught coming in from below the floor. The extension gets inspected when the shoddy work is covered up and it gets signed off! 

Edited December 27, 2018 by Woodworks

[Ratman]

One thing that does strike me is we have pretty good regs for insulation but very poor follow up from building control. When building our place I had the BC out to check the laying of the concrete slab and asked him when he next wanted to inspect and he said: "when you're ready to move in". Literally never saw them through the whole above ground building process. You can have the most stringent regs in the world but if they are not overseen shortcuts will be taken by the unscrupulous and the naive.
 
Worked on a large extension for a chap who was doing a self-build. Putting in the roof timbers in for them and they were putting in the insulation. I mentioned it was worth filling all the gaps to avoid thermal bridging and all I got back was it will be covered before BC see it. Then had to fit the skirting boards in the same place. There was a howling draught coming in from below the floor. The extension gets inspected when the shoddy work is covered up and it gets signed off! 

I only had five visits to site before completion,

Foundations dug out with marker posts indicating my fill level,

Trench blocked and slab was poured and up to damp proof level,

Walls built up to wall plate height.

And once first fixed internals were done.

Finally came to see finished product with drains installed.

I just sent daily photos for rest of it from my phone on what i’d done. He was well made up [emoji106]

[Luckyeleven]

I suspect over burning....if my accumulator is full and I light a roaring fire in the boiler it will either:
A. Try to dump the heat in the rads
B. If not possible, it will mix in a load of cold water and send it down the drain and send me a message saying Ive been a very naughty boy

[Ratman]

I suspect over burning....if my accumulator is full and I light a roaring fire in the boiler it will either:
A. Try to dump the heat in the rads
B. If not possible, it will mix in a load of cold water and send it down the drain and send me a message saying Ive been a very naughty boy

I’m guessing he doesnt read or doesnt like taking constructive orders then [emoji23]
It is an alarming amount of wood being burnt though, and does suggest a bit of burning for burnings sake.

[Ratman]

Keep feeding us the info baldbloke..... we likes a good riddle ?

[Luckyeleven]

One thing that really helps too is having cast iron rads, stay hot for longer. Helps balance things out a bit.

[Baldbloke]

One thing that really helps too is having cast iron rads, stay hot for longer. Helps balance things out a bit.

Bit like a storage heater then?
Expect they take a little longer to heat up though. Swings and roundabouts

[AHPP]

9 hours ago, Baldbloke said:

I have a neighbour who has installed a biomass log burner in his new build. [It's shit.] Hopefully he is getting some subsidy payments to cover his usage.

Hopefully he isn't.

[Baldbloke]

4 minutes ago, AHPP said:

Hopefully he isn't.

I don’t suppose it’s the money maker it once was anyway 

 

[Jcarbor]

I have a neighbour who has installed a biomass log burner in his new build. I didn't want to criticise his (or his installers) workings but cannot agree with the sizes chosen for his accumulator tank. As it's a new build, I'm presuming his house must be fully insulated, so heat loss should be minimal. However, he is doing two burns/fires a day at present, and his pile of logs is diminishing more quickly than my wood usage for a three floor seven bedroom manse. I suspect his accumulator tank at 1000 litres would have been better had it been at least two thousand litres. It appears that the small tanks reserves cannot sustain the demand for 24 hours. He had a wood lorry of supposedly seasoned big logs delivered and cuts into logs as needed. His 22/24 cubed wagon delivery happened in mid September and was set down in a field opposite his house. The pile in three months is two thirds used already, so I reckon on him having already used 12-15 tonnes. Hopefully he is getting some subsidy payments to cover his usage.
I believe my tank is either 4000 litre or 4500 litres with an expansion tank of 500 litres. I'm seriously considering to piggybank an additional 2000 litre tank onto the installation as the 65 kW boiler often exceeds the household demand and could comfortably heat another tank and stop the frequent over firing along with messages stating that I've used too much wood in the boiler. If I did that I'd move the electric immersions (powered from the wind turbine) from the big 4000 ltr tank into the new smaller tank as I reckon they'd do a more efficient job of heating the smaller body of water. It has all been a learning experience.

Sounds like his accumulator is not the right size, the boiler will probably not going into slumber mode hence the amount of wood he’s getting through. His btu consumption should have been calculated on his floor space and number of heating elements in his property, its always a good idea to to a proper survey before installation.