Real world gasification log boiler accounts needed

[Mr. Ed]

Hi all

 

We’re building up to a biggish renovation project of our house in the woods here in SW Ireland and I’m very keen to include a gasification boiler in the plans. However I’m finding it hard getting first hand accounts to compare the market, a market which is confused by a lack of transparency over rebadged boilers. 

My understanding so far has Fröling at the top of the tree, but I’m not sure if this is on account of superior control systems or higher design and buold

quality. 

 

A company called Firebird (who are very close to us) market a similar looking boiler at a smallish fraction of the price of a Fröling - they are coy about it but don’t seem actually to manufacture it, in the way they manufacture their oil boilers. 
 

We’re only interested in using logs, and sadly there is no RHI bung available

in the Republic. We’ve got a perfect adjacent outhouse to house both the boiler and the immediate use wood store. 
 

We’d love to hear from anyone who has first hand experience. 
 

Many thanks and best wishes to all the Arbsters out there. 
 

Mr and Mrs Ed. 

[difflock]

Good luck Mr Ed.

I cannot comment about the other Firebird boiler, but I too ogled a Froling, but declined to spend the, to me, eyewatering price. 

That may however have been a mistake, since the cheap shit outta Slvakia(or wherever) badged as a Solarbayer was a poor investment, and very poorly installed, because of the grant aided demand.

Anyway now back to happily heating with Kero backed up with a woodstove in the living room.

BUT

With cheap heating oil and no grants, at least you are better placed to negiotate a fairer price?

Marcus

P.S.

Just looked up Firebird logwood gasifiers. They look very, very similar to our shitty hard to light/hard to clean  2 door Solarbayer.

Edited March 19, 2021 by difflock

[Mr. Ed]

Thanks Marcus! That does sound like a grant aided folly. 
Out of interest what was shite about the installation and the kit itself? And what was the cost of this unsatisfactory installation?

Ed

[maybelateron]

We have an Atmos gasification boiler, which replaced our previous Perge (non gasification), coupoled to a 2000L heat store tank, and this works well in a very large bungalow. The actual cost of the boiler was surprisingly low, with a good build quality. It only burns logs, not chips or pellets.

[difflock]

From memory we got the 50% grant on about a £5,000.00? install cost, about 15 years ago.

Leaky plumbing joints(from hazy recall)

Shitty clearly visually non plumb 4.0m minimal flue which would not draw. I put my own 11m flue in.

Also a bollocks made when fitting the flue.

A full 28mm copper pipe to the expansion vessel(when only 15mm was needed) proving poor understanding by the installers.

Terribly badly painted steelwork to the boiler.

Tedious and slow to light, and VERY tedious to clean the akwardly accessed flue pipes through the boiler.

etc

etc

Perhaps I somewhat got off on the wrong foot due to the cowboy installers.

Edited March 19, 2021 by difflock

[Mr. Ed]

44 minutes ago, maybelateron said:

We have an Atmos gasification boiler, which replaced our previous Perge (non gasification), coupoled to a 2000L heat store tank, and this works well in a very large bungalow. The actual cost of the boiler was surprisingly low, with a good build quality. It only burns logs, not chips or pellets.

Thank you for this clear recommendation. 
There’s a distributor here in Ireland, which is good, and Atmos’ own website is reassuring. 
No fancy electronics to tell you when you next need to load and so on? Maybe not a bad thing if so. Do I assume you load morning and evening in the winter? And every few days in the summer? 
Many thanks again: this was just the sort of info I was hoping to get. 
Ed

[Mr. Ed]

1 hour ago, difflock said:

Good luck Mr Ed.

I cannot comment about the other Firebird boiler, but I too ogled a Froling, but declined to spend the, to me, eyewatering price. 

That may however have been a mistake, since the cheap shit outta Slvakia(or wherever) badged as a Solarbayer was a poor investment, and very poorly installed, because of the grant aided demand.

Anyway now back to happily heating with Kero backed up with a woodstove in the living room.

BUT

With cheap heating oil and no grants, at least you are better placed to negiotate a fairer price?

Marcus

P.S.

Just looked up Firebird logwood gasifiers. They look very, very similar to our shitty hard to light/hard to clean  2 door Solarbayer.

Aha! Thanks for the edit Marcus. Might be a key piece of info. 

[Woodworks]

If its a major renovation is it an option to put one helava lot of insulation in thus needing stuff all heating? 

[Mr. Ed]

1 hour ago, Woodworks said:

If its a major renovation is it an option to put one helava lot of insulation in thus needing stuff all heating? 

Yes as much as possible but I don’t think we’d ever reach passive house sort of levels. We’d still need hot water of course. 

[KH1]

Hi there,

 

Also in SW Ireland. Did a major renovation to an old farmhouse with extension last year. The old house was wrapped in insulation, new roof, floors etc. The extension is new build. Have a bit of forestry ( Ask, Oak, larch and Spruce) so went for an ECOANGUS 40kW log boiler with 3000L tank linked to UFH. Overall, I'm happy with it. The house is as warm as my wife likes it ( very hot!) and plenty of hot water. I too have a large old stone shed adjacent to the house as a wood store. The shed is very handy as cleaning out ash and the odd bit of smoke etc when reloading isn't a problem.  Cats not mad about it though!

 

Be advised, it has used A LOT of wood since we moved in last Oct. It is a lot of work to cut, dry, and stack enough wood for it ( maybe for the next 15 years hopefully!). The boiler suits somebody at home at lot of the time ( farmer etc) as plenty of checking when lighting / loading required. During cold spells, I will light it every day, every second day currently.  I batch burn very dry ash from thinnings in 500mm lengths and it seems to suit it well. I'm going to try spruce/ash mix next winter. 

 

Installation was a problem. Got rid of first guy. Then found a polish plumber who was familiar with them ( it is really a rebadged polish Orlan boiler) . ECOANGUS support from UK is excellent. Sometimes I wish I had fitted a heat pump for the ease of turning on a switch but when I get my electric bill, I change my mind. Don't forget there is a cost associated with felling, splitting, loading and transporting your timber to the shed even if you do it yourself ( diesel for tractor, petrol and oil for saws, logsplitter etc.. it adds up!) but for me, it is a cheap way to have a very warm house IF YOU HAVE YOUR OWN SUPPLY OF WOOD !!!! Otherwise, it is crazy without RHI.

 

Any other questions, give me a shout !