Cordwood wanted Somerset

[big chris the log]

Hi Sandspider

 

I'll be installing the system myself, I am a heating engineer, we install biomass, heat pumps, solar sytems as well as gas boilers.

 

In a nutshell, I'm fitting a 45 kw log boiler to supply heat and hot water to our 4 bed semi detached 300m2 house. Holf built in 1920s and extension under construction. Boiler will be in the detached garage with 4000ltr. accumulator tank and underground insulated pipe work will supply hot water to the house for radiators, underfloor heating and hot water.

 

Currently on oil spending about £2000 per year, 7 ton of seasoned wood should cost around £500 depending on what I can beg borrow or steal, which should see us through a year. Coupled with the RHI government grant payment of £3500-£4000 per year for seven years payback should be 2-3 years.

 

Also planning on using an acre of our land for willow which should see us producing enough to give us "free" heating.

 

Cheers

Hi are you sure you need 45kw ? My house 5 beds etc and have a 25kw vigas log boiler from 2004 and works realy well.As you are going the water srorage route you will be better off with soft wood, easier to source and a lot cheaper to buy ,but process it straight away and stack in an airy site with just the top covered. It s a pitty you are so far from me as I could probably help as I have lorry and trailer for delivery.Hope this is helpful Chris.

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

True that Timbercutterdartmoor.

 

I'm installing a log boiler, not a chip boiler. A mix of hard and softwood is good.

 

sorry my bad

[st135r]

Sandspider - not ideal to light a woodburner in the summer. Biomass log boilers though are 90%+ efficient and stay luke warm on the outside. Better than oil boiler.

[mendiplogs]

Hi are you sure you need 45kw ? My house 5 beds etc and have a 25kw vigas log boiler from 2004 and works realy well.As you are going the water srorage route you will be better off with soft wood, easier to source and a lot cheaper to buy ,but process it straight away and stack in an airy site with just the top covered. It s a pitty you are so far from me as I could probably help as I have lorry and trailer for delivery.Hope this is helpful Chris.

 

HI CHRIS i no some one with 6 beds plus very large house and there 2 x 45kw plus boiler thing does not keep up and it eats the hard they chaps all the time cutting timber and filling the boiler up i was talking there chaps on about the boiler it a night mere to keep going to as it a night mere keep fuelled up i was told by a chap better with chip boiler when there 40kw plus thanks jon

[st135r]

Good stuff Big Chris.

 

General rule of thumb is volume of house multiplied by 40 gives heat loss in watts for an okish insulated house. Most of our house is 1920s built with the new bits being well insulated so overall okish. Log boilers are sized according to fuel chamber size and you'll find a 30kw boiler will have the same chamber size and indeed the same price tag as a 50kw boiler, just with different programming of the software. In some, not all cases. Also we'll have some underground pipe work which will have a small heat loss.

 

Good to hear the Vigas is going well. Do you have an accumulator tank? Also how often do you find you fill it during the winter and where are you?

 

Great to hear love for the biomass.

[st135r]

Thanks Jon

 

Good advice, there is no doubt that running a log boiler takes commitment and hard work especially having to fill at least once a day in winter. Chip is certainly more convenient from a user input point of view. However, with a correctly sized accumulator which is key and a thermally efficient house, log boilers can be very cheap to run..............commitment still required!

[mendiplogs]

Thanks Jon

 

Good advice, there is no doubt that running a log boiler takes commitment and hard work especially having to fill at least once a day in winter. Chip is certainly more convenient from a user input point of view. However, with a correctly sized accumulator which is key and a thermally efficient house, log boilers can be very cheap to run..............commitment still required!

 

HI MATE the chaps with the 2x45kw log boilers they have a very large woods and all the kit and im told there not happy with it it using loads more hard wood then the boiler fitting told them so watch out mate there all not good and cheap to run they use 100 of tons per year and i no of a chip boiler but they have onw woods to im told that better thanks jon

[gensetsteve]

I have a 5kw log burner in the lounge I fan the warm air from the ceiling around the rest of the house a 3 bed bungalow. We also have oil fired central heating. Since June I have used £200 in oil and about 2 cu metres of logs. I know its been mild but my house is not great on the insulation front but is still warm as toast through out. I understand about the grants etc but when they run out you will be paying through the nose for hard wood and still loading the boiler manually. If I dont burn logs I get through at least 2000 litres of oil. on a hard winter we burn about 6 cu metres of logs and 1000 litres of oil. My point is I see alot of people spending a lot of money on solving a problem that may not actually excist . You produce the btu's you just got to get it round the house.

[st135r]

Hi Jon

 

Sounds to me like they are burning wood above 20% moisture content. The more moisture in the wood the less heat comes out. That is the golden rule, get moisture to 20% or below. If the moisture is at the correct level then 100 tonnes will give 400, 000 kwh of heat which is the equivalent of 40, 000 litres of heating oil. This woild heat around 10 large detached family houses. Unless their house is huge it sounds like heat is being lost somewhere either through under ground pipe work or burning the water from un seasoned wood.

 

I know of a similar situation where they were burning about 10 times the expected volume of chip and it turned out to be deteriorated under ground insulation of the heat main and they effectively had underfloor heating in the field!

[st135r]

Good point Gensetsteve. Using what you actually have is very important.

 

Even if the grants didn't exist I would still be going the log boiler route. Initially I will keep our 1 year old oild boiler as a backup. You're right in ten years wood will be expensive and oil more expensive. We have 6 acres which I'm planning on growing src willow to provide logs for the boiler in the long term. 1 acre will give 6-10 ton of dry wood per year.

 

We have no log burners inthe house and we're carrying out some renovation work so im looking forward to getting the boiler to see how it goes and as a showpiece for prospective clients. I'm not a fan of installing stuff because it is in fashion, I would much rather give good advice and install what is needed along with energy efficint advice to make the best of what people already have.

 

Cheerz