kiln dryer

[Duffryn]

So given that it appears that the general public has no interest in how and why their Firewood is produced, they just want dry wood, it seems that a batch boiler on the > 200kWh 3.76p tariff can still be a low risk viable proposition.

 

Do you dry Firewood to retail, as that HM chip boiler and installation is a little luxurious for personal use? !

 

Unless it has changed very recently for >200 kwh its 5.18p. Installing under 200 kwh doesn't make sense any more. My HM heats a manor house, cottage and the kiln. I offer a drying service to a local firewood merchant who buys timber off me. I also dry and produce my own logs. With the saving on heating oil, RHI income, capital allowances etc I got a three year ROI in cash terms.

 

If you are around on site for the refueling, have access to cheap fuel and can solve the night time refueling issue then a batch fed boiler is still a no brainer in terms of ROI. Add in the other benefits of kiln drying (releasing up cash, yard space, being able to react to demand, being be able to supply those who only want kiln dried) and it still makes a lot of sense. Just go into using a batch fed boiler with your eyes open and be realistic about what you expect from it

[arboriculturist]

Unless it has changed very recently for >200 kwh its 5.18p. Installing under 200 kwh doesn't make sense any more. My HM heats a manor house, cottage and the kiln. I offer a drying service to a local firewood merchant who buys timber off me. I also dry and produce my own logs. With the saving on heating oil, RHI income, capital allowances etc I got a three year ROI in cash terms.

 

If you are around on site for the refueling, have access to cheap fuel and can solve the night time refueling issue then a batch fed boiler is still a no brainer in terms of ROI. Add in the other benefits of kiln drying (releasing up cash, yard space, being able to react to demand, being be able to supply those who only want kiln dried) and it still makes a lot of sense. Just go into using a batch fed boiler with your eyes open and be realistic about what you expect from it

 

As usual, candid, interesting and informative advice - Thanks.

[Lancer]

PS why not run the kiln off your woodchip boiler ? If you are struggling for capacity in the winter then you could still power the kiln in the summer. You could put one in for under £8K

 

Yes this is something I had considered as a possible option and for that sort of money it does make a lot of sense. Our chip boiler is heating 2 houses, offices and shop so running at capacity for half the year but during summer time it would easily run a kiln. I will have to find out implications on rhi if I try to add a kiln onto what we are already doing.

[Duffryn]

Yes this is something I had considered as a possible option and for that sort of money it does make a lot of sense. Our chip boiler is heating 2 houses, offices and shop so running at capacity for half the year but during summer time it would easily run a kiln. I will have to find out implications on rhi if I try to add a kiln onto what we are already doing.

 

Amending the RHI or a new commercial heating use on an existing accreditation is easy, just give them a call and they can talk you through it. Are you using all your tier 1 at the moment ? If so might be worth considering a new batch fed straw fueled installation with a large accumulator tank. This would give you a much better ROI

[Lancer]

Amending the RHI or a new commercial heating use on an existing accreditation is easy, just give them a call and they can talk you through it. Are you using all your tier 1 at the moment ? If so might be worth considering a new batch fed straw fueled installation with a large accumulator tank. This would give you a much better ROI

 

Ok great that's good news it's straight forward. Last year we easily used all of tier 1 so this option will not give us good Roi from the rhi but would be very low on labour time which is attractive. We have a 25 m3 wood chip store and 3000 litre accumulator tank. So once loaded we could virtually leave it to get on with it I guess.

Will definitely research both option though, what size accumulator tank would the batch fed boiler need and do you have a rough estimate on price for the complete set up?

[Duffryn]

Ok great that's good news it's straight forward. Last year we easily used all of tier 1 so this option will not give us good Roi from the rhi but would be very low on labour time which is attractive. We have a 25 m3 wood chip store and 3000 litre accumulator tank. So once loaded we could virtually leave it to get on with it I guess.

Will definitely research both option though, what size accumulator tank would the batch fed boiler need and do you have a rough estimate on price for the complete set up?

 

If you went for a 20ft insulated kiln with 100kwh of heat exchangers and a greater than 200 kwh boiler I would guess you would be looking at £40-£45K all in and allowing for some building work. In terms of accumulator tank , I think from memory its roughly 70kwh per 1500 litres. So depending on the choice of fuel and thus the refueling times you would need a tank of between 10 to 20,000 litres. You would get circa £14K of tier 1 income from it a year but would need to deduct fuel and labour cost from this. Running the same setup via your woodchip boiler (cost of kiln £8k) and depending on how much your paying for your chip you would just about break even on the tier 2 income covering your chip cost. The key to making the batch fed boiler work is the availability of labour on site and fuel cost ( boiler will only be 60-70% efficient compared to your woodchip boiler of c 90%).

Edited January 2, 2016 by Duffryn

[R5log]

Unless it has changed very recently for >200 kwh its 5.18p. Installing under 200 kwh doesn't make sense any more. My HM heats a manor house, cottage and the kiln. I offer a drying service to a local firewood merchant who buys timber off me. I also dry and produce my own logs. With the saving on heating oil, RHI income, capital allowances etc I got a three year ROI in cash terms.

 

 

 

If you are around on site for the refueling, have access to cheap fuel and can solve the night time refueling issue then a batch fed boiler is still a no brainer in terms of ROI. Add in the other benefits of kiln drying (releasing up cash, yard space, being able to react to demand, being be able to supply those who only want kiln dried) and it still makes a lot of sense. Just go into using a batch fed boiler with your eyes open and be realistic about what you expect from it

 

 

We now live next to yard, so refuel at 9 pm then about 5-6 am

 

Takes about 15 mins to reload etc

 

Just done a year, £20k of RHi

Paid for within 2 years! Cost £38k

 

GF so far there good to deal with

 

Has any one had audit from Ofgem yet?

[Lancer]

We now live next to yard, so refuel at 9 pm then about 5-6 am

 

Takes about 15 mins to reload etc

 

Just done a year, £20k of RHi

Paid for within 2 years! Cost £38k

 

GF so far there good to deal with

 

Has any one had audit from Ofgem yet?

 

Can't complain about that. Roughly how long is it taking to dry a load of wood from fresh cut to under 20% with your set up? Also to hit 20k rhi have you had to run it hard for most of the year?

[Lancer]

If you went for a 20ft insulated kiln with 100kwh of heat exchangers and a greater than 200 kwh boiler I would guess you would be looking at £40-£45K all in and allowing for some building work. In terms of accumulator tank , I think from memory its roughly 70kwh per 1500 litres. So depending on the choice of fuel and thus the refueling times you would need a tank of between 10 to 20,000 litres. You would get circa £14K of tier 1 income from it a year but would need to deduct fuel and labour cost from this. Running the same setup via your woodchip boiler (cost of kiln £8k) and depending on how much your paying for your chip you would just about break even on the tier 2 income covering your chip cost. The key to making the batch fed boiler work is the availability of labour on site and fuel cost ( boiler will only be 60-70% efficient compared to your woodchip boiler of c 90%).

 

That's all really helpful, thanks very much for the advice. Seems including g f option have 3 choices, so got some thinking to do now.

[R5log]

Can't complain about that. Roughly how long is it taking to dry a load of wood from fresh cut to under 20% with your set up? Also to hit 20k rhi have you had to run it hard for most of the year?

 

 

It kept going a fair bit! I'm on a decent rhi rate

5-7 days for about 18 cubic metres