Duffryn

jeremy clarkson

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

In very rough terms yes, so much depends on the application and if the boiler is just being used to dry logs. If the boiler is also being used to heat houses then you can factor in the savings over gas / oil etc which increases the payback period.

I really don't think the public are too concerned with the detail they just want logs be they "kiln dried" or " air seasoned". I think the payback on a batch fed boiler / kiln system will be much less than 9 years, more like 5 (in real world use allowing for some fuel costs). That's a 20% ROI which still isn't bad.

Wow ! That's huge, should hold 1,000kwh + of energy. You wont have any issues re fueling over night with that !

2,300 or 23,000 litre ? You would be surprised how quickly a kiln will cool down a 2,300 litre accumulator. Over night just turn the fans on the heat exchangers down but keep the boiler at the same temperature, this should maintain the temperature in the kiln and avoid wasting loads of time and energy heating the wood back up again in the morning.

I opted for a 71hp Carraro which I am really, really pleased with. I think for your budget ( if buying new) you are going to be limited to an AGT. I agree with Richy B, go for as much power as you can, look at the 850 /860 if your budget will stretch

Yes very easy to do both in terms of controlling temperature. For the kiln itself make sure you have fully insulated the area. Much easier to make an effective kiln in a smaller rather than larger area so you might want to consider not using the whole of the 20 x 20 shed. I'm no expert on drying milled timber but presume for this the temperature would be a lot lower, for firewood getting the kiln as hot as possible is key.

Agreed on first point On 2nd point . A kiln works by heating up the air to the point where the relative humidity is at its maximum for the air temperature at which point the air is flushed out of the kiln and the process starts again. A forced air drying constantly blows hot air out of the rear of the kiln regardless of the relative humidity. A hybrid would be to use a force air dryer set up but link the fan speed controller of the heat exchangers to the RH level. I hope to do this myself over the next couple of weeks on my set up

Yes I know of someone who has two of them powering forced air dryers. I presume you can mix fuels but you would need to check with Farm 2000 to be sure. You need to ensure that the straw if loosely baled for the boiler to burn it efficiently.

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

I have used both. As you will know from your own experience a wood chip and batch fed boiler are totally different beasts. A wood chip boiler will in most cases deliver its stated capacity and will be very efficient (circa 90%). They work by having small amounts of fuel introduced on a very regular basis. Large batch fed boilers like the GF will be circa 60% efficient and you will struggle to deliver more than 50% of the stated peak capacity over a 24 hour period. In fairness to GF they now quote a peak output not a capacity. In a log drying environment using forced air to dry the logs, there is a constant demand for large volumes of energy 24/7 and thus the refueling requirements will be onerous. The BIG advantage of a batch fed boiler is the cost, including install you are looking at circa 25% of the cost of a woodchip boiler. If I were looking again at a batch fed boiler to power a kiln then I would use a kiln rather than a forced air dryer. A kiln is a more efficient method of drying logs. I would also look at using straw bales as a fuel rather than wood (cheaper and quicker to load). An accumulation tank would also be a must. Take a look at the Farm 2000 range.

Problem is RHI has dropped massively since then so now its a much longer payback period. GF have moved over to the +200 size to benefit from the mid tier but this is still 45% lower than the rate you secured 18 months ago

Yours is a proper kiln, mine is basically a forced air dryer. Water going in to heat exchanger is 85 degrees and I get 70 degrees of air out of the heat exchanger and 60 degrees at the far end of the kiln at floor level (10ft long).

I'm a bit of touch with this and the costs. I think you would be looking at an 8 year payback, so IF the RHI was the main driver, and the boiler was used purely for drying logs it would be no where near as attractive as it was. I would guess £50K for ancillaries and fitting but not sure of current boiler costs

Sorry - missed that . Yes HH did the installation, since the RHI drop they have stopped promoting biomass installs but still do them if required. Did a cracking job on mine, really really pleased with it Re the temperature question. Heizomat recommend a max of 85 degrees

There is so much capacity on the boiler that I can maintain full temperature even with the heat ecxhangers on full power.

A constant 60 degree temperature and massive airflow through the container ( I have two heat exchangers on a 10ft container). Beech is the only wood that seems to take a bit longer (another 12-24 hours). I put bigger logs at the back of the kiln, closest to the heat exchanger and the smaller logs at the front.

I've lots of experience in dealing with Trading Standards. They have vast areas of product and services to cover and are hopelessly out of their depth in most of them. They will have a national push on certain industries or topics and then the heat goes down as they move onto the next. The chance of them taking it any further is minimal, especially if you enter into prolonged correspondence with them. Selling by the m3 is the fairest way to sell logs but technically it breaches their regs so if need be play them at their own game. The solution is. I deliver logs by various means:- 1. Pick up. My pick up load area measures 1.3m3 2. Trailer. Trailer load area measure 3m3 etc You are not stating a size of log delivery, you are stating the size of what you deliver them in.

Temperature rises as the logs absorb the heat. With an input of 80 degrees water into my heat exchangers and on an insulated kiln I get a 58 degrees at the bottom of the end of the kiln after 2 days. The heat exchangers on the lowest settings move a kiln of air every 90 seconds and so for me, temperature inside the kiln is more important than airflow in terms of reducing drying times.

Strikes me this is a fair deal. Not his fault if your miles away. If you are local you can make a decent return, if you're not then its not for you.

Took delivery of the latest WP36 road tow a couple of weeks ago. Got to say I am impressed with it. Its fast, single handed I can do 15-17 cube a day , a fair but more if I have a second person. The splitter has struggled a couple of times on large knotty green beech (30cm plus diameter) but apart from that it has taken everything I have thrown at it. I have just added a log deck to the set up which makes single handed use much quicker. I did have an issue the blades on both the 4 and 6 way splitting bending back on the leading edge but this was quickly resolved by Riko. If you are after a portable machine that will work well anywhere with or without PTO power then I really think it will be hard to beat. For a fixed site location doing serious volume, there may well be better machines out there, but then to be fair this wasn't what the WP36 was designed for .

Still going strong after 2 years - at a guess I would say would be good for another 18-24 months. The key is putting logs on top of it and keeping the cover tight to limit the movement / damage of the cover by the wind

Good to hear you have got it sorted and credit to Glenfarrow for helping you. A bit of smoke on start up and when fans kick in etc is perfectly normal. The only problem now is the frequency of re fuelling.

I think its Biomass to blame for putting prices up rather than demand for logs. Biomass demand is not linked to Oil or Gas because most biomass users are just farming the RHI and in most cases can only use wood derived fuel.