Best wood pellet boiler, or just go with oil?

B

Boogle

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Hi all, I'd appreciate some advice. I have an Opop/scotte wood pellet boiler system that was installed 8 years ago. It's been troublesome from time to time but recently it's breaking down every other month. I've had it with the thing. I have a baby on the way and having a freezing cold house is just not on. We have UFH downstairs and rads upstairs (1970sq ft). Since I have a good hopper, and all the fittings in place I was thinking of buying a new wood pellet boiler, and thus time I'd like a decent one. Any recommendations?

Alternatively, would I be better to get an efficient oil boiler? Would I need to do a lot of alterations to the plumbing or would it just slot in whereas the opop was? I'm torn, and a new wood pellet boiler is damn expensive!
 
We were in exact same position as you few months ago, having had our wood pellet system for 9 yrs. Got fed up of it acting up and running out of pellets and having a cold house, so we switched to oil and am so happy, just raging i didn't do it sooner. Between the oil burner, timer switches and other parts, and plumber costs, that was EUR 2,600. Another 350 for the oil tank, so 3k total but the house is so much warmer, rads really hopping on oil.
 
Boogle said:
Hi all, I'd appreciate some advice. I have an Opop/scotte wood pellet boiler system that was installed 8 years ago. It's been troublesome from time to time but recently it's breaking down every other month. I've had it with the thing. I have a baby on the way and having a freezing cold house is just not on. We have UFH downstairs and rads upstairs (1970sq ft). Since I have a good hopper, and all the fittings in place I was thinking of buying a new wood pellet boiler, and thus time I'd like a decent one. Any recommendations?

Alternatively, would I be better to get an efficient oil boiler? Would I need to do a lot of alterations to the plumbing or would it just slot in whereas the opop was? I'm torn, and a new wood pellet boiler is damn expensive!
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Go with an oil burner. Had nothing but hazzle with wood pellet. Now day and age hazzle with boilers etc just not worth it. Im in the process of getting rid of huge hopper taking up half my garage.
 
Hi All , we have an Opop woodpellet boiler which after a full rebuild and programming panel for burner runs great . This rebuild was carried out within the first year of purchase 7years ago . The Biobin hopper however is very poor and was never fit for purpose. This was the year I was going to rip it out and build my own . FYI we chose woodpellet along with solar for environmental reasons aswell the whole carbon footprint/tax that was to be introduced. But with the drop in oil prices I'm looking at switching. Can anyone advise is it possible to just replace burner ?
 
Trevor said:
Hi All , we have an Opop woodpellet boiler which after a full rebuild and programming panel for burner runs great . This rebuild was carried out within the first year of purchase 7years ago . The Biobin hopper however is very poor and was never fit for purpose. This was the year I was going to rip it out and build my own . FYI we chose woodpellet along with solar for environmental reasons aswell the whole carbon footprint/tax that was to be introduced. But with the drop in oil prices I'm looking at switching. Can anyone advise is it possible to just replace burner ?
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Hi Trevor,
Few years back when Pellet boiler was driving me nuts my plumber installed a condenser oil burner beside my pellet boiler. I am on oil for few years now but with the flick of a switch can change to the pellet boiler if I want. Not that I really want to.
 
I've had a wood pellet boiler for 10 years and am thinking of changing soon. It was hassle, but I did save money, and I'm happy that I haven't been contributing to CO2 emissions for the last 10 years.

However, I don't think I will go with oil.

1. As s fuel source, its future is uncertain
2. Oil theft is a big issue in rural areas

Instead, I'm thinking of kitting out the house with advanced electric rads. I put one in a small extension recently, and its been great. I can pre-programme for the entire year and run it at a much wider spectrum of temperature (which is great in an old house where certain parts of it are damper than others and need constant temperature to keep them dried out).

The rads are about €300 each, and I need 8 of them, so cost will be the same as refit for oil.

I figure its the best long term solution at the moment, as my fuel dependency will be the same as the grid, rather than specific to my house.
 
That will be a very controllable, but very expensive solution over the years. Each delivered kWh of heat will cost you more than seven times what it would with an oil system. TRVs are cheap and will give you individual control, you can even go so far as electronic TRVs that will give you the same programming functionality as you mention above.
 
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