# Wood Pellet Usage?



## fandango1 (4 Dec 2007)

Hi,

Just wondering what weight of pellets people are using on a daily basis. Suppose the best way to enable comparisons is to get size of house and running time per day. 
Anyone care to share the info?

Thanks.


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## P.Ranks (4 Dec 2007)

Hello there,

Iwas just thinking about going out to the garage to fill up the hopper on my gerkros boiler, and saw your post.
We've been running it for about the past 7-8 months I suppose, and I'm just about at the end of my first 3 tonne load.
We have been in the gaff for about 6 of those, but had it running before we moved in.
At the moment, I'm trying to figure out how much I'm using too.
Had the plumber in recently as there was a problem with the distribution from the manifold for the underfloor heating, and he said to just leave it on for a couple of days, and see how it went.
I did that and having it run for those couple of days did the job, nice n cosy now.
Anyway, running it constant doesn't really seem to use that much more as its a modulating boiler, or so they say, so have filled the hopper a couple of times since. 
I think that the hopper is 250 or 300kg, so that would mean I should get 12 fills approx. from the three tonne load.
So that means if I'm filling it once a week, I will get 12 weeks, or three months out of it, but that would mean three solid months of it being on! Which unless it gets really baltic, won't be happening.
Last load, as I was saying, lasted about 7-8 months, but not as hot as it is now.
So in fiscal terms, that means I'm looking at 2 X three tonne loads per annum, or one six tonne, at around E180/tonne, meaning E1080/annum, plus VAT I think, so around E1200/annum, or E3.28/day. The same, but using oil, would be 2 fills of oil at E700/1000L, which would be E3.83.

I still have to wire up the controls for the UFH so expect there to be some reduction due to increased control, and all of the rooms are at about 22.5, so it's a bit much really. Wanted to have so that it was uncomfortable for a while so I could complain about it.

Also, the house is a dormer, three bedrooms downstairs, two up, think its about 225 sq M, and now, after running it flat out for the couple of days, am currently running it for about 16 hours/day, in two 8 hour slots.  

Hope that helps, it helped me...


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## poppy1 (5 Dec 2007)

Hey ours is on about 7 wks drying out the house (2100sq ft) at least 6 hours a day.  Our boiler is fully automated and its showing a usage of .17 of a tonne for those few weeks.  We got firestixx pellets and were told the 4 tonne would last us 1.5 yrs.  Not moved in yet but it was 19 degress at 6pm yesterday (and the heating was off since 11am).  So its doing the job for us.

Hope that helps


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## Duffman (5 Dec 2007)

My first delivery was last winter - 2.8 tonnes.  Moved into the house early March so have been using it from then till now (another delivery due next week).  Taking out the summer months I have been using it for approx. 22 weeks so far giving a quantity of approx .13 of a tonne per week?  And that includes the initial period of a few weeks of drying out when it was on for 8 hours a day.
Mind you I don't run it for anything like some of the other posters - 4 or 5 hours a day keeps the house warm (supplemented with a wood burning stove).
P.Ranks - did you say you run it for 16 hours a day?  If you run oil at that rate you would need more that the average 2000 litres of oil.  At the rate I run it, I would use up my 3.5 tonne hopper maybe once a year at a cost of €840.  2000 litres of oil is currently in excess of €1400 so early indications see a saving of approx. 40%.


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## P.Ranks (6 Dec 2007)

Duffman,

Yes, I was had it on for 16 hours a day for a little while, but that was only after having it on constant for a couple of days. Like I said that means that the heating is on, but not necessarily the boiler, which just kicks in as is needed.
My problem at the moment is that I still have to connect up the controls in each of the rooms, so it ain't the finished article yet so to speak.
At the moment, I have the system on for 12 hours and the gaff is still roasting, want to step it down gradually to see where my optimum is.
There's a lot of tweaking required to get it just right, and it doesn't help having the controls unattached.
Each of the rooms in the house were at about 22.1 degrees this morning when I was leaving, and that is far too warm in my opinion.
But like I said, I want to really heat things up and then bring it back down to where it's comfortable.
Got Balcas pellets BTW, €580 for three tonne load. Had them within ten days as well, living in NW.


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## Builder (1 Jan 2008)

I got 3 ton of pellets at the end of Oct., and after 6 weeks of running the Gerkros WP Boiler I have about 1 ton left in storage tank.  I have UFH with the thermostats at about 15 deg.   I had the boiler timed to come on at 4 different times throughout the 24hrs for 4hrs each time.  I know that my boiler is too big (this was the size which was recommended to me by one of the Gerkros agents) and in order to cut down the pellet consumption I would require a digital display to be fitted to my boiler, does anyone have a digital display on their Gerkros boiler.  I have also since found out that with UFH it is recommended that a holding tank is used in addition to the normal hot water tank, does anyone use a holding tank??  
Also, with UFH is this required to be running 24hrs or is it sufficient to run it for say 3hrs morning and 3hrs evening.
I have also found numerous probelms with my boiler, 1) the display which receommends that the boiler needs cleaning is broke,  2)  I have recently replaced one of the fireback, 3) Just before Xmas the iginitor packed in which will probably cost more money.  

I also find that when I received the bulk delivery of pellets that there seems to be a lot of dust.  I am so sorry that didn't stick with oil, cleaner and a lot less hassle.


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## Duffman (2 Jan 2008)

Builder - I sympathise with your situation but is there a problem with warming your house - insulation maybe?  I appear to be in the minority here in the amount of time I have the boiler on.  You run your boiler for 16 hours a day whereas for me it would be no more than 6 hours in a typical day. That keeps the house at a comfortable tenmperature for most of the day.  As mine is a recent self build I still don't even have all my attic insulated as yet due to time constraints so I'm hoping that I will be able to reduce that when I've finished the insulation.  
Is it something to do with UFH I wonder?  I have rads with thermostatic valves in every room & I find that most of them on about half most of the time is adequate.


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## MAJJ (3 Jan 2008)

Builder,

My folks had an issue with their setup wood pellet and under floor heating. It too was consuming huge amounts of bellets, their issue was the thermostats weren't wired up correctly. So the bolier never cut out when reaching the required temperature!!! 

Just in case it may be worth testing as their system clearly wasn't commisioned correctly.

majj


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## Builder (10 Jan 2008)

Does anyone have the new digital version of the wood pellet boilers, I have been told that if I converted mine to digital it would reduce the pellet consumption and also if I had a buffer tank installed.  Any-one have a buffer tank with their wood pellet boiler, I would appreciate any feedback.


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## duffym (11 Jan 2008)

Hi Builder
Just spoken to Balcas about my delivery of pellets from last October which contained a few foreign body's (hard perspex type object and maze)and was also very dusty. Without asking they are giving me next delivery free which would indicate they have had a few problems from this period (might be worth a call if they were your supplier).Also saw Viadrus boiler in operation last year using underground heating with no buffer tank and was working ok. Owner told me it was heavy on pellets but he put this down to being new house and drying out floors.
Hope this is of some help.


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## embolism (2 Feb 2008)

Hi 
We have a woodpecker 20kw with the management system, works on a scale of 1-5 depending on what the heating system is calling for. It regularly hunts up and down between the numbers (giving varying quantities of pellets) depending how close to the operating temperature it is at. It is definately worth it as I reckon (in my humble opinion) it is far more efficient. Mike (Swartz, I think) in Off the Grid reckoned that we should get it. He seems to know his stuff so it might be worth talking to him about it.

The problem with our boiler was a nice explosion due to two sets pellets entering the chamber at start up. A cloud of white smoke followed by a boom which blew the feeder pipe out. It also knocked two plates out of place in the boiler which meant the heat bypassed the baffles and went out the chimney (unknown to me at the time).  Gerkros said that this would be expected! I just noticed the plates out of place  when I was cleaning the baffles last week (two months after the event). We sucked through 3 m3 in 3 months (for a 2000 sq ft house, 1000 sq underfloor) We have the heat on about 8 hours a day.


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## lastbuilders (2 Feb 2008)

We have used about 3.5 tonne in a year. I ordered this last March and will need to reorder in the next few weeks. House is 2700 sq ft. Boiler used for heating water in summer so on for about 2 hours during the night at this time of year and it is on about 4 hours a day now to heat house and water.

Lastbuilders


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## glendac (11 Feb 2008)

My father was advised to install a wood pellet burner as it would be economical to heat his 6,000sq ft house.  it is using approx 2 tonne of pellets per month which is clearly not economical at €195.00 per tonne.
The supplier is saying that the product is working perfectly and is refusing to take it back. Does anyone have any advice?
thanks


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## ninsaga (11 Feb 2008)

eh.... get a smaller house to begin with...


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## glendac (12 Feb 2008)

Well that was completely useless and unhelpful advice ninsaga. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who had a similar problem and found a workable solution


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## ninsaga (12 Feb 2008)

Is this a new house - well insulated or an old house.... did he use oil prev... how much did it cost? What make of boiler is he using... is it right sized ie to big or to small for the needs... is it heating space only or is he heating a pool also? Did the boiler installer come back to run some efficiency tests on the system as a whole? Is the boiler going 24hrs a day? Is it on a timer/thermostat or constantly on.... what are the room temps being achieved..... is the house still cold despite the usage? I'm not a heating system expert... but with alot of the above answered then perhaps someone could give a better assessment ........


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## davidoco (12 Feb 2008)

glendac said:


> My father was advised to install a wood pellet burner as it would be economical to heat his 6,000sq ft house.  2 toone per month


 
So that's 1000 ltrs per month in oil equilivant.  

If that house was 2000 sq ft and any sort of recent build (<3 years) with standard insulation it might use 500 litres in a winter month occupied all day.  So for 6000 sq ft occupied all day it's doesn't sound so bad.  

If you provide the answers to ninsaga's questions and also state if there is underfloor or typical rad heaters.


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## beingeco (12 Feb 2008)

House is 2700sqft, with underfloor heating and well insulated. During the day the temperature is approx 20deg and about 16/17deg at night.
We moved in in Nov and have been using between 20-25kg per day since then. We have wood flooring in about half the house which I guess adds to the pellet usage.


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## davidoco (12 Feb 2008)

beingeco said:


> House is 2700sqft, with underfloor heating and well insulated. During the day the temperature is approx 20deg and about 16/17deg at night.
> We moved in in Nov and have been using between 20-25kg per day since then. We have wood flooring in about half the house which I guess adds to the pellet usage.



Thats a good example for glendac, a house less than half the size using about 750 kg a month. So 2 tonne a month may not be far off for heating all day for 6000 sq ft. With that much space there is probably plenty of open spaces and windows.


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## glendac (13 Feb 2008)

davidoco said:


> So that's 1000 ltrs per month in oil equilivant.
> 
> If that house was 2000 sq ft and any sort of recent build (<3 years) with standard insulation it might use 500 litres in a winter month occupied all day. So for 6000 sq ft occupied all day it's doesn't sound so bad.
> 
> If you provide the answers to ninsaga's questions and also state if there is underfloor or typical rad heaters.


 
Only a quarter of the house is being heated at a low heat, the radiators are on 2 or so. the rest of the heaters are off.  my father confirmed to me that it is using 4 tonne a month and not the 2 tonne a month that i had previously advised. th temp in the house is just average temp its never very hot.  its a new house and is well insulated. this is the first heating system to be used.  it is a baxi multiheat 4.0 boiler. we cannot advise if it is the right size, we were told by the supplier that it was, maybe its too big??  he is only heating space, the water is heated by solar power.  the supplier ran tests and said it is running perfectly.  it is not going 24/7 but i understand that it is impossible to switch on and off without cutting out and they have trouble re-starting it.
For example this morning its not working at all and they are awaiting the plumber


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## ninsaga (13 Feb 2008)

ouch.... that can't be right (not the figures you quoted- but the setup)..... this thing is eating pellets at a ferocious rate - 4 tonnes is a years worth of pellets for a med-large size house. For the supplier to say that this is running perfectly is stretching it by all accounts. Perhaps you need to contact baxi directly - advising of this.


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## Oldgold (21 Feb 2008)

Poppy1 and Lastbuilders
What size boilers are you using? 
I'm urrently building a 2500sf wood frame house and using rads to heat the rooms. Also have solar panels to heat water during the summer months. Plumber is stating that I will need to purchase a 40kW boiler to satisfy my heat demand. Could this be the case? From my research (talking to various boiler suppliers) I believed a 24kW boiler would have been sufficient. Don't want to end up with something that is going to eat pellets.

Oldgold.


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## lastbuilders (21 Feb 2008)

Our boiler is 24KW.

Lastbuilders


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## Optimistic (21 Feb 2008)

We have a 20KW MODULATING WPB for our 2400sq foot house and it is heating no problem. In my opinion you do not need a 40kw.  My brother has a 25kw for a big old house, 3000sq foot and he has no problems either. In my opinion get a modulating boiler.  All the best. Optimistic




Oldgold said:


> Poppy1 and Lastbuilders
> What size boilers are you using?
> I'm urrently building a 2500sf wood frame house and using rads to heat the rooms. Also have solar panels to heat water during the summer months. Plumber is stating that I will need to purchase a 40kW boiler to satisfy my heat demand. Could this be the case? From my research (talking to various boiler suppliers) I believed a 24kW boiler would have been sufficient. Don't want to end up with something that is going to eat pellets.
> 
> Oldgold.


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## poppy1 (22 Feb 2008)

hey oldgold

ours is a 15k - they reckoned with the size of the house and the amount of insulation its all we needed.  im doing a daily check on our wood pellet usage so i can get an average before the summer. so far we have 2t used. we had some issues with the heating coming on a the middle of the nite due to the temp dropping but seem to have it sorted now. seems to be using 0.01 tonne of pellets per day (7hrs heating - 3hrs water). But ill post again in a few months with more accurate figures!! Its still all very new to us.


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## Oldgold (27 Feb 2008)

Thanks for all the responces folks,
Talked to a good few people since my original post and they all said the same, 24kW is sufficient. And that's what I'm going with. When i went back to the plumber and put this to him explaining my exact heat needs and how I would intend to heat the house, ie heat the downstairs rooms in the early evening and only have the heating come on in the bedrooms later in evening, he said a 24kW would have no problem heating the house. 
He was specing the boiler size based on all the rads and hotwater coming on at the same time with thermostats set for 23 degrees downstairs and 19 upstairs. (worse case in his opinion). 
If I had been putting in an oil boiler he would have never discussed the boiler size and I would have ended up with a big inefficient boiler. 

I'll let you know in the next few months how I get on with this boiler


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## Duffman (29 Feb 2008)

Oldgold said:


> Thanks for all the responces folks,
> Talked to a good few people since my original post and they all said the same, 24kW is sufficient. And that's what I'm going with. When i went back to the plumber and put this to him explaining my exact heat needs and how I would intend to heat the house, ie heat the downstairs rooms in the early evening and only have the heating come on in the bedrooms later in evening, he said a 24kW would have no problem heating the house.
> He was specing the boiler size based on all the rads and hotwater coming on at the same time with thermostats set for 23 degrees downstairs and 19 upstairs. (worse case in his opinion).
> If I had been putting in an oil boiler he would have never discussed the boiler size and I would have ended up with a big inefficient boiler.
> ...


I have a 40kW WPB which is obviously too big for my house (2,200 sq ft) - I went with the plumbers advice & the suppliers didn't discourage me as they said it souldn't use any more pellets anyway.  So far they are right as 3.5 tonnes hasl lasted the full year - similar to those posters with smaller boilers.


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## duffym (1 Mar 2008)

As Duffman I have a 48kwh in a 2600sq ft house also to big for house but it can easily be adjusted down.(Using about 4 tonne per year)Don't forget ceiling height when calculating heat requirement.


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## Mercantilist (12 Mar 2009)

Just got a 30 KW wood log boiler from Austrian manufacturer ETA. Currently using 30kg of wood per day. It seems a lot to me.

We're getting about 5 hours of heat per day, plus a couple of hot showers out of it. I thought we'd get more heat from it. We have the boiler installed in an outhouse and a 1200 litre buffer tank in the house.

Does that sound right to ye?


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## Grovegirl (13 Mar 2009)

Hey guys,

We are  currently using bagged pellets for our boiler- costing a alot!!
- i see alot of you are getting deliveries of 3 tonnes- What type of storage/ hopper do ye have such a large amount of pellets?
Also the cost of the storage/ hopper!

Thanks


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## ninsaga (13 Mar 2009)

[broken link removed] an example


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