Geothermal and wood pellet heating

To Touchwood: more details on the "less then €400 boiler" see here:

Free Speech said:

Build one leaf with Quinnlite blocks and insulate externally, Much better.

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inside leaf of 4 inch quinnlite,4 inch cavity with 50mm insulation,4 inch standard outher leaf,should be insulated enough??.how would you insulate externally?,what about the plastering outside,wont the plaster crack

Check the SEI homepage for the " U-value calculator" to get an independant calculation (and an explanation what to look for): [broken link removed]

Have you thought about the statical impact on your house when digging out a 3 m3 hole next to the foundation and not refilling it with compacted hard(-core) material? Will you still be able to walk on this underground tank? Have you ever seen what happens to an MDF board when dug in ? It swells because it's taking up moisture. The pellets are delivered -hopefully- with a max. moisture content of 10% . That is the legal max. under EU fuel legislation. After a few month outside here in our climate it will be more than 20%. They-the pellets- will swell, fall apart, turn to dust, start moulding,block the feeder, dampen the fire.
What is the efficiency of your existing oil boiler, the Sedbuk range? You will certainly loose on this (propably bad) efficiency even more when installing a burner not made by the boiler manufacturer for the purpose and using wet fuel, there is no one-fits-all burner. Have you thought about the ash as well? I don't know of any oil boiler that provides for ash removal.....
Tell us where we can see such a system working, sure the wood pellet boiler seller has some references ?
Mind the cowboys!

Tell us where we can see such a system working, sure the wood pellet boiler seller has some references ?

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Yes, he has the system at his own house but not with the underground storage. I mentioned the contention that there is a problem with moisture absorption in the mild irish climate which is not the case in Scandanavian countries but he insisted, on avarage, it is as dry or drier here than there!

Recieved this reply from Dept of Enviroment about grants for renewable energy

"The exact details of the schemes are currently being defined and it is expected that the grants for householders and biomass grants programme will be launched within the next 4-6 weeks. It is likely that the following general principles will apply in relation to the grants for householders:The grants will most likely be available for renewable energy systems installed in homes. Such systems might include solar water heating, heat pumps and wood pellet boilers and stoves. It will be required that the systems installed be from a registered list of technologies (which will be published at the time of the scheme announcement) and will have to be installed by service providers from a registered list (again from a list to be published at the time of scheme announcement). Once the scheme has been announced, applicants will have to apply for, and receive approval before any materials are purchased or any works are commenced. Payments for materials / works completed before grant approval is secured cannot be reimbursed. "

Has anyone heard on the grapevine how much these grants might be? Reckon a grant of €2000 would make wood pellet boilers a much more viable option than present.

Great. I just installed my heat pump BEFORE this was announced in budget 2006.

I wonder will prices go up once the grant is introduced?

Heinbloed,

From reading your posts you seem to be opposed to geothermal and wood pellet heating. In essence, would you recommend keeping a new gas or oil boiler and ensure the house is well insulated? What do you think about boiler optimizers and reflective radiator panels?

Please, Geegee, buy yourself a good book about basic heating and home building. Collin's DIY book for example.
And use the SEI homepage , it answers most of your questions in detail, incl. fuel price comparrison sheets, U-value calculator, insulation and so on. Ask your boiler MANUFACTURER about things like optimisers. Why aren't they build in? Who is guaranteeing etc..
The usuall " double U " question will get you to the point:WHAT, WHEN WHO, WHERE, WHY and so on. And insist on numbers, facts.
I'm not opposed to any form of heating, but I'm opposed to chancers who try to sell financial madness or technical rubbish to the uninformed.
Using biomass to produce useable energy to reduce human's impact on the climate is not wise if the biomass has to be transported. It's much wiser to use this biomass in central electric powerplants -as long as there is still need for them- at source and feed the electric energy into the grid , making use of the combined heat output to heat nearby places or use for example an Elsbett engine to produce even more electric energy from the waste heat, the warm smoke.And using the heat energy derived from the smoke to dry the fuel before it's beeing combusted. Internatinall operators like EON, Vattenfall, EDF are using this method already. But they pulled out from the Irish market, beeing to small to be considered worth it to fight legal
causes, the return on investments (investments, not speculative business) is faster achieved somewhere else. Anywhere else. Money goes where it's welcome, if I might cite an earlier poster.
Not for nothing the gouvernment has anounced today that renewable biomass homeheating will be subsidised-to keep competition away from the electric market.The worst climate demagers are electric powerplantsrunning on fossile fuel. Putting a signature under a legislation that would put a hefty tax on tungsten bulbs-forcing consumers to change en masse to Cfl's- would cost 2 seconds of ministerial work. And safe us a powerplant. Subsidising madness is one way of protectionism.
And geothermal heating is the most promissing way of supplying our economy with centralised electric power. Not for nothing the gouvernment has anounced that madman ideas like "Wavebobs" will be subsidised.....
The real Mc Coy of geothermal heating is not for offer here in Ireland, at least it can't be seen working here. Check the IEA homepage what the term "geothermal" means. Certainly not "groundsourced heat exchangers", pitty that the SEI fell for the propaganda, as well as for the "wavebob" and that they are still not recognising the existence of "double A rated" white ware/household goods. Those who pay for the band decide what tunes will be heard.....
Think logical.

can anybody provide a link to the grant details that were announced at the weekend, I can't seem to find them?

Details are available on the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources website:
[broken link removed]

that's great - thanks

I have to agree with heinbold. I am going to build a super warm house using SIP (structural insulated panel, Kingspan TEK) boards. I will be getting a heat loss calc done next week but spoke to somebody that has built using this method. Says it is the business. Spent about 1/2 to2/3 of tank of oil for a 3200 sq foot house for the whole winter. I will go through two tanks at the moment for a 1300 sq ft house that is poorly insulated in half the house.
He heated the house by putting in a small oil burner connected to a radiator battery which feeds into MVHR system.
By insulating the house (it is practically air tight), as you said before heinbold, it means the alternative sources of heating systems are less attractive. With this Kingspan TEK system you spend less on the build cause you only have to build one set of blocks on the outside compared to a double cavity with insulation. Also the roof is solid so you can take away some of the costs of building a roof. No chasing walls as all walls are studded internal. The way labour costs are going it makes financial sense to me.
I think geo may make sense in a block house but my way of thinking is build a house that needs little costs to heat. Making those mortgage payments are difficult enough but having to fork out 900 euros for a tank oil every couple of months hurts more. I'm all for helping the environment but it has to make financial sense too.

ECOHOME said:

In Sept last I fitted Solar panels these are worth there weight in gold. PS since I put in the Solar Panels the emersion was never rewired and never will be.

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Hi ECO home - can you please advise where you sourced your solar panels?

Thanks
Roy

I have to agree with heinbold. I am going to build a super warm house using SIP (structural insulated panel, Kingspan TEK) boards. I will be getting a heat loss calc done next week but spoke to somebody that has built using this method. Says it is the business. Spent about 1/2 to2/3 of tank of oil for a 3200 sq foot house for the whole winter. I will go through two tanks at the moment for a 1300 sq ft house that is poorly insulated in half the house.
He heated the house by putting in a small oil burner connected to a radiator battery which feeds into MVHR system.
By insulating the house (it is practically air tight), as you said before heinbold, it means the alternative sources of heating systems are less attractive. With this Kingspan TEK system you spend less on the build cause you only have to build one set of blocks on the outside compared to a double cavity with insulation. Also the roof is solid so you can take away some of the costs of building a roof. No chasing walls as all walls are studded internal. The way labour costs are going it makes financial sense to me.
I think geo may make sense in a block house but my way of thinking is build a house that needs little costs to heat. Making those mortgage payments are difficult enough but having to fork out 900 euros for a tank oil every couple of months hurts more. I'm all for helping the environment but it has to make financial sense too.

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I like the sound of this. What sort of cost per square foot would this type of house be?