Has anyone installed a biomass heating system for their home/ country house. I would be interested to know which system you decided on for Poland. I am currently pricing up the options and would be interested to hear your do's and don'ts. Thanks for the feedback.
The type of heating system you instal depends entirely on the type/size of property you have; taking into account what storage facilities you have for fuel, as well as local availability.
After a long process of evaluating all types of boiler systems available - including heat pump, gas, oil, coal, wood, biomass etc - a couple of years ago I installed a brand new system in a large county manor (15 rooms). Each system has pros and cons - for instance, convenience versus fuel costs, and so on. As it was a big project to run new pipework and fit new radiators throughout the whole house, as well as a new boiler, hot water storage tank and controls, installation costs were a big factor in the decision making. Also, I wanted the lowest long-term running and maintenance costs. It was also important that the heating system could function during power cuts.
I have pretty well unlimited space for storing fuel under cover outside, and have two large fuel stores in the basement next to the boiler room. There are abundant supplies of wood available locally as well as suppliers who can bulk deliver pre-packed wood briquets, as well as Rekord coal briquets. I did not want to tie myself down to being able to use only one kind of fuel, hence decided on a boiler that burns all solid fuels - as opposed to boilers which burn only one fuel, be it biomass pellets, oil, gas, or whatever. Choosing a boiler that burns only one type of fuel places you at the mercy of the fuel supplier.
Choice of boiler is critical. The vast majority of boilers sold now are fabricated from welded sheet steel. The steel is usually of fairly low carbon content and of limited life-span. The best choice for long life is always a cast ion boiler. I decided on a Viadrus 45 kw - superb quality, and very compact considering the high heat output. In fact, the massive size of many boilers - especially the biomass burners - ruled them out, as the boiler had to be got into the basement through a window! In fact, a very important point of boiler choice is whether you can get it into you boiler room! Don't even consider trying to get a 3/4 ton big boiler down/up a flight of stairs!!!!
Storing fuel near your boiler is very important. You need lots of space, and good access for several tons of fuel. You don't want to be carrying sacks or buckets of stuff from somewhere outside through the snow all winter!
Biomass boilers can be a good solution if money is no object. They can certainly be convenient - but you still need to fill the hopper now and again, and you still need to empty the ash. However, be aware that you will be at the mercy of suppliers of only one kind of fuel - and their rising costs. You won't be able to burn logs or anything else. You may have to replace the boiler earlier than you had hoped for. Maintenance costs could be high - motor, gears etc. And, if there is a power cut, you will have no heating.
I run my system all winter at 70 to 80C, big house - 15 rooms - 8 tons of fuel this past year. All very toasty!
One final tip... buy your winter's fuel between May and July, when costs are lowest. As said, you will need somewhere to store it.
By the way, as an ex-engineer in the power industry, I can offer my two cents worth with perhaps a little authority.
I sell and service boilers for a living, however my specialty is large (industrial) steam boilers (up to 250,000 kg/hr of steam for a factory packaged boiler, and double that for a field assembled boiler). Plus energy recovery and the full boiler room package.
But I also worked on smaller boilers for a few years.
I entirely agree with what prawda said. For home, convenience and ease of use, combined with low operating costs are important. You also want it simple and reliable. Plus the advice about cast iron vs. welded steel sheet is right on the money. But be aware, cast iron construction tends to be heavier, and this is something to keep in mind, particularly if you are doing a retrofit.
The manor and plot looks well done. I did not read the website in full is it a new build or reno?
I appreciate the compliment. It was a restoration project. 20" thick granite and brick walls and 12" thick concrete floors... so the ripping out of old CH system pipework and installation of new was not for the feint hearted!
For home, convenience and ease of use, combined with low operating costs are important.
Thanks Polsyr, do you have any links for examples of boilers in Poland you suggest, the house is 350 m2 and sits on a hill by a lake, so in the cold season good windows and heating is a must.
Have you done a heat load calculation? Is this a new home or a retrofit? How much space you have in your boiler room (for both boiler and fuel)? Tell me more about this project. Feel free to send me a message with details.
I am not yet familiar with the applicable calculations in Poland, but I can tell you, if your house was in Chicago, and we follow the US Department of Energy 2011 guidelines, and assuming that this is a NEW HOME, with modern insulation and construction technique, then your heating load will be 21kW (baseline which is too idealistic) and 26kW (with some reasonable losses).
I have seen some people in Poland blindly assume 100 W per square meter for retrofit on insulated homes, and even more for older buildings. If you follow this rule, you're looking at 35kW+
And if you let the boiler salesman size the boiler for you, you will end up with a 40-50kW boiler at least... (I am a boiler salesman, but the boilers I offer start at 3MW and go up to 285MW).
If you stick to 35kW (which in my opinion is plenty) then you have some interesting choices. If it was MY home, I would go for ORLAŃSKI model ORLIGNO 50 with 35kW. It is a classic cast iron boiler and can be fired on coal, wood, wood shavings, briquettes, sawdust and coke so this gives many fuel choices. They even supply this boiler with a set of cleaning tools. The drawback is that you have to manually empty a potentially heavy ashtray. However, this looks like a simple (and therefore reliable) solution. Their website is orlanski dot pl.
Of course, there are other choices like Viadrus (which I am not familiar with, but the name seems to be associated with quality). Their website is viadrus dot com dot pl.
Whatever you decide, try to buy a local product so you have easy access to service and parts. There are plenty of good boilers made in Poland. And don't assume that an "international" brand is better than local brands by default.
My name is Carlos Huerta, I work in a Bioenergy consulting company based in United Kingdom.
We are trying to get a better understanding of the residential pellet market in Poland. If some of you is an expert or work in the pellet industry in Poland would be very interesting to hear what do you think about:
According to the European Biomass Association, in 2014 premium-quality pellet consumption in households and small commercial boilers was 215,000 tonnes and it is expected to continue to grow in the coming years, reaching 450,000 tonnes by 2020.
- Do you agree with these numbers? Do you think that the residential pellet demand will reach 450,000 tonnes in 2020?
- What are the main drivers of this potential growth? Is it because the price of traditional heating systems (coal, gas from network, tank gas, oil and electricity) are becoming more expensive and people are shifting to wood pellet because of the price?
- Are there any regional or national incentives (like taxes redemption) for the installation of residential and commercial scale pellet systems (stoves and small boilers)?
I really appreciate any information you can provide and many thanks anyway for your time.
Hi What is the polish law of fitting a combi boiler into a flat in Poland . The boiler will be a room Sealed boiler and will be fitted by a Gas registered Person Are there any ruled that I must comply with ? Thanks.
