Wood Pellet Boilers

Wood Pellet Boilers

Wood Pellet Boilers burn pellets of compressed sawdust (fuel) to generate heat and hot water for a building. They are environmentally friendly and offer a direct replacement for fossil fuel boilers.

How does a Wood Pellet Boiler work?

Wood Pellet Boilers operate in a similar way to fossil fueled boilers. When calling for heat they will automatically ignite and feed fuel to the fire, self clean and then switch off when there is no demand. The fuel is fed to the burner via an auger connected to the adjacent pellet store or hopper. The feeder will control the amount of pellets fed to the burner depending on demand called for. The hot energy generated from the fuel enters the heat exchanger, where the energy is transferred to the water for the central heating and hot water. Highly efficient boilers will also make use of any latent heat lost which can be anything up to 20%.

There are a range of Wood Pellet Boilers on the market but the better ones are highly efficient and self cleaning so there is no need for regular maintenance or cleaning of ash. The wood burns so cleanly that ash deposits are minimal and therefore requires emptying very infrequently. They offer the perfect replacement for your conventional gas, propane and oil boilers.

What are Wood Pellets?

Wood pellets are typically made from compressed sawdust. They are small, dry, uniform and energy dense. They can be purchased in pre-packed bags (normally 20kg) or they can be received in bulk delivery and stored. For these deliveries pellets can be blown directly into a sack or bunkers for local storage. Then can then be vacuumed or auger fed as and when demand is required.

Installation

Installations of Wood Pellet Boilers are relatively straight forward and they can act a direct replacement for a fossil fuel boiler. It is important to consider space requirements as pellet boilers tend to be bigger than fossil fuel boilers. They also require space for fuel (pellet) storage and a dedicated boiler room.