Considering a pellet boiler, any suggestions

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tds8268

New Member
Nov 15, 2010
11
eastern PA
Considering replacing my oil fired hot water furnace with a pellet or multi-fuel unit in the basement. Our house was built in 1952, brick, two story fairly well insulated with five separate heat zones. Our existing furnace also provides our household hot water but no storage capability. I normally will burn somewhere around 850 gal. of oil every year and we keep the house fairly cool, 63 to 68 degrees depending on the time of day. Hot water usage is high since my wife and daughter love baths and my wife also does all of her parents laundry as well as ours. Any thought on cost? Would I be better off just to add a pellet stove in the basement? Seems to be a wealth of info on this site, was looking for a few cents worth.

tds8268
 
tds8268 said:
Considering replacing my oil fired hot water furnace with a pellet or multi-fuel unit in the basement. Our house was built in 1952, brick, two story fairly well insulated with five separate heat zones. Our existing furnace also provides our household hot water but no storage capability. I normally will burn somewhere around 850 gal. of oil every year and we keep the house fairly cool, 63 to 68 degrees depending on the time of day. Hot water usage is high since my wife and daughter love baths and my wife also does all of her parents laundry as well as ours. Any thought on cost? Would I be better off just to add a pellet stove in the basement? Seems to be a wealth of info on this site, was looking for a few cents worth.

tds8268
Click to expand...
Are you asking about a pellet boiler? I don't know how you can get domestic hot water off a forced air furnace. I would be looking for an alternative with a $3000 yearly bill too. A gasification boiler(wood fueled) would be my choice, Randy
 
Singed Eyebrows said:
tds8268 said:
Considering replacing my oil fired hot water furnace with a pellet or multi-fuel unit in the basement. Our house was built in 1952, brick, two story fairly well insulated with five separate heat zones. Our existing furnace also provides our household hot water but no storage capability. I normally will burn somewhere around 850 gal. of oil every year and we keep the house fairly cool, 63 to 68 degrees depending on the time of day. Hot water usage is high since my wife and daughter love baths and my wife also does all of her parents laundry as well as ours. Any thought on cost? Would I be better off just to add a pellet stove in the basement? Seems to be a wealth of info on this site, was looking for a few cents worth.

tds8268
Click to expand...
Are you asking about a pellet boiler? I don't know how you can get domestic hot water off a forced air furnace. I would be looking for an alternative with a $3000 yearly bill too. A gasification boiler(wood fueled) would be my choice, Randy
Click to expand...

Sorry for using the wrong term. I have a oil fired boiler and you are correct, I am asking about a pellet fired boiler. Dan
 
Depending on the BTU's you need, these are 2 models of indoor pellet boilers: 34,000 and 47,000 BTU/H
They have a hopper and can also be connected to a larger pellet storage bin/silo.
Check if you can get wood pellets bulk delivered and easily transferred into the storage bin/silo
http://www.hydro-to-heat-convertor.com/pelletboilers.html
 
I would start from your fuel choices first, and evaluate all aspects of those - costs, your time required, etc. etc.. Fuel selection & supply would vary from region to region, and situation to situation. Not everyone has access to or the time to chase free wood, or a dependable source of good stuff if they need to buy - and not everyone has a dependable economical source of lots of good wood pellets.

Then, there are all kinds of options for whatever fuel you decide on - I'm quite sure any would be better than relying solely on oil.
 
Would like to use wood pellets or perhaps a multi-fuel unit. Really not looking to chase & cut wood. Plenty of "premium" wood pellets to be had around my area.
 
maple1 said:
I would start from your fuel choices first, and evaluate all aspects of those - costs, your time required, etc. etc.. Fuel selection & supply would vary from region to region, and situation to situation. Not everyone has access to or the time to chase free wood, or a dependable source of good stuff if they need to buy - and not everyone has a dependable economical source of lots of good wood pellets.

Then, there are all kinds of options for whatever fuel you decide on - I'm quite sure any would be better than relying solely on oil.
Click to expand...

+1 On Maple1's idea. I seriously considered a pellet boiler. And a pellet conversion burner for my oil boiler. I thought about the fact of less mess, large automatic feeding hopper would be nice. But, I have access to wood, free or really cheap. And I have the time to get it and process it. Well, I make the time. Plus I enjoy that type of work. All things for you to consider. Wood is very labor and time intensive. Pellets are nice, but more expensive than wood. Either is better than oil. I looked into converting my oil boiler to a pellet burning boiler. However, I do not know their reliability, and you have to consider your chimney set up. Does your current oil boiler use a power vent? Depending on what you buy, chimney use may need to be considered. You will need another chimney if you leave your oil back-up. A few things for you to think about. HS Tarm's reliability is rarely questioned.

http://www.pellxusa.com/conversions.html

http://www.woodboilers.com/pellet-boilers.aspx

Oh, in your original post you said replacing your oil boiler with..... I would highly recommend that you keep your oil boiler for back-up. Consider everything. :lol:
 
I took my oil boiler off line and installed a woodpecker pellet boiler to heat a 4unit building. The pellet boiler is working great. I have burnt three tons so far this winter. I estimated that i could burn 16 tons based on past oil use. Just really cleaned the woodpecker after 2.5 tons. It is self cleaning most of time. It has a hopper that holds 5 bags and i enlarged it to hold another 4 bags. so can go about two - four days before fill up depending on temperature. It also modulates up and down and lites it self. I installed it inside a truck box outside in back yard. Box will hold eight ton of fuel. I would recommend woodpecker, very good unit and now made in USA.
 
Don't have my pellet boiler connected nor plumbed yet, but I found a reliable Harman dealer nearby who's sold many stoves and boilers. Harman makes two pellet boilers in Pennsylvania and they are an older reputable manufacturer of heating equipment. The boiler I bought is the PB105 that is self igniting, has a large ash pan, swing out burn pot, 5 bag hopper, variable burn rate to about 113,000 Btu/h, fd fan, and a 6 year warranty. I think if there had been a good reliable Woodpecker dealer near me, I would have bought that model, though I've heard that they are way more expensive than the Harman. You can also get a DHW coil for the PB105. but my choice was an indirect water heater.
 
This is my 4th heating season with a Harman PB105 and I've been happy with it. I had problems with the auto ignition working consistently until I installed the higher wattage 15 fin ignitor. I average 9 tons a year heating my 2000 sq. ft. house and I use it for my DHW.
 
Is there any special exhaust venting that needs to be done with these units or could I simply tap into my existing chimney which my oil fired boiler is using with the understanding that the oil fired burned will be a "back-up" only unit or removed all together.
 
According to code hook two heating units to one chimney. Also, depending on the height of the chimney it might be too much of a draft for the pellet boiler.
 
Andrew Churchill said:
According to code hook two heating units to one chimney. Also, depending on the height of the chimney it might be too much of a draft for the pellet boiler.
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Andrew, were you able to compare your 9 ton usage to a gas boiler? Just wondering what the savings was. Randy
 
Actually I can't because I built a new house 3 years ago and installed the PB105 and a Buderus oil boiler in a parallel setup. I filled the oil tank in July 08 and I put 100 gallons into it this November. The only reason I have used any of the fuel is because the 1st two summers I used the oil boiler for my DHW and I had the PB shut off for about 10 days waiting for some parts in January of 2010.

I installed a timer this Spring and I used the PB105 all year for the first time. My first two winters I used between 7 and 8 tons of pellets. I started the boiler the first week of October and turned it off in early May. So it looks like I use about 1 to 1 1/2 tons of pellets to heat my DHW.

Singed Eyebrows said:
Andrew Churchill said:
According to code hook two heating units to one chimney. Also, depending on the height of the chimney it might be too much of a draft for the pellet boiler.
Click to expand...
Andrew, were you able to compare your 9 ton usage to a gas boiler? Just wondering what the savings was. Randy
Click to expand...
 
tds, I paid $5650 with the $100 coupon from Harman. Check to see if your dealer will deliver for free, because sometimes that can cost upwards of $200.00.
 
My PB105 vents into a 28 foot SS lined chimney and I too thought that the draft would be high so, instead of putting a fixed "restrictor plate" at the chimney top like Harman suggests, I put a manual 6" damper in a short 6" pipe section just after the adapter that transforms the 4" vent to the 6". That way I'll be able to adjust the draft from the boiler.
 
I have read on this site about guys "storing" hot water. I know this will sound stupid, but what is the reasoning behind doing that other than for DHW. If storage is done simply for DHW, can you store a reasonable amout, say 60 to 80 gallon. I have read about guys who seem to be storing hundreds of gallons. Perhaps I'm not understanding this storage concept correctly.
 
They are referring to wood gasification boilers. Those types of boilers use cord wood with short, hot fires. They store the heat from the fire in large tanks of water for use in their heating system. So instead of having to keep throwing wood on the fire continuously through the day they can make just one or two fires per day depending on the amount of their storage.

tds8268 said:
I have read on this site about guys "storing" hot water. I know this will sound stupid, but what is the reasoning behind doing that other than for DHW. If storage is done simply for DHW, can you store a reasonable amout, say 60 to 80 gallon. I have read about guys who seem to be storing hundreds of gallons. Perhaps I'm not understanding this storage concept correctly.
Click to expand...
 
tds, the PB105 can throttle within a range of output so some owners could use it as a stand alone without storage, but I thought that if I had some storage it would prevent the boiler from short cycling especially during the shoulder seasons. Anyway I bought a 100 gallon indirect DHW tank to let the boiler run for a longer period of time. I know it's not 500 or 1000 gallon, but I think this tank will keep the boiler running for about 20 min to 1/2 hr in the middle of summer. Then the DWH should be good for 2 or 3 days for us.
 
Got a Harman PB 105 in sept. 2011 It has the newest ignitor Hot air Jet . works great . Had a problem with the exhost fan but after the dealer replaced it no problems. If you get one have a dealer install it that way you will have fewer problems . You should save around $1,500. per year and be a lot warmer. Good Luck
 
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