Pellet Storage Bin for the Basement

[Centurion]

I have been thinking for quite some time about making a pellet storage bin for my basement. I have looked at commercial bins for ideas and finally came up with something that would be easy to dump bags into, would filter out the fines and dust, store enough pellets for when I am out of town, and easy for my wife to use. I have included pictures here to show you what I came up with. I thought maybe some of the readers here would be interested in this for themselves. The bin is made of 3/4" CDX plywood and is basically 2' deep, 4' wide and 4' high with legs long enough to be able to slide a 5 gal bucket under the door opening. The 1.5" PVC pipe is connected to a shop vac. The bin pitch is 45* forcing the pellets to the front slide door opening. The bin holds twelve 40lb bags that are clean and pretty much dust free.
I have never posted pictures before so I hope it is ok.

 

[woodsmaster]

looks like a nice setup. You may also want to post in pellet mill forum for a better responce. I dont think to many people on here have pellet boilers yet.

 

[Centurion]

Thanks for your comments JT. I'll have to look into how to post between the various groups on here. I guess I need to do some reading about that.
Thanks again

 

[Centurion]

Figured out how to post over there

 

[Hoval]

I like your design. It looks like it works for you. Last Fall I converted my Hoval ZKT to a pellet burner using a PellX 20KW burner conversion. The original Hoval was a 30 year old multi fuel boiler made by Gustav Ospelt Hovalwerk AG In Liechtenstein. When I bought it I was told that I could heat with anything-Oil, Nat Gas, Liquid Propane, Wood, Electric or Coal. I don't think that Wood Pellets were even a gleam in the eye of the manufacture. It think has a 150 gal of heating hot water and 50 gal of domestic hot water, with 5 zones of baseboard heat. Over the years I have used fuel oil for the whole year going through 1200 to 1500 gals per year. I priced Fuel oil yesterday at $3.399 per gallon. That’s $4,078 to $5,098 per year in today’s prices. Several of the years I used a mix of Coal in the late fall, after temperatures were below 35F, winter and early spring switching to Oil for the rest of the year as I used this for my hot water all year. I would usually go through 4 tons of coal (say $980) and 450 gal of oil (say $1,500). I started using pellets in September and I have used 6 Tons or $1,580 so far this year. On the very cold weeks I will go through 1 ton in 2 weeks.

The Hoval that I have was a perfect unit for conversion. What I have found out is that I need to clean the burner every 1000# of pellets burned and clean the boiler every ton of pellets burned. This requires that you can gain access to the fire box and heat exchanger. My Hoval has a swing open door that opens up the front of the unit for cleaning. I then use a small shovel to clean the ash off the bottom of the boiler and a brush and vacuum to clean the heat exchanger (after it has cooled off). I spend about 10 to 15 minutes to clean the burner and half an hour to clean the boiler.

The PellX unit comes complete with the control box that allows you to adjust several functions to get the proper burn. I can adjust the amount of pellets feed rate for start up, pellets feed rate to operate, fan speed and the temperature on the high limit as well as 4 start up temperature options based on the high temperature shut off. An auger is included that is about 1.7 meters feet long. The unit also includes a temperature sending unit that needs a well in the boiler for shut off temperature. I did need to buy a safety temperature shut off as a safety back up. (this has never been triggered) The burner has a high temperature shut off on the pellet inlet stack. (this has shut the unit down three times when I have not cleaned the burner often enough.) The PellX unit is self lighting, self shut off, self feeding and somewhat self cleaning of the burner.

Back to the subject at hand, as I said this is a conversion unit so I do not have the attached bin like you that holds what 100# of pellets? My bin that is similar to what you built but it is my usage bin and holds 1 ton at a time. I built mine out of plywood on legs with tin for the bottom to help the pellets slide down to a 3†pvc toilet fitting that goes into a 3†pvc “Yâ€. I used a 45 degree “Y†unit that drops the pellets into the straight part of the “Yâ€. This allows me to remove and replace the auger if needed while the bin is loaded. (it comes out easy but need some fooling with to get back in)

My plans are to make my own pellets starting this spring. I have found a supply of product and plan to process and produce about 600# every hour. But that is another story. Let me know if you are interested. I have included photo’s of the above. Let me know what you think.

 

[Centurion]

Now that is the perfect design Hovel! Very nice job and very crafty on your behalf. I love building things especially I toyed with this idea but all the augers were quite expensive. I looked at Harman bin and they wanted 1700 bucks! A little too pricey for me so I came up with my design.
I would love to see all your info on the design plus info on the auger. Also could you stand back a bit and take a few more pictures so I can see the whole setup?

Thanks Hovel!

 

[webbie]

Very cool stuff....
I will move to the Pellet Forum but leave the link in this forum...because these are for central heat.