WP100 Pellet boiler in Coastal NH

[PassionForFire&Water]

Our customer just finished his installation of a WP100 pellet boiler with 350 Lbs pellet hopper.
It's hooked into an exisiting oil burner setup.
Before the thermostat was set at 62F.
Now they are not affraid any longer to keep the house at 70F.
And the 70F with wood pellets is at less then half the cost of oil.

 

[Gasifier]

Sweet. How long will a 350lb hopper keep them warm? How much are they heating with it? Thanks for sharing the pics and story.

 

[PassionForFire&Water]

Sweet. How long will a 350lb hopper keep them warm? How much are they heating with it? Thanks for sharing the pics and story.

350 Lb hopper is just shy of 9 bags.
The last 4 weeks, on average 2 bags per day.
The house is around 5,000 SF and very well insulated and tight.
More ashes then expected. Need to vacuum clean the bottom ash compartment once a week.
Wood pellets have a lot of fines in it. Will post a picture of the wood pellets.
Will switch to other brand of wood pellets to compare.

 

[JP11]

Not all homeowners are good at weekly maintenance like that. I'd do it in a heartbeat.. but I don't have any pellet trees.

Still.. I always love the idea of people spending money that STAYS local. This is a way better solution than oil. I assume the boiler will just shut down on fault if it isn't cleaned proper?

JP

 

[PassionForFire&Water]

Below a picture of the wood pellets fuel used with this WP100.
Most of the pellets are 1/4" long. There are also a lot of fines and saw dust.

The other picture is another brand of wood pellets. They are on average 1/2" long and almost no fines.

Both have the "super premium wood pellets" labeling from PFI on the bags.

 

[heaterman]

Pellets make a huge difference.

Speaking of pellet consumption Marc.........The Windhager we installed a couple weeks ago is phenomenal. When we fired it up the 6400 sq ft building was standing at 48*. Over the course of the next 26 hours until the boiler shut off (the owner kept track) the boiler consumed about 4-1/2 bags (40#) of pellets and pulled the whole building up to 66*. I shot the floor temp with my infra-red and the concrete was at 43-46* at start up and when the boiler shut down it was at 68*. 6400 sq ft of 6" thick concrete is a huge "flywheel" to get turning and for the boiler to do create that temp rise on only 180# of pellets would mean it had to have been running past 90* efficiency.The owner told me he never saw the stack temp above 225*. The boiler started to modulate down after about 14 hours of 100% firing rate and continued to drop down to minimum as the slab/building came up to temperature. He said the last 3-4 hours of the burn were all at about 30-40% output before it started actually cycling on/off.

The owner is tickled pink with the way it has been running since it got everything up to temp. Average 24 hour pellet consumption has been running from 1-2 bags per day with outdoor temps in the low teens to around 35*. The building is well insulated but that level of pellet consumption is still astounding to me. The owner told me yesterday that the inside of the flue pipe is still bright and shiny when he looks at it through the barometric damper. There is no sign or trace of flue gas condensation in the pipe. I would say that dry fuel, such as pellets are, allows a boiler to run over 90% without any condensation issues even at flue temperatures of that level.

 

[Chris Hoskin]

Marc, if I understand correctly, the PFI rating only refers to ash content? Not sure about durability, fines, etc.

 

[maple1]

I'm all set to convert mine to pellets when I can't or don't want to do firewood anymore.

(Well, except for buying the pellet head that is - I should say my boiler is ready for a pellet head).

I'm just hoping bulk pellet delivery is a reality here by then.

 

[PassionForFire&Water]

Marc, if I understand correctly, the PFI rating only refers to ash content? Not sure about durability, fines, etc.

That's correct.

BUT: not many wood pellet mills do continuos monitoring of all the parameters by 3rd party testing agencies.
Maybe once or twice a year, and this is not enough.
It's very "misleading information" what's on the plastic bags containing the wood pellets

The 1/4" long wood pellets are fine. They fall in the burner pot where they belong and where they get burned.
It's the fines and saw dust that don;t have a chance to get burned and just fall down by gravity, some in the burner pot, but most of it outside the burner pot and in the as tray.

It took me several weeks to come to a conclusion and this only after talking to prominent players in the wood pellet business.
The wood pellets should be treated as any other fuel and regulations/oversight are needed, just like for gasoline, heating oil, .... .
If not, consumers will pay the bill and the "wood burning" industry will, once again, shoot itself in the foot.

 

[PassionForFire&Water]

Sweet. How long will a 350lb hopper keep them warm? How much are they heating with it? Thanks for sharing the pics and story.

4 bags per day for the last week, with temperatures around 0°F during night time.

That's around 50,000 BTU/hr on average.
Pretty good for a 5,000SF house