Over the last 6 months we have been considering the replacement our old oil fired central heating boiler with a log boiler as both our tank and boiler need to be replaced over the next few years. We have compared alsmost every manyfacturer available (Dragon, Atmos, Vigas, Froeling, Hoval, Baxi, Mescoli, Viesman, ETA, Herz, Biotherm, Treco, etc) and haven''t been able to make a decicion yet. Recently we started thinking about keeping the oil fired central heating and adding two wood stoves, one connected to the warm water tank.
My preferde boiler would be the Austrian ETA boiler which I have seen in operationa t various locations in Germany, but the boiler itself without heat store and other component, flue and installation is close to 6K, which is too much. The middle way would be a Baxi Solo Inova. Does anybody have any experience with Vigas and Atmos boilers, which are the most economically priced boilers. The pros are: renewable ennergy, affordable fuel the cons are: costly, not as instantly controlable as oil and gas, bulky and expensive to install.
Before finally making my mind up I was wondering weather anybody who has already installe a log gasification boiler would be willing to share their experiences and or frustrations?
Edwin
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We don't reallly have space for a log boiler and heat store in our house and I would have to build am outbuilding which with my preffered boiler and connection to the house was getting closer and closer to the 15K mark, while current plans are closer to the 8-10K.
There are a number of atmos boiler supliers in the UK have a look on ebay as well.
An issue that has arisen is that my boiler has begun to easily overheat and shut down until the temperature falls off a bit which strikes me as bit dangerous. I think it is because I have perfected the art of wood drying and it is now too dry for the boiler but I'm going to call up the supplier for advice before I light up this winter.
I have heard rumour that most high efficiency wood boilers are designed for wood with a moisture content of about 20-25%
I have been researching these log boilers for a while now. I am on a budget so looking at Atmos, Vigas and Baxi. All of which are basic and robust and each has some negative stories attached (Baxi - problems with fuel size/overheating, Atmos - one installer returned to all the ones he fitted to repair [dont know specifics] and Vigas had a wall crack and the technical support from the imorter is limited). We have 11 acres of oak (which Baxi suggest not using all time due to high acid content?) so the less efficient machines without Lambda dont appeal and I run a small holding so am at home to light whenever. What seems to be solving the choice is getting a certified installer to come up with a price/system. Its been a nightmare. Early estimates look to be in the 7k region for a 25kW 1000l accum. system. We will do the dog work (shed building, hole in wall drilling etc), get a local plumber to install and get a certified installer to design with the plumber and commision to get grant. With the grant (£1500), plus the use of a new credit card offering 5% back for first three months and the local plumber saving travel costs it should be cheap enough. Admittedly 7k in high interest account would go a long way to paying for oil, but the wood burning is a lifestyle thing, I wont mind it going on a lot more often whereas I hate hearing the combi firing up!
I am on the cornish/devon border and would be very interested in visiting any logboiler fitted to talk through the pros and cons and different set ups. I think each installer has his way of doing things and it being a fairly new thing over here they are all a bit different and I lack confidence in them. I need a simple set up as it will soley do one 3 bed building for hot water and heating, replacing an oil combi.
I have to admit I was just a bit brave not knowing of anyone who has installed one of these or being aware of this forum before I agreed to installation, however after just seeing heating oil crack 42p per litre I am a little smug I admit.
The log boiler I saw yesterday had no accumulator, a back up oil combi, a solar system and an immersion system! As a result it needed a lot of tweaking to get it working. The idea being solar in summer, log in winter run at ticking pace till it was needed and the other two systems to kick in when temps dropped. Log boilers need a quick hard burn to capture all energy and a store to act as a buffer. The flue was really warm to touch even though it was twin walled leading me to think that not enough heat exchange was happening due to the low output temp of water from boiler needed for rads. It rammed home the idea of keeping it simple.
The dryer wood definately makes a difference fills my accumulator in 3 hrs took 6 in my first nyeeve year of not properley seasoned wood!!
I agree that dryer wood is better, I got more heat yesterday from a pile of cut up floorboards and pallets from next door's refurb than I usually do from the not quite as dry as it should be hardwood logs.
I had an atmos 25kw log gasification boiler installed with a 1500ltr thermal store. The water in the store is pumped directly around the radiators and the store water is in turn pumped around an external hot water plate to plate heat exchanger which offers mains hot water up to 45 ltr/min. The equipment turned out very cheap The whole package included -
1 x 25kw Atmos log gasification boiler
1 X 1500 ltr thermal store
1 x Ladomat
1 x Hot water pumpstation (45lt/min)
1 x Radiator pumpstation
1 x Thermal saftey valve
1 x 100 ltr expansion vessel
£3650 + V.A.T This worked out the cheapest on the market especially when the equivilant hot water pumpstation is sold by DPS for £1200 + V.A.T
Suppliers web address www.ph-renewables.co.uk
I have not finished the installation yet - so can't comment on performance - but it looks well made and subscribes to the keep it simple principle.
A couple of questions for those of you with a working ATMOS in place:
How tall is your chimney/flue from Ground to top of pot? I have 5m at the moment (180mm dia liner) - but could extend the stack and put a pot on to gain a meter or so.
I will run my system with a pressurised expansion vessel - where is the best place to plumb this into: on the cold side of the boiler inbetween the Laddomat and the boiler or into return from the heating circuit to the accumulator?
Thanks in advance
:bigsmile::bigsmile: