Go to Forum Home Building Services pellet stoves with back boilers

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    • #30526
      Anonymous

        need some knowledgeable input into my central heating dilemmas please. currently running on old storage heaters (boo hiss evil) and i don't want gas (boo hiss almost as evil). but i also don't want to completely rebuild the end of my house and shed so that i can fit in a large semi-industrial pellet boiler and pellet store. because it's much too expensive and scary and probably wouldn't happen.

        but I have just seen 22kW pellet stoves with 17.5kW to a back boiler. made by extraflame (lucrezia idro). i may be ignorant, but i didn't even know that the italians made pellet stoves. and i'm not being racist but i thought most of the good pellet stoves were austrian?

        it's quite a large beast (1.3metres high, 54cm wide), but it would look ok in a lounge. which gets round the rebuilding the house/shed problem.

        is there a good reason why other manufacturers aren't making stoves with back boilers that big? or do they, and i just haven't come across them yet? has anyone got experience of central heating systems run off these stoves?

        yes, i have already spent painful amounts on insulation and windows, no i can't dryline or clad to reduce the heating demand. large solid wall house. in sunny wales.

        anyway, any knowledgeable musings much appreciated. love judith

      • #33032
        Anonymous

          Hi Judith

          We have a pellet stove – perfect for drying out your kit after a bog-snorkel afternoon. The one we have is by Jolly Mec of Italy and there is a version which can also be used as a log burner. I believe it is a very simple addition of a plate in the base of the fire box.

          We chose this also for it aesthetics. It is the centre piece of the living room and looks like a wide screen TV. There is a small LED control panel (say 150 x 50 mm) which we hide away which programmes and monitors the beast. It can do instant hot water and many other cunning things but we decided to treat it live Marvin and just heat up the Consolar thermal store.

          A few things I am particularly pleased about it – it sorts itself out after power cuts and if there is a fire in it during a power cut it cools itself down automatically. It is a good looker. It seems robust. Only the glass is hot.

          A few drawbacks – it is expensive (~£4k), and Clearskies withdrew it from their approved kit list whilst I was in the process of getting the grant due to lack of back-up from the agent. If you want more on that outfit I am happy to talk off list. I do doubt that there will be very good support if something does go wrong. :-

          In pellet mode the flame is quite small but there is nothing but the tiniest bit of dust in the fire box after days of use. I think it can be 90% efficient according to the brochure! That depends on cleaning the plate of the back boiler. I think it can do 30 kW but we only need 10kW and it controls itself fine.

          Bring some gluten free biscuits and you can put your feet up infront of it whenever you like – as long as its cold enough to run the thing.

        • #33033
          Anonymous

            Cool. thanks mark.

            After a bit more research, apparently the reason the austrians don't make pellet stoves that big is that they build ridiculously well insulated houses instead. Is that a plausible difference between the Italian approach and the Austrian?

            If nobody else has got one, but looked in to it, please can they tell me why it's a bad idea?

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