One of the alternative fuels
for heating are the wood pellets which consist of wood remains and processed woody materials. Wood pellet
boilers on the other hand are designed to burn wood pellets and only, they do
not pollute the environment at all, and depending on the model, they can
produce between 10,000 and 60,000 Btu per hour.
Wood pellet boilers have been very popular in recent years mainly because of the savings they make in household's budget. They are available in various sizes and designs in the market, and their mode of operation is based on five sub-sections:
• Tank
• Combustion site (burner)
• Chimney
• Control unit
• Heat exchange device
In brief, a wood pellet boiler
incorporates a wood pellet burner and a tank which contains water, and once wood pellets are burning into the burner, the water that is heated into the tank is pumped to the radiators. One of the advantages of
wood pellet boilers is that they do not need to be refilled as often as other
wood burning appliances. The
wood pellet supply varies from once a day to twice a week depending on the boiler
model and the heating needs of the particular space. Wood pellets supply takes
place by putting them into a hopper that
holds between 15-60 kg, and the feeding procedure continues with a mechanism
which carries them inside the burner. Another advantage of the wood
pellet boiler is that it does not have to stop working in order to clean it.
The ashtray, in which ash is concentrated, is easily removed and can be emptied
every two days even if the burner is still in function.
Most wood pellet boilers have a cost from around $3000 to $7000 and if you compare the price of a wood pellet boiler with a device that uses oil or another heat generating device, it is advisable to compare the total cost of installing the different systems. If the wood pellet boiler does not need a chimney then the cost of the whole system may be less than that of another. From a fuel economy point of view, wood pellet boilers compared to conventional oil boilers reduce heating costs by 40-60%, while not contaminating the environment. At the same time, their performance is equivalent to those of oil and in some cases exceeds them. The rapid rise in oil prices over the last few years, coupled with the general economic crisis, makes the wood pellets solution even more advantageous and attractive, as the energy of 1 lt of oil equals with about 2 kg of wood pellets.