Wood Pellet Boiler and Wood Pellet Stove

One of the key advantages of pellet fuel, compared to most solid fuel heating solutions is the automated systems which pellets can be used in. The hopper on the wood pellet boiler or wood pellet stove has a variable speed or timed feeding auger to meter the required amount of fuel into the burn pot to achieve the desired temperature. As with open fires or basic log stoves and boilers, constant attention is required to see if the fire needs feeding with fuel. With a wood pellet boiler or wood pellet stove the owner can be confident that the hopper will feed the fire for at least a day and in most cases several days. Hopper extensions can be fitted to many wood pellet boilers to extend the the burn time into weeks. In Europe, where wood pellet production has been firmly established for over a decade, the large external hopper is a standard request. The large external hopper will hold several months if not a years worth of fuel for the wood pellet boiler. Fuel pellets will be carried from the large external hopper to the integrated hopper on the wood pellet boiler via a flexible auger. In Germany for example, the wood pellet boiler is frequently fitted in the basement of the property. This way an mess generated from the cleaning the boiler is not within the living space, and also more heat is captured from the wood pellet boiler into the property. Due the location of the pellet boiler, in many cases the large external hopper is positioned under the drive, adjacent to the wood pellet boiler in the basement. To fill the hopper, the owner will arrange a tanker delivery. The tank will blow pellets into the hopper via a removable grate in the drive. Depending on the size of the hopper, the hopper may need to be filled several times in a heating season or just once. This type of installation is obviously more expensive, however there is a substantial reduction in manual maintenance.

Wood Pellet Fireplace and Biomass Pellet

Despite what many consumers may believe, there is wide range of differences in the abilities of different makes of wood pellet boiler and the type of wood pellets fuels the unit can use efficiently. The basic standard set by the pellet industry is the premium fuel pellet. Essentially the premium fuel pellet is the lowest ash content pellet that is possible. Its used to promote the pellet fuel industry, and provide ash percentages that mean pellet burning solutions can compete with oil and gas heating systems in terms of convenience. However the future of the pellet fuel market cannot be built on premium pellet fuel. The reason is simple, there is just not enough suitable wood residue to meet future market demands with premium wood pellets. So this will simply mean the price of premium pellets will rise. Now, if you purchase a wood pellet boiler which can only burn premium grade pellets, and no lower grade pellets you are simply surrendering to what ever the future price of premium wood pellets is going to be.

Biomass in terms of other resources than premium wood pellet resources is the future of the wood pellet industry. Now most of the resources will not come close to producing an ash content of 0.5%, however some are competitive. For example hemp is a biomass fuel which can be grown in the quantities required, and can produce an ash content around 2%. However, not all wood pellet boilers can use even hemp fuel pellets.

 The Wood Pellet Production Guide © PelHeat Ltd - Wood Pellet Boiler