Wood Pellet Stoves and Wood Pellet Fuel

Many people today see wood heating solutions as a backwards step. They consider the efficiency and low maintenance of the current gas and oil based heating systems, and would not consider installing a wood heating system. One of the reasons for this is many consumers today, still are not aware of wood pellet stoves and the low maintenance that wood pellets require. The reason for this, is the words wood heating system with many consumers conjures up visions of open log fires, not very efficient at heating your entire home and require a lot of work. Modern wood pellet stoves could not be more different from open log fires.

Firstly to start with the fuel its self. Wood pellets are a highly uniformed, high density, low moisture content fuel. Their increased density and small size means they flow like a liquid, and therefore automated feeding systems can be designed to feed the fire with pellets, not manually as is required for log burning solutions. Ultimately, the task of loading fuel for wood pellet stoves can be completely removed. In Europe, it is very common for pellet heating customers to have a large storage silo. There are several options for the location of the silo. For example some consumers have the silo positioned under their drive. They once or twice a year depending on the size of a silo a pellet tanker will make a delivery. The tanker has the ability to blow the pellets into the silo, and within half an hour the silo will be full with several tonnes of pellets.

Wood Pellet Burning Stove Operations

The wood pellet stoves can then demand fuel from the large silo, this can be done via means of a flexible auger. Sensors will monitor the level of pellets within the hopper on the stove, and operate the flexible auger when required. Sensors can also be fitted in the large external silo to alter the owner when a pellet delivery will be required. The wood pellet stoves then feed the required amount of fuel into the fire chamber to maintain the desired temperature. The stoves can be controlled via a standard wall thermostat. Occasionally the owner will have to inspect the pellet stove and clean the ash draw. However, compared to log burning, the amount of ash generated is very minimal. For example premium grade fuel pellets, which are the most common generate around 0.5% ash. This means the pellet stoves can operate for at least a week before the ash draw required emptying. Again to reduce maintenance and upkeep further you can look for pellet stoves with larger hoppers or also ash compression systems, which further reduce maintenance.

Wood Pellet Heating and Pellet Boilers

Wood pellet stoves are generally used for smaller properties, and also as centre pieces. However for larger properties, to provide all of the properties heating requires a wood pellet boiler is used in conjunction with the existing central heating system. However some wood pellet stoves also come fitted with a back boiler. Wood pellet boiler area generally placed in a utility room or in the basement or garage. For cleaning your pellet stoves or boilers, a ash vac is the best choice. Cleaning pellet stoves and boilers is very important to maintain efficiency and reduce fuel costs. Keeping the pellet stoves or boiler clean enables better heat transfer from fuel into the heat exchanger.

PelHeat Wood Pellet Production Guide

At PelHeat we have many years of experience in pellet production, and we provide a pellet production consultation service. The PelHeat guide download will show you how to make wood and other fuel pellets.

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