Solid Biofuel: Wood Pellet Boilers

Wood Pellet BoilersWhat it is:

Wood pellet boilers are used to heat homes and businesses with all the comfort people have come to expect from their traditional heat source. One million units are now in service throughout Europe, proving this to be a well-established way to heat. Suitable for hot water (hydronic) radiant systems, hydro-air, or forced hot air systems with the addition of a hydronic coil, wood pellet boilers function much like oil and propane boilers, with fully automatic operation, domestic hot water heating, and zoned comfort control. 

Typically, an ignition element lights the pellets as needed, while wood pellets are fed to the burner in measured doses via an auger connected to an attached hopper or adjacent storage bin. These systems are convenient enough to be a logical alternative to fossil fuel fired boilers. 

Of course, there are important differences between wood pellets and the fossil fuels. Wood pellets cost 40-60% less, plus they are a sustainable, renewable, and carbon-neutral fuel source.1.  Wood pellets are made in dozens of locations throughout North America, so heating dollars stay in North America.  

Almost any home can be retrofitted with a wood pellet boiler, either as a stand-alone heat source, or as a primary heat source in conjunction with a secondary boiler which serves as back up, or in some cases, as a supplementary heat source.

Past, present, future:

Until recently, pellet boilers have been virtually non-existent in the US. European countries without fossil fuel resources of their own have been leaders in the push toward renewable energy.  Companies in Europe developed products that could advance the comfort and convenience of wood pellets beyond what is possible with stoves.  Pellet boilers are suitable for people who are interested in saving money, lessening their environmental impact, and keeping their heating dollars close to home.

Advantages:

  • Wood pellet boilers provide owners with more control over spiraling heating costs, and save homeowners as much as 40-60%.
  • Families enjoy the same level of comfort from a retrofitted pellet central heating system as they do from their traditional fossil-fueled heat source.
  • By some conservative estimates, an investment in a pellet boiler can provide a return on investment (ROI) as high as 49% per year over 15 years.2
  • Wood pellets are readily available throughout North America, and can be delivered to your home.
  • Pellet boiler technology is proven, with one million successful installations in Europe.
  • Wood pellet fuel is not as bulky, burns cleaner, and is much more convenient than firewood.
  • Wood pellets support and help sustain the regional economy where you live.
  • Wood pellets improve the energy security of the region where you live.
  • Wood pellet prices are not impacted by world markets, and the inflationary effects of a weakening dollar and growing demand abroad.
  • Fuel cost savings can amount to tens of thousands of dollars, which can be saved, or spent in better ways.2

Disadvantages:

  • Pellet fuel is bulkier than oil (one pound of heating oil = about 2.4 lbs of pellets.)
  • A little less convenient than oil and gas. Bagged wood pellets must be loaded weekly (or more often with smaller bins) if not delivered in bulk.
  • Most wood pellet boilers need to have the heat exchanger brushed clean (usually by the owner) every 1-2 weeks during the heating season to maintain best efficiency.
  • Ash bins must be emptied from time to time.

Ecological Impacts:

Heating with a carbon-neutral fuel such as wood pellets is a sustainable solution that’s better for our ecosystem than is non-renewable fuels such as propane, natural gas, oil, and most electricity.

Other Comments:

A related type of boiler burns wood chips instead of wood pellets. Wood chip boilers can make sense for larger installations, typically a 500 kW minimum. Wood chip boilers have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. For the purpose of this web site they are treated as a niche solution without a section devoted to them.

Contact EcoHeat Solutions Today!

To learn more about EcoHeat Solutions’ EcoBoiler wood pellet boiler, click here. Interested in getting more information on wood pellet boiler heating systems? Simply fill out our short online request form and we can help determine if an EcoBoiler may be a good fit for your application. We can provide information about system set-up, pricing, return-on-investment, cost savings over time, expected pellet consumption,and much more.  877-317-0700 & info (at) ecoheatsolutions.com

 

  1. Wood and wood pellets contain modern era “biogenic” carbon. That is, its carbon is part of the modern era carbon cycle, as opposed to the carbon captured and sequestered over hundreds of millions of years but only now being released, as is the case with burning oil & gas. International greenhouse gas accounting methods developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (www.ipcc.ch), classify wood and wood pellets as being part of the natural carbon balance of the ecosystem. Al Gore, who shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the IPCC has called the IPCC the "world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis."
  2. See www.ecoheatsolutions.com/PDF/eastcoastgraphsandcharts.pdf

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Our Pellet Boiler

Learn about EcoHeat Solutions' EcoBoiler™ here.

 

 

EcoHeat Quick Fact:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has endorsed wood pellet heat as one of the cleanest-burning, most renewable energy sources on Earth.