Pellet Boiler?

[ellusionist]

Hey! Finally got to posting this after reading through various posts, loving the forum. Has anyone ever done a Pellet Boiler?

We are building a 36 x 40 Garage with a shop and finishing the 2nd floor. Looking to do radiant heat throughout, only other sources of fuel around are Oil and Propane. Also going to add radiant hydronic loops in for some fan-based units to cover the Garage and Workshop as they have 11ft ceilings.

The Autopellet from Maine Energy Systems looks pretty sweet.

Not sure what the bulk price on pellets is.

Thoughts?

Cheers!

 

[highland_hunter]

Subscribed.

Interested in what others have to say on this.

Currently use pellet as primary source to heat ~1500 sq foot house. Cost for 3 tons here in NH is about $965 for what I use. That gets me October to March depending on how severe the winter might be.

 

[Kaizen]

I would like the idea if I could get pellets delivered out of the bags. Like coal used to be. Saw a setup on tv where it unloaded into a storage box with a feeder that you opened the pellet top and it filled it up. No delivery around here like that last time I looked


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[ellusionist]

It seems there are several ways to hold bulk pellets, and outside silo, indoor plastic or fabric hopper, or even a build your own kit. The unit vacuum or auger the pellet into the attached storage bin on the boiler/furnace.

I'm thinking this system is going to be about 4 to 6 zones.

I haven't posted enough in the forum to place links in the post but I will do that soon.

Cheers

 

[Jackfre]

I think if you look at the cost of the unit and associated cost of pellet storage as well as maintenance it is simply not a great option...unless you really have the hots for it, at which point, go be one of those leading edge guys. Be aware that you do not want to store pellets over the summer as humidity does affect them. Are you able to install and maintain this system? Is Factory training available? I do not mean training on how to pitch the product, but how to tear it down and keep it going? How many technicians are trained and available locally? What parts are you going to buy and store on site? How many sources are there for this product? How reliable is the pellet supply? Do you need a hobby? What are you going to do for back-up heat? I was in the pellet business for about 20 years and for industrial purposes pellets make a lot of sense. I would suggest that you buy a couple 1000 gallon LP tanks and bury them. You then control the buy as you have the storage on site and LP becomes a much better option. Your equipment choices are vast at that point. Not usre if you know, but is Autopellet or MES, Les Otten's company?

 

[ellusionist]

Yes, it is Les Otten's company that is MESYS. Thank you for the information, I would agree the other technologies seem more solid... But still investigating, they do look cool....

 

[macdabs]

Don't know if Hard coal is available in your area . I looked at a pellet solution and found that hard coal boilers hopper fed or auger per ton are cheaper to operate and put out way more BTU heat than a pellet boiler. Also hard coal never will go bad sitting around.

I heat a 4000 sq ft house and a shop that is 250 ft from my house that is 3200 sq feet in floor heat for around $1500.00 a year . My home is always around 72 and the shop is around 60 air temp with floor averaging 70. The boiler is on the shop feeding the house. All my hot water for the shower and the shop are heated from the boiler also.

You don't even see a hint of smoke from my flue and the flue pipe is warm to touch only .

There is a website called NePa crossroads that can explain more .

Mac

 

[Jackfre]

Yes, it is Les Otten's company that is MESYS. Thank you for the information, I would agree the other technologies seem more solid... But still investigating, they do look cool....

Les and I went to school together and he is a fraternity brother. This is long long ago. I am sure they work, but I sold a lot of heating equipment in ME and it gets cold. You do have good techs in that area, but again, I would want to be trained on anything that is "off the beaten path."
I am no longer in the business but I did install a nice mod-con LP boiler for a friend last week for his radiant system. Slick, well supported and about 96% efficiency and many manuf offering essentially the same package. Your choice.
Happy Heating!