Central boilers?

[Andrew1983]

Anyone have one?
Would like to heat house, possibly part of an outbuilding and have the option to stick a radiator infront of the grain dryer air intake to raise temp an reduce oil usage if possible. Have supplier coming to survey for it next week but just interested to hear any good or bad feedback.

 

[Still Farming]

What do you want to burn?
Do you want to jump through hoops to get the RHI tariff payment or happy without?
Would you need to modify existing systems to integrate or easy retro fit close by?
Emissions?
Neighbour's?
Lots to look at possibly?
Look under renewables thread too.

 

[Andrew1983]

What do you want to burn?
Do you want to jump through hoops to get the RHI tariff payment or happy without?
Would you need to modify existing systems to integrate or easy retro fit close by?
Emissions?
Neighbour's?
Lots to look at possibly?
Look under renewables thread too.

would depend what the rhi is worth but I think I was put off in the past as I didn’t want to remove my fresh oil boiler. I still don’t as oil will be cheap again one day. I want the flexibility to still go away and leave the system burning oil. There is a lot of soft wood on the farm, most of it mature and a lot of it wind blown, limited hard wood but there is some. Neighbours are best part of 400m away in all directions.
As far as fitting goes it’s a self contained unit with hopefully just a pipe to a heat exchanger at the house from what I’m led to believe.

I would probably have to buy or hire a firewood processor and probably some attachments for the digger to produce enough logs to keep it going. So it’s going to be a sizeable investment….
Will look in renewables that’s a good point! Cheers

 

[Still Farming]

would depend what the rhi is worth but I think I was put off in the past as I didn’t want to remove my fresh oil boiler. I still don’t as oil will be cheap again one day. I want the flexibility to still go away and leave the system burning oil. There is a lot of soft wood on the farm, most of it mature and a lot of it wind blown, limited hard wood but there is some. Neighbours are best part of 400m away in all directions.
As far as fitting goes it’s a self contained unit with hopefully just a pipe to a heat exchanger at the house from what I’m led to believe.

I would probably have to buy or hire a firewood processor and probably some attachments for the digger to produce enough logs to keep it going. So it’s going to be a sizeable investment….
Will look in renewables that’s a good point! Cheers

Dragon, Farm2000 type may suit .
Round bale straw easily utilized too.

 

[ollie989898]

Dragon, Farm2000 type may suit .
Round bale straw easily utilized too.

Burning bales of straw must be the ultimate way for an arable farm to dry grain. Put in big bale and close the door, it must burn for hours?

 

[Still Farming]

Burning bales of straw must be the ultimate way for an arable farm to dry grain. Put in big bale and close the door, it must burn for hours?

Days.
Self sufficiency is the way forward.

 

[sjt01]

Anyone have one?
Would like to heat house, possibly part of an outbuilding and have the option to stick a radiator infront of the grain dryer air intake to raise temp an reduce oil usage if possible. Have supplier coming to survey for it next week but just interested to hear any good or bad feedback.

For a boiler to serve a house (small load) and grain dryer (big load) it would need to have a big turndown ratio - difference between maximum and minimum output. This is hard to achieve, and the heat losses when not grain drying are likely to be large.
If you can get something big and cheap (second hand) for the short term grain drying load, and something smaller, efficient and reliable for the house it could work.
Otherwise get a massive hot water tank to act as the heat store for the house, and only run the big boiler occasionally to keep it topped up.

 

[Northern territory]

I saw these in farmers guide. Are they going to be hungry. Plenty of timber here but the commitment to saw and log it maybe the deciding factor. Got a big old farmhouse to renovate and looking at options. Oil was the first choice.

 

[KB6930]

We've a wood chip boiler at each farm one does 3 houses
The other does 2 houses workshop and office and have a big radiator in gge inlet of the grain drier to help warm up the air before it goes in the burner

Only thing I'll say is when it goes wrong there's more than one place gets cold !!!!

 

[ollie989898]

For a boiler to serve a house (small load) and grain dryer (big load) it would need to have a big turndown ratio - difference between maximum and minimum output. This is hard to achieve, and the heat losses when not grain drying are likely to be large.
If you can get something big and cheap (second hand) for the short term grain drying load, and something smaller, efficient and reliable for the house it could work.
Otherwise get a massive hot water tank to act as the heat store for the house, and only run the big boiler occasionally to keep it topped up.

Use domestic swimming pool to dump waste heat.

 

[Andrew1983]

Use domestic swimming pool to dump waste heat.

Lol if I could afford a swimming pool I wouldn’t be worried about the cost of oil to heat my house!

 

[Andrew1983]

I saw these in farmers guide. Are they going to be hungry. Plenty of timber here but the commitment to saw and log it maybe the deciding factor. Got a big old farmhouse to renovate and looking at options. Oil was the first choice.

yes that’s why I would want a screw splitter on the digger and at least hire a processor for a couple days a year. But even then there is still the handling process loading etc. Maybe the money is better spent on ground source with a small windmill to generate power to run it.

 

[Northern territory]

yes that’s why I would want a screw splitter on the digger and at least hire a processor for a couple days a year. But even then there is still the handling process loading etc. Maybe the money is better spent on ground source with a small windmill to generate power to run it.

What sort of money is a mid range one

 

[Still Farming]

Use domestic swimming pool to dump waste heat.

Chlorinated water different system?

 

[Andrew1983]

What sort of money is a mid range one

12k was mentioned. For the smallest one. Not sure if that’s the stand alone unit on its own or including fitting with everything that goes with it.
Will be wiser after next week.

Anyone know what a glenfarrow bale burner costs? Would be less labour intensive with one of them right enough, decent sized chunks of timber in or in the unlikely event I don’t need all my straw for bedding I could use them.

 

[Wisconsonian]

Is that the american Central Boiler company? Need to know what style you're talking about, or probably you only have the gasifier style available? The old style are horrendously inefficient, but people love them, easy to fit a deer carcass and tires too.

 

[Still Farming]

12k was mentioned. For the smallest one. Not sure if that’s the stand alone unit on its own or including fitting with everything that goes with it.
Will be wiser after next week.

Anyone know what a glenfarrow bale burner costs? Would be less labour intensive with one of them right enough, decent sized chunks of timber in or in the unlikely event I don’t need all my straw for bedding I could use them.

More like 20- 30k possibly as thermal heat store, grain system tie in, insulated pipework, heat exchanges, expansion vessels etc.

 

[Still Farming]

Try these:-

Home

dragonbiomass.co.uk

 

[ollie989898]

Chlorinated water different system?

No, the water in the pool would be separate, just run a coil through the pool, heat is exchanged and dumped into the pool which then warms up a bit. This is why you will see buildings with their own combined heat and power unit have a pool or similar place to 'dump' waste heat when their CHP is operating.

 

[Still Farming]

No, the water in the pool would be separate, just run a coil through the pool, heat is exchanged and dumped into the pool which then warms up a bit. This is why you will see buildings with their own combined heat and power unit have a pool or similar place to 'dump' waste heat when their CHP is operating.

Yes separate