Experience of Central Boilers log burning boiler?
- Thread starter TractorMaz
- Start date
TractorMaz
New Member
Is this the case with the central boiler? From what I understand it has a larger water jacket than other boilers and also a system of buffers which regulate air flow therefore once the water reaches its temperature it shuts down the burn until required again. Correct me if I’m wrong.
You need a small water jacket that heats up quick and is pumped into a buffer. A large cool jacket will produce a cool tarry burn, An Eco Angus with dry fuel will run very hot at full tilt and then quickly die out when the wood is finished producing no tar at all just dry ash. When a boiler slumbers or idles thats when the tar forms. The flue gas should be 250 degrees or more to keep the boiler clean that means a roaring fire.
No you do NOT need a seperate buffer on the central boiler log boimass system. My central boiler is basically a boimass burner surrounded by 1500 litres of water. When the boiler goes down to 75 degrees it kicks in and heats back up to 85 then switches off untill the temp drops again. it take a few seconds to a couple of minutes to go from red embers to a high burn temp. They are very clever little boilers and work well.
Doing it for the kids
Member
You don’t need a buffer but you will loose efficiency, slumbering timber is wasteful and poor on emissions.
The most efficient way is to burn the logs flat out and recover a huge dump of heat which then gets stored for use as required in the buffer.
My tanks seldom loose more than a degree overnight.
No buffer can still work (need a heat dump in case something goes wrong though) but it’s not as hydraulically or energy efficient.
The most efficient way is to burn the logs flat out and recover a huge dump of heat which then gets stored for use as required in the buffer.
My tanks seldom loose more than a degree overnight.
No buffer can still work (need a heat dump in case something goes wrong though) but it’s not as hydraulically or energy efficient.
- Location
- Near Beeston Castle
I'm looking around for a heating system for a house I am buying and interested in an outside log boiler. I have almost unlimited logs but they are all softwood, leylandii in particular. It is dry though, 15-17% whenever I have tested it.
What pricked my attention with your post is that I am also looking at a way to supply hot water to my apple juice pasteuriser rather than electric. At the moment I have 3 x 3KW elements and it uses a lot as you'd expect. I was thinking of using an oil boiler to keep it hot but it sounds like the CB may well be an option.
A bath of water holding maybe 500 litres of water kept at 75°C would be ideal.
General-Lee
Member
- Location
- Devon
Will watch this with interest.
Looking into this sort of thing to heat a new build and have watched a lot of videos of Central Boilers on YouTube but all have been in the States, didn’t realise they sell them over here.
Looking into this sort of thing to heat a new build and have watched a lot of videos of Central Boilers on YouTube but all have been in the States, didn’t realise they sell them over here.
TractorMaz
New Member
Thanks for the info Wilber, it’s be good to hear first hand experience of the CB and even better that you’ve been able to compare it to the Eco Angus which happened to be another one I was considering. Cheers.
you can get the eco angus direct from poland but it is not called eco angus, it is an orlan super, the present cost of a 130kw is about £4500 plus delivery www.kotly.com
- Location
- North West Wales
If you’re having a new build insulate it to the max and stick a ground source system in with underfloor heating. Domestic RHI for 7yrs will more than pay for it and gives you time to research and fit another system to generate the electricity to run it after the initial 7 yrs!!
General-Lee
Member
- Location
- Devon
Will it work on anything but level ground, don’t really want it under the house?!
- Location
- North West Wales
Mine goes uphill a bit therefore needed a vent at the highest point. In hindsight I should of gone the other way and down another field therefore the highest point would of been at the heat pump but that way would of needed to negotiate a stone wall and septic tank and soak away! Our field was not actually 100m long therefore the trenches are dug at an arc to get the length in.
Just watched some clips on utube about those boilers. Serious burn
Totally agree. We have enough wood here to run a wood fired boiler and when we knocked down (most of) the old farmhouse and rebuilt it, I gave VERY serious thought to investing in a big ass boiler and even bigger buffer tank to allow a burn every 2-3 days. I even planted some biomass poplar in readiness...
Then commonsense and a recognition of my being a lazy sod made me ask the question, "do I want to go out and feed a boiler of any size in 10 years time when I was pension age and even more decrepit?" Obviously, the answer was a resounding no.
I put in a properly sized GSHP, with a properly sized ground loop running underfloor heating, and have never looked back! My only regret was in not putting in a bigger storage tank than 300l, as it would have been useful for storing hot water in the summer months when the 5kW PV dumps surplus power into a diverter which then heats a 3kW immersion heater coil in the tank! I drop the temp the HP heats the storage tank to just 35-40Cin the summer,and let the PV bring it up. I have to be carefulif I have a raft of children and friends visiting, as they soak up the hot water, so i Usually push the background temp a bit then
I am still tempted to put in a piggy back storage tank to run alongside the existing one.
Once the RHI expires, I will consider other options including a small LPG boiler to run alongside the setup as a backup system in case of power outages, but we usually manage with a genny and wood stoves in the house. I also anticipate putting in more PV for domestic use not connected to the grid, and run the heat pump from them and also dump spany are power that into the oversized storage tank. THis needs a bit of clever electrickery, but the company I use are confident they can achieve this
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I would NOT have gone for the GSHP I suspect if no RHI payments were available. I had to wait 3 years before I actually got some money, and I often expressed the view that I wished I'd put in Oil boiler as the capital cost was so high! PV has dropped so much now, I will probs go for more in 2 years time without FiT
- Location
- North West Wales
Totally agree. We have enough wood here to run a wood fired boiler and when we knocked down (most of) the old farmhouse and rebuilt it, I gave VERY serious thought to investing in a big ass boiler and even bigger buffer tank to allow a burn every 2-3 days. I even planted some biomass poplar in readiness...
Then commonsense and a recognition of my being a lazy sod made me ask the question, "do I want to go out and feed a boiler of any size in 10 years time when I was pension age and even more decrepit?" Obviously, the answer was a resounding no.
I put in a properly sized GSHP, with a properly sized ground loop running underfloor heating, and have never looked back! My only regret was in not putting in a bigger storage tank than 300l, as it would have been useful for storing hot water in the summer months when the 5kW PV dumps surplus power into a diverter which then heats a 3kW immersion heater coil in the tank! I drop the temp the HP heats the storage tank to just 35-40Cin the summer,and let the PV bring it up. I have to be carefulif I have a raft of children and friends visiting, as they soak up the hot water, so i Usually push the background temp a bit then
I am still tempted to put in a piggy back storage tank to run alongside the existing one.
Once the RHI expires, I will consider other options including a small LPG boiler to run alongside the setup as a backup system in case of power outages, but we usually manage with a genny and wood stoves in the house. I also anticipate putting in more PV for domestic use not connected to the grid, and run the heat pump from them and also dump spany are power that into the oversized storage tank. THis needs a bit of clever electrickery, but the company I use are confident they can achieve this
Still not sure here which way to go in 6 yrs time. GSHP is nearly 12months old now and we will be touching the £1200 electricity use for whole house. Will have to check the meter on the HP to compare. Not sure if that’s high or not though. Worst week was just over £60 according to my calculation when we had that easterly wind. Terraced house we had before was just over £75 a month gas and electricity averaged over the year.
Well since my last posting, things have changed a bit. Our Central boiler rotted out and had to be scrapped and replaced. Before this however we had CB UK to service it, I opened up the boiler a couple of weeks after they had "serviced" it. No one had cleaned the heat exchangers or the chimney, what had been done was rubbish i do a better job myself.
Central boiler are i believe linked to bentley fireplaces or some such. Took me 6 months of constant harrassing them to get my money back, they even tried to worm their way out of it but they got me so angry with the way they dealt with it i wouldnt give up.
My advice would be dont.
I know of 2 other central boilers now leaking, one was scrapped and one was welded up but how long that will last is anyones guess.
If you want a similiar boiler look at https://www.crownroyalstoves.co.uk/
wayne is very helpful, these boilers are made out of stainless steel so shouldnt rot out like the junk that is the CB.
Central boiler are i believe linked to bentley fireplaces or some such. Took me 6 months of constant harrassing them to get my money back, they even tried to worm their way out of it but they got me so angry with the way they dealt with it i wouldnt give up.
My advice would be dont.
I know of 2 other central boilers now leaking, one was scrapped and one was welded up but how long that will last is anyones guess.
If you want a similiar boiler look at https://www.crownroyalstoves.co.uk/
wayne is very helpful, these boilers are made out of stainless steel so shouldnt rot out like the junk that is the CB.
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- storage