Ideas for heat produced from biomass boiler

[JJfarmer]

Hi folks , looking for ideas on what to use the heat produced from a 370kw boiler . So far its going to heat 3 cottages and kiln dry logs but even after this going by calculations theres still a considerable amount of heat needing accounted for for rhi tariff? Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Not really the way to go about this. Work out what heat you need and size the boiler accordingly rather than let the grant tail wag the dog.

besides, the grants on that’s sized boiler are much less than they were, it will only stack up if you need the heat or it can add value now.

log kilns are a lot of work, many are ditching logs all together for a reason...

 

[JJfarmer]

Not really the way to go about this. Work out what heat you need and size the boiler accordingly rather than let the grant tail wag the dog.

besides, the grants on that’s sized boiler are much less than they were, it will only stack up if you need the heat or it can add value now.

log kilns are a lot of work, many are ditching logs all together for a reason...

The boiler is 4 years old comes on a very high tariff , , so worth trying to use the extra kw somewhere u know

 

[Doing it for the kids]

What boiler is it, what fuel will you be using?

workshops, grain drying or semi permanent poly tunnels tend use a fair bit but the cost of getting the best there is not cheap

 

[JJfarmer]

A dragon , will run on old pallets/ wood scraps and large square bales when needed . Thought about a poly tunnel but wasnt sure about costing etc no sure about what to put in though that would actually be beneficial

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Have you worked out how many pallets you will need to run that!?

3 cottages won’t use much heat. Have you got a sensible sized buffer?

 

[JJfarmer]

10000 litre tank ( I think ) .. we've been told 300 tonnes per year mix n match If you know what I mean

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Ok, dragons aren’t the most efficient, keep tubes clean. I suspect you will use more than that tonnage FYI.

id also go for a bigger tank, if you are pulling a lot of heat at night that size won’t last long enough and you will have cold water first thing which may or may not be an issue?

be mindful that ofgem will want to know everything about everything, they are so slow, I think there are about 4 guys looking after the whole country at the moment!

 

[renewablejohn]

Think you need to check very carefully whether your log drying stacks up legally. As far as I was aware the dragon boiler does not meet the emmission regs for log drying.

 

[555]

Also a very big difference to what fuel it will burn and what fuel I actually can burn under its RHI certification . On straw you will be possible in breach of particulate matter emission. Nothing to do with ofgem , but the EA. You can’t just burn any old bit of wood! Records or what you have burnt and where it came from will be scrutinised along with the heat output in relation to fuel in. Keep it all straight and narrow and you will be ok.

 

[renewablejohn]

The boiler is 4 years old comes on a very high tariff , , so worth trying to use the extra kw somewhere u know

Thats a bit suspicious as looking at the emissions testing certificate the Dragon certificates states it was tested accredited in 2018 but only using wood with less than 25% moisture content and will also require approval due to the size from your local authority.

 

[Davey]

Just on the subject of pallets.

I used to run my Dragon on pallets but gave up because really you need a shredder to break them up and handling broken pallets is a ball ache plus the waste nails and brackets etc are also a pain. The main reason however was that the staff in the distribution centre where I was collecting them from used the stack of broken pallets as a bin for anything and everything (mostly stuff they didn't want the boss to know they'd broken) so it was like importing my own fly tippings.

That aside if you think you are going to be producing too much heat I'd look at adding a second buffer tank but I do like the polytunnel idea.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Hot tub or swimming pool!

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Hot tub will use next to nothing, there comes a point where the cost of connecting things up and getting them registered with OFGEM would cover 5 yrs worth of electric!

pools can use a lot but have to have a roof which in its own right costs a lot.

i think the op is due for a surprise when he realises how much paper work there is, how much more fuel he will use, how long it takes to load and clean the boiler and the cost to correctly connect all these heat using things into the system.

grant tail has wagged the dog here