Pellet boiler - what it is, on what fuel is working, design and nuances of choice

The article was prepared with the participation of DOZATECH specialists

Despite the fact that our country is one of the largest exporters of blue fuel, it is not necessary to talk about ubiquitous gasification. For many consumers and in Moscow, and in Siberia is the cheapest method of heating and now unattainable, and not the fact that will be available in the future. Therefore, it is necessary to look for alternative heating sources, good, the choice in this area is impressive. And in recent years, the assortment of heating equipment has been replenished with an interesting unit - a pellet boiler. Let us dwell on this type of equipment, for which we consider the following aspects:

• What is a pellet boiler heating and on what fuel it works.
• Aggregate device.
• Advantages and disadvantages of a pellet boiler.
• To pay attention to when choosing an aggregate.

What is a pellet boiler

In fact, this is a kind of solid fuel boiler, but designed for a certain type of fuel (pellets) and with the possibility of complete or partial automation of the workflow.

It is the ability to function offline with minimal intervention of owners, pellet boilers differ fundamentally from conventional solid fuel.

They have a higher efficiency (efficiency) - and due to the characteristics of PELLET, and due to the characteristics of the structure. Pellet boilers can be as highly specialized - intended only under pellets and combined (versatile) - capable of working on firewood or coal, some models work almost on any biomass, as fuel you can use a husk, wood waste and the like.

Alexander DimterevRepresentative of the company DOZATECH, manufacturer of pellet boilers

With a certain design of the boiler, it can burn any biomass of very low calorie content - these are chips, bark, woodworking waste, agricultural goods, sunflower husk and more.

Pellets, or wood granules - ecologically neutral fuel, obtained, mainly from waste woodworking industries (chips, chips, bark), but they can be from the waste of crops. Pellets appeared in the thirties of the last century, when the first installation on the pressing of waste from local sawmills was invented in the state of the Idaho. Under a strong pressure, the raw material is heated, which provokes the formation of lignin, which binds the smallest particles into dense, smooth granules. This allows you to abandon the use of chemicals - pellets are completely natural, safe, in terms of ecology, fuel. The diameter of the granules varies within 6-8 mm, length - up to 50 mm. In European countries, pellets relate to standardized fuels and are manufactured according to DIN Plus.

In our country, their production is not so developed and properly, the quality of the granules, which will depend on the efficiency of the boiler, and its performance, determine visually - white is better than gray. Unlike wood, the granules have reduced humidity and increased density, in view of which, with a burning, a larger amount of heat is highlighted and the minimum amount of carbon dioxide. If you translate this property into the numbers, for comparison, the following ratio is obtained - when burning tons, the pellets will be separated as much heat as the burning of 1.6 tons of firewood. Solness will be only 0.5% of the burnt volume, and the allocated flue gases will be colorless.

The exemplary caller's calorism is 5 kW / hour from one kilogram, but how real efficiency will be close to theoretical data, depends on the quality of the pellets themselves, and on the boiler indicators in which they will be burned.

Device aggregate

The pellet boiler itself consists of three main nodes:

• Equipment - equipped with a special burner (retort or torch) and two doors (control, cleaning).
• Convective zone - it is a heat exchanger in it: it can be vertical, horizontal or combined, tubular or plate-type. In the convective zone, the coolant is heated in the heat exchanger with gases allocated in the process of burning pellets. Most of the aggregates are designed only for heating and have one contour, but in some models - two contours: heating and water heating.
• Solnik - the burning waste (insignificant during normal survivors) is received, which are periodically removed through the cleaning door.

However, the listed nodes are although the main one, but only a part, for which the APT prefix is \u200b\u200bnecessary (automatic fuel supply). This prefix includes the following components:

• The bunker is a capacitance for a pellet of a certain volume, from which the granules enter the flock can be built-in or outdoor.
• Augene - portion of granules on the burner as needed, drives the gearbox.
• The fan is necessary to maintain the combustion process, since the boiler device does not provide for the presence of natural traction.

Since the pellet boiler is an automated system, its device also includes a control unit with a display that information about the current state is displayed, and the main operating parameters are set through it. The controller regulates the burner ignition, the supply of granules and air, stop, as the desired temperature is achieved, supporting the heating mode selected by the owner.

Depending on the capacity of the bunker and the selected mode of one backfill, it may be enough for a few days and for a week and even more.

To make the heating process fully automatic, the boiler can be connected directly to the storage - the pneumatic room will be supplied to the granules in the bunker as it devoids.

Advantages and disadvantages of a pellet boiler

One of the main advantages of pellet boilers is economy, according to this indicator, they are inferior only to gas main heating. This is also associated with high efficiency of equipment, and with high pelet calf, and with their available cost. The second aspect that attracts the consumer is the automation of the process. Unlike other solid fuel boilers, pellet does not need constant control and regular manual fuel supply. In aggregates working on diesel fuel, he wins in terms of environmental friendliness - no smells and black smoke.

The main disadvantage of these aggregates is a solid price - these are the most expensive solids, the cost of the automated European production station is measured by hundreds of thousands, domestic is a little cheaper. Not every private owner by pocket such infringement in the heating system of your home. However, given the durability of the equipment, which is close to two decades today, this is a reasonable investment in the long run.

In addition to high cost, the minuses include energy dependence - the automation needs electricity, and if shutdown for several hours (on average up to 10) is permissible and does not beat the settings, then the smaller stops the boiler. The station must be equipped with an independent source of energy, which will also increase the cost of the system.

What to pay attention to the selection of the aggregate

Despite the relative "youth" of this type of solid fifty, the market has a large selection of boilers of foreign and domestic production. To choose the optimal unit for its conditions, it is worth paying attention to several of the most important parameters.

Power - Each manufacturer has a fairly wide range of both domestic and industrial aggregates. As with any heating equipment, power is measured in kilowatts (kW), the power of household models begins from 15 kW. Since heating of rooms with medium heat lines is needed about 1 kW per 10 m², such a boiler is able to warm the house in 150 m². However, it is worth considering that the boiler is needed with a slight margin.