Hi - Im looking for suggestions and reccomendations for a wood or wood/solid fuel 18 kw (ish) boiler. Im not looking for lots of clever switches/settings etc, just a real standard mechanical boiler that doesnt need an electrical connection to work and simply fires up and heats water into a gravity fed open vented system.

We have a a 10 year old British gas 330 18kw gas boiler currently installd which feeds into a 250 litre Newark Thermal store (housed rather tightly in the bathroom cupboard) hooked up to 30 x 58m Navitron EV tubes and the house has been insulated with a Diamond Bonded Thermabead and 250mm of loft insulation etc.

So the plan is to plumb the boiler in and also fit a small buffer tank beside it in the integral garage and then retire the gas boiler to "top up" functionality in both summer months to the thermal tubes, and also in winter as "top up" to the new wood boilers daily burn cycle.

Im definitely not looking for "oversized solutions" as multiple suppliers have tried to sell me so far - I dont need a 30kw+ log gasification boiler with X many thousands litres of accumulator tank - costing more than my whole Solar thermal install costed!!

We have a decent system working in the house right now and im looking to add to it as part of "almost" retiring the mains gas boiler, or not, as we choose to.

the house is built on hill side and basically a bungallow upsatairs comprising 120sq m (3 beds, kitchen, dining, lounge and bathroom with thermal store in) and 50 sq m downstairs (2 spare beds 1 bathroom),all rooms with radiator central heating and double glazing throughout.

There is an integral garage also below the main living area which is where the gas boiler is located and where we would place the new boiler too and its buffer tank.

Any thoughts, suggestions and and reccomendatins will be most welcome - even if they shatter my planned upgrade....

Hi john

Yes I always fancied that stove, its always had great reviews. But our lounge is on the 1st floor above the integral garage, and as such on floorboards - and not entirely comfortable witht he weight issue of the stove and "constructing" an ok hearth etc let alont fire proofing the wall etc. Plus the thermal store is on the same level just down the hall.

Are Perge MCS accredited? I was looking at having one installed for a client 2 or 3 years ago and they weren't then - we were looking at a 20kW-ish pellet/chip model.

Nick

Just looked on the MCS database and it looks as though Perge are not accredited - no mention the Perge website either

There are alternatives to the SMA kit becoming available later this year such as the Nedap PowerRouter (August, according to the project's head honcho) plus others. That should start to put the screws on pricing.

Rgds

Damon

Hi Owlman

That sound like a top idea - I wonder if there's anyway you can divert Solar PV feed "safely" to provide power to the "emergency" consumer unit. I know thats playing wiht fire (literally) but there must be a way an bonfide electrician could rig something up.

I suppose alternatively you could simply hoist a couple of panels up to supply this circuit only... although you'd still need all sorts of extra kit to achive the correcy voltage.... hmmm I can feel a small off grid 24v ring being set up in the garage...?

Posted By: PeterC...........Solar thermal... oh £5k.

You should be able to do better than that Peter, I fitted my own 30 tube array, plus pump station, plus 180l SS cylinder for under £2500. With you living in a bungalow, installation should be easy. If you can come to some arrangement with a local MCS installer for you to do all the tedious things like pipe runs etc. and then get them to commission and sign it off you may still be able to qualify for the £300 grant to offset your costs. ( if the scheme is still running.)