I'm waiting for the instalation of a Vigas 40kw gasifying log boiler (expected in the next 3-4 weeks). I'm installing a 2200 litre accumulator/buffer tank too.

Beofre going for the log option, I looked at lots of other solutions. I was particularly interested in a pellet based solution and they way you can automate their operation (to some extent anyway), but the systems were/are expensive and pellets are not as easily available as they could be.

I guess heating with logs is a bit of a lifestyle choice as it's much more labour intensive than pretty much anything else, but from my perspective, it fits well as both my wife and I tend to work from home a lot.

As billt says, most if not all of these accumulators can be heated by more than one heat source and I'm moving my current oil boiler to the new boiler house to use as a backup.

Ed.

Thanks for the feedback.

So if that's the best way to run one, we could do that. I'd just be concerned about the house getting cold when we're away. That might not be such a big problem in a well-insulated house, but I'll see what the architect thinks.
We certainly can't afford to fit a secondary heating system though.

The height isn't such a problem, but I thought they could be quite deep (which could be an issue). The best location would be in the garage, but as it's only 6m long, I want to make sure there's enough room to get a car in as well.

So where do the thermal stores normally go - in the loft or close to the boiler?

I'll still consider wood as an option, but it's looking less attractive now.

These two video clips are worth watching and give some insight into what owning and operating a wood fired system would involve:

http://www.dunsterwoodfuels.co.uk/vigas.html

Ed.

It'll be in an outbuilding. I'm not sure it strictly needs to be next to the boiler as long as the pipework inbetween is well insulated but in my case, this is the best place for it. I'm also moving my current oil boiler from the kitchen into the outbuilding as a backup heatsource.

Hi,
Normally they are adjacent. The key thing is that the pipe runs are in as bigger diameter as you can manage to slow the water velocity down - helps release entrained air. Likewise the pipe runs should flow easily upwards without any constrictions or tight corners or dead legs - can lead to air locks. No up and over pipe runs.
Remember that if the power is off it would have to continue by thermo-syphon as no power = no pump, and you cant put the fire out (well you could with a sprinkler safety device) so its got to flow easily by itself.

Cheers, Mike up North
someone else can have post #100

Posted By: mrswhitecatWhat was your rationale for deciding to go for a 2200 litre one?

The simplest answer is that it's what the installer recomended (it's part of one of their standard packages), although some research suggested that a smaller tank would not be as good an option here. I'm heating a thermally inefficient house (1904 stone built in the countryside) of a little over 4200 sq ft. so I need the heating to have quite some capacity. My wife and I work from home a lot so the heating is on most of the day during winter.

One max power full-load burn from the 40kw boiler should heat the 2200 lites so on all but the coldest of days I (hopefully) can get away with one firing. In the summer I'm expecting to do one firing every 2-3 days (although not if the summer's like it is today :( ).

Ed.

Thank goodness for Google. I've become so Europeanised with area measurements I couldn't think first off what 4,200 sq ft might look like (other than big - our office for 30 people is 3,500 sq ft). 390 m2 sounds baronial.

The wood burning stove we are looking at has an 18 kW output (up to, I guess) so we wouldn't need such a mega thermal store. I'm becoming so used to finding my answers on this forum, I never thought to just ring up the installer!

Posted By: mrswhitecatThank goodness for Google. I've become so Europeanised with area measurements I couldn't think first off what 4,200 sq ft might look like (other than big - our office for 30 people is 3,500 sq ft). 390 m2 sounds baronial.

The wood burning stove we are looking at has an 18 kW output (up to, I guess) so we wouldn't need such a mega thermal store. I'm becoming so used to finding my answers on this forum, I never thought to just ring up the installer!

Divide by 10.76 to change sq ft into sq M :)

Look at the videos I posted links for earlier in this thread too. The guy there has a 25kW boiler and a 1000l tank and he's heating a five bedroom stone built house.

The company I'm buying from can be found here http://www.renewable-energy-store.com/ there's some useful info on their site too. For your energy needs, they have a boiler package that couples a 25kW boiler with a 1000litre tank.

Ed.

Our Perge boiler, only needed 3M of flue height and works extremely well. We took a flue section off last week, and couldn't believe how clean it was. Proves the manufacturers sales pitch that running quick and hot is the best way to run both boiler and accumulator.

We have an overheat valve fitted, and it doesn't require a minimum pressure to operate. Don't think its a requirement on all systems especially if open vented, but worth fitting. If sized correctly then even if the boiler ran away, it should all be dissapated into the accumulator tank....i believe??

hi

We have recently decided to replace our oil boilers with a log gasification boiler. We heat two old brick built houses and water for an outside tiolet block 9for camping and fishing guests) off 2 oil boilers and electric. We were using about 1000 litres of oil in the summer and about 1000 litres every month in the winter. This amounted to about 5000 litres of heating oil. On top of this the oldest boiler need to be replaced. Our last load ran dry back in May and on enquiry i found that it would be about £700 per 1000 litres so i worked that out to be £3500 for the coming year if oil prices remained stable at that price plus the price of the new boiler. On that discovery, and being the scrooge that i am, i removed the oil boilers and set about finding a log boiler.

After much investigation and with the help of this forum we decided on Vigas. It is a Vigas 40kw with a 2000 litre akvaterm accumulator tank. We brought it in a package with the mixing valve, the thermatic automatic mixer, laddomat 21, DHW coil, vent set and gauges for £5999 inc delivery and VAT from Paul Loader of Wessex Wood Boilers Web: http://wessexwoodboilers.co.uk/

I installed the boiler myself, which was quite easy when you understood the confusing network of pipes! The hardest part was digging the trench to the houses and laying the pipes. We used black cable conduit to keep the pipes dry and pushed through barrier pipe insulated with bubble wrap. The water doesn't lose any heat from where it enters underground to where it exits.

We went for vigas because paul was helpful with equiries and the fact that it will burn waste wood. We have a farm so there is plenty of waste wood around, we have had it installed for about a month and so far have only burnt old pallets and bits of caravan (we also break caravans), we are also thinking about experimenting with straw. The Vigas copes well with nails and screws in the wood. So far we have only needed to light it every other day apart to provide hot water, which it does in huge quantities. One house has a DHW cylinder in the loft the tiolet block and other house feed off the coil in the top of the tank both of which are really hot. The last couple of nights we have needed to have the heating on (in August!) to take the chill off, then the boiler needs to be fired every day. We have in total 16 rads which shed the heat from the accumulator quite fast. I'm guessing in the winter it will be constantly loaded during the day.

We decided not to have a back up boiler, we have never had one in the past as we have open fires so we thought we would keep it simple and not have one now. It would also be too tempting not to go out and put more wood on the fire on cold nights!

We also have plenty of woodland to coppice to provide logs to keep the fire longer if needs be. The amount of time the boiler needs loading isn't a cause for concern as there is always someone around to fill it. As long as we can keep up the wood supply it shouldn't be a problem. The boiler is easy to use, all you do is light it wait for it to catch, shut the doors and turn it on.

So far i am quite impressed with the Vigas, but lets see in the winter to come! Through sheer determination and stubborness i am not going to pay for anymore heating oil!


Hope this info helps someone
James Wesley
Porterswoodfarm.co.uk

Hi selly

The manual actually states that it will burn logs, wood chippings, and sawdust mixed with logs. it should cope fine with with the nails, we chuck anything in that we can find. i would try it with a mixture of logs and the waste chippings and increase the ratio of chippings until you get it right, perhaps try 100% chippings. the Vigas boiler is very simple and easy to operate. We emptied the ash today and just put it straight on the scrap heap.

james

Hi all,
I'm new to this forum, isn't it amazing! I live in the French Alps in an old stone farmhouse, which when completely renovated could be up to 280m2. A the moment we are only living in about 80m2 of the house which is renovated and reasonably well insulated (50mm to 100mm in the walls and 100mm in the ceilings) and in this small area alone, using electric heating it is costing us around £2000.00 per year, so I've no option but to consider a wood boiler for the whole house heating.
Does anyone know if atmos boilers will burn waste wood and chippings etc? Secondly has anyone experience of the Atmos combi; ie: the log boiler/wood chip boiler combined?

Ed

Martin,
Pardon my ignorance - I can't get the links to work. I'm especially interested in the "importing my boiler from the EU" bit. Please help!

I'm still working in btu's/hr - what does 25kw equate to in btu's/hr?

Many thanks,

Thanks for the info Martin - please post how you get on with the Kotly.

Morning all, I'm new to the world of wood boilers (and the forum) so want to ask a couple of fairly basic questions that experienced users may be able to help with.

We have a small farm and so wood should not be a problem, but I'm not getting any younger so am a little concerned at being able to wield a chain-saw for many more years. So we want to install either a dual/multi-use burner or one that can be converted easily from logs to pellets if I find gathering and handling logs too much in the years to come. I am also concerned at the added complexity of gasification boilers and so am tending towards the simpler non-gasification types. Is my logic on these points valid?

As I have no experience in plumbing or indeed any form of engineering I need to rely fairly heavily on local installers for their knowledge. This somewhat restricts us in the makes of boilers that we can use. One of the most cooperative installers has recommended a Jaspi Woodviking. This seems to be relatively cheap and simple, which attracts me. However, it hasn’t yet been accredited for a grant, so automatically the price jumps by £1500. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience of the Woodviking, or indeed have any other comments?