FAQ

1. What area am I heating?
This is important as it is needed to determine what output your will require for the stove or boiler. Ideally, it’s important to know the area of the room or house in square feet or metres. In addition, an approximate idea of the ceiling height would also be helpful. Factors such as very high ceilings or large open plan rooms do affect the calculation of the area you are intending to heat.

2. What is my insulation like?
It cannot be stressed enough the importance of insulation. An investment in the insulation of your house is an investment in the environmental and economical efficiency of your home in the future. In short, spend extra money to insulate your home, will save you money on fuel bills in the long term.

At a minimum insulation should be at current building regulation standards.
3. What other sources of heat will I have?
The more heat sources you have the lower the output you will require from your pellet boiler. For example if you are considering installing solar panels in combination with your pellet boiler, then ask your solar panel supplier for the minimum and maximum output that the panels will provide during both the summer and winter. This will help you size correctly the boiler output to suit your needs.

Remember you can use your pellet boiler in conjunction with an existing system of oil, so that either system can act as a ‘back-up’ to the other.

4. Where will I locate my stove or boiler?
For a stove you can locate it in any room in the house. Remember that it will typically have a glass front, so usually it’s located in a living room or kitchen.

For the in-house boiler, these also have a glass front, giving heat to the room that they’re located in, so again keep this in mind. While you may have sought to locate it in say a utility room, you will have heat coming from the boiler into that room, which would effectively be wasted.

For the external boiler, then this would be located in a garage or boiler house. Remember that it’s size will typically be larger than an oil boiler. Also you will have to take into account room for cleaning out the boiler. Dimensions for the minimum boiler house recommended for a boiler will be on the brochure.

5. What about the location of the flue/chimney?
According to current building regulations, a flue outlet must be located a minimum of 1.6 meters from a door or window.

For a stove you have the option of either going up an existing chimney with flexible flue liner, or making a hole in the wall and erecting a ‘low-level outlet’ flue here. It’s important to keep in mind the proximity to a window or door of the top of this outlet, because of the current building regulations. It may be necessary as a result to take this erected flue up past the eave of the house.

For a boiler located in a boiler house or garage, then typically you would erect a minimum 2 metre flue, going out through a hole in the wall at the rear of the boiler. Again building regulations apply, and so you may require a longer length.

6. What about the plumbing?
If you are installing a boiler in your house, then you will plumb the house as normal, but bring the in and out pipes for the water to the intended location of the boiler.

If you are installing a boiler externally, then you will plumb your house as normal, and bring the intake and out pipe to the location of the boiler house. Remember that the maximum recommended distance from the house to the boiler is 15 metres.

7. What else will I need?
If you are looking at buying a wood burning stove then all you will need is to know is where you will locate the stove, and where is the chimney for this. Essentially a wood burning stove requires a 6” pipe which goes up directly from the top of the stove. This can go up through a chimney.

If you are looking at buying a wood burning boiler then as well as the above, you will need to have plumbed to the location of the boiler.

If you are looking at buying a pellet stove, then you will need to consider the location of the stove, have a power point nearby, and also consider which option is suitable for you for the flue.

If you are looking to buy a pellet boiler, located in your house, then you will need to consider the location of the stove, have plumbed to this location, have a power point nearby, and have considered which option is suitable for you for the flue.

If you are looking at buying a pellet boiler to be housed in your garage, or shed, then you will have to ensure that this is suitable to house a boiler, plumb to this location, have a power point near by, and consider which flue is suitable for it. Remember, the maximum distance for the boiler from the house is 15 metres.

8. Where will I store my fuel?
In short, in a dry enclosed area. This applies to all fuels. If you are going to be running a stove or small output boiler, then your garage or outside shed will be sufficient. We supply bagged wood pellets in single pallet lots. The dimensions of the pallet are 3.5ft by 3.5ft by 6.5ft. If the entrance to your shed can accommodate this then, the pallet can be stored here. If left on the pallet then the bags of pellets will be off the ground. Similarly for logs and wood briquettes they are also delivered on a pallet. The dimensions of these are as follows:

If you are going to be running a large output boiler, then you may wish to take bulk deliveries of wood pellets. You would need to have a system whereby the pellets would be blown in (similar to how grain is delivered). Here you may have two options. Firstly, if you have a large room at the rear of the boiler which is enclosed, then you could adapt this to act as a feeder/storage area for the boiler. If you can imagine a room, where you could put two large pieces of plywood (as a sort of false floor) at an angle of either 45 degrees or 60 degrees. At the join on the floor, there would be an auger running along the floor, which would feed the pellets into the boiler.

Secondly, you could purchase a steel silo to store the pellets, and would be attached to the boiler by an auger.