In the interest of full disclosure, the author is a Director of Maine Energy Systems, in Bethel, Maine.
As one of the leading developers of the residential biomass heating industry in the United States, we’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way. As the owner and operator of a pellet-fired residential boiler system, I’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way as well. Following are a few of the lessons we’ve learned.
On January 20 and 21, Maine Energy Systems will be conducting its monthly training session for installation and maintenance of its AutoPellet line of pellet-fired boilers. As is customary, Herbert Ortner, the founder and owner of OkoFEN Pelletsheizung of Niederkappel, Austria, will conduct the training as he does in ten Western European countries.
However, the participant list in this session of training is indicative of a growing awareness in our region of biomass as a heating alternative for homes, businesses, and institutions. Typically held to 15 participants, this session has swelled to more than 20 participants because of growing interest from those outside the normal ranks of installing contractors.
The coming session of training includes participants who are members of five separate heating engineering firms, two of them do project engineering only, two of them are installing engineering firms, and the fifth is a very large scale engineering, installation and service firm.
In addition, four trainees represent a large oil distributor from western Massachusetts, one is from an established alternative energy company, and two are from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
Notably the Director of Technical Education for Maine Energy Markets Association, formerly Maine Oil Dealers’ Association, will also be among this month’s trainees. The group is rounded out by the traditional installing contractors who will make the products available to their customers.
The remarkable and sudden growth in interest in learning about biomass heating for buildings of all sizes in our region is a strong indicator that people are concerned about growing our local economy through consumption of “homegrown” fuel, about substantially reducing the portion of our carbon footprint attributable to space heating and about preserving oil stocks for more critical applications.
As I’ve reported in earlier blogs, my large, old farm-style house in Bethel, Maine, was heated experimentally last winter with a four-section pellet-fred boiler. The Janfire-fired system is rated at 23 kilowatts, about 51,000BTU/hour. The system heated the house to our satisfaction pretty well last winter with the exception of a few “design days” when outside temperatures dropped below zero. On those days, we were faced with a house at, or below, 60 degrees F, or burning a bit of oil to support the pellet boiler.
During this past Christmas seasons, my 86 year old mother joined us for two weeks. Our standards for suitable heating (67F, or so) didn’t work for her, so we needed to try to keep the house at 70F at a minimum. The little boiler fired at capacity much of the season to meet the demand and was generally successful. However, on days when single digit to sub-zero temperatures struck, there was no way. The boiler is just too small to fill that demand largely due to heating time lost to the ashscraping cycle of the top-fed burner. To meet the need, I set the oil boiler to fire when water temperatures dropped to 160F. All worked well; the boiler fired occasionally, generally following an ashscrape cycle when water temps would drop below the target level. My mother was warm and little supplemental oil was burned. During the past heating season, I used a total of 40 gallons of supplemental oil.
It is my assumption that a small boiler of the same capacity of an underfed burner design that did not require lost time to ashscraping would meet my demand without support from the oil boiler. It would be fun to test the assumption.
Because I’ve been able to use an extended ashscrape cycle due to the improvements in pellet quality, I haven’t been cleaning my boiler as often as I did last year. That’s been a mistake. In this particular Bosch/Janfire system there is ample opportunity in the cast iron boiler for ash to reduce boiler efficiency. I’ve returned to a two week cleaning cycle for this boiler to keep efficiency up and pellet consumption down.
In the interest of full disclosure, Dutch Dresser is the Managing Director of Maine Energy Systems which sells both the Bosch/Janfire system referenced here and the more advanced AutoPellet systems made under license from OkoFEN of Niederkappel, Austria.
I have been using a Janfire NH burner in my pellet-fired central heating system for just about a year, now. During that year, I have burned pellets with varying attributes. The burner has been “happy” to burn most pellets, except one batch containing foreign silica, which created debilitating clinkering. No other pellets have fazed the burner.
Several weeks ago, as one of the owners of Maine Energy Systems, I got to “burn up” some pellets that we wouldn’t sell to our customers because they weren’t burning cleanly. During that burn, I made plenty of hot water over the summer, but had to reduce my ashscrape interval to 15 pounds to prevent burner pot fouling.
I was delighted to get through with the questionable pellets and add a new load of the pellets we send to customers. When I got the new pellets, I increased my ashscrape cycle to the 40 pounds common in Europe and am enjoying troublefree performance.
Maine Energy Systems and the University of Maine are testing regionally produced pellets each season to ensure that we understand many of the attributes of those pellets before we make them available to our boiler customers. We are measuring for the concentrations of many elements which become active during combustion, which is common in Europe but not in the U.S. Understanding these attributes helps us ensure good performance for pellet boiler users.
Dutch Dresser
Dutch Dresser is a partner and Director of Maine Energy Systems in Bethel, Maine
In the interest of full disclosure the author is a Director of Maine Energy Systems.
I am often asked what I do about domestic hot water in the summer since my house is heated with a MESys pellet-fired boiler system. The answer is, “I burn some pellets” just as I have burned some oil to create hot water for decades.
The follow-on question is always, “how many pellets does it take?” In a single case sample, my own, I have found an answer. Three adults live in my house full-time, one a college-aged son who loves long showers. We have frequent overnight company, including the families of four of our older son and our daughter. We use a washing machine and dishwasher as anyone does, and we’ve made no particular water reduction modifications to our house so our hot water consumption is probably typical for Americans like us.
My system contains an indirect hot water tank, which I keep adjusted to 180F during the heating months. During the non-heating months, I’ve reduced that setting to 120F, so the boiler fires at low level or in “keep alive” mode most of the time.
This summer, since the end of the heating season, I have averaged 20 pounds of pellets/day for the heating of water using my MESys 4000/Janfire system. At $270/ton that places my average daily hot water costs at $2.70, or the cost of a bit more than a gallon of #2 heating oil.
Ideally, I would have solar panels on my barn roof to further reduce combustion of any sort for the production of domestic hot water, but that will have to wait a bit.
Dutch Dresser
In the interest of full disclosure, the author is a principal of Maine Energy Systems
MESys has become the first importer of the renown OkoFEN pellet boiler systems from Niederkappel, Austria. The boilers are marketed by MESys as their AutoPellet line and come in capacities ranging from 41,000 BTU/hour to 191,000 BTU/hour for stand-alone boilers and for capacities up to, and beyond, 764,000 BTU/hour for staged units.
AutoPellet boiler system
Herbert Ortner, owner of OkoFEN and Maine Eco Pellet Heating LLC, was the first to produce a pellet boiler in Europe in 1997. Since that time, he has refined and improved his line of pellet boilers to be the most sophisticated in Europe with the deepest penetration in the European market.
During the last week in August, Herbert came to MESys headquarters in Bethel, Maine, to train regional contractors on the installation and maintenance of the OkoFEN boilers. The two day training sessions were filled to capacity. During the sessions contractors learned about the use of biomass as a residential heating fuel, began to understand global efforts to replace fossil fuels with renewable fuels, and had plenty of time with the boilers. The three demonstration boilers were disassembled and reassembled by all present and ample time was spent configuring and adjusting boilers using control box simulators created by OkoFEN for the task.
Training sessions will be held regularly to ensure there is an adequate workforce to install and service these systems.
I enjoyed the session and was stricken by the greatly increased user-friendliness of this system over those I’ve been familiar with, including my own MESys 4000. The burning technology in these systems is a bottom-fed design, which has pellets burning on a “blade,” or plate that feeds secondary air to support the combustion. Ash and other combustion by-products simply fall off the blade into the bottom of the boiler as new fuel emerges from the center of the blade to be burned. This feed system reduces burner sensitivity to unwanted combustion by-products like clinkers and slag.
Bottom fed burner design
Once in the bottom of the boiler, the ash is compressed into a removable container for easy user cleaning on infrequent bases determined by fuel consumption rates.
That these systems approach liquid fuel burning systems in their ease of use should help the US market find adoption easy for the economic and environmental benefits realized by conversion to regionally produced, renewable fuels.
Dutch Dresser
In the interest of full disclosure, Dutch Dresser is a principal of Maine Energy Systems which distributes pellet-fired boiler systems for residences, institutions, and businesses.
In the 1990’s, I spent much of my time on the technical and social aspects of distribution of the Internet to populations largely unfamiliar with its uses. That population included nearly everyone at that time. This all began as experimental work in my office at Gould Academy, where I then worked, and grew beyond anything I could have expected. Over a course of years, I consulted and spoke widely on matters both technical and social about the Internet, often focused on school and rural community application.
I mention that earlier experience here because the endeavor that we at Maine Energy Systems and others in the alternative thermal energy world, in general, are engaged in now is such a close analogue to the deployment of the Internet to unaware communities that I can’t resist making the comparison.
As I stood at the Podium at the Heating the Northeast conference in Nashua, NH, a while ago talking to an intent audience about the different technologies of pellet fired boilers, I was having remarkably vivid recollections of standing a decade and a half ago before large populations of would-be computer networkers anxious to know all about the protocols and technical practices of the Internet, information now only of interest to the technorati.
We are in the same phase of satisfying the heightened interest among technicians about alternative thermal energy now that Internet revolution was in during the late 1990’s. No doubt someone has named this phase, already, but to me, it is the The Deployer Phase. The most common and most productive interest now in deployment of these important technologies lies in training those who will ultimately play a significant role in bringing the technologies to the public, the installing contractors.
In the early Internet days, there were Early Adopters who just had to try this new technology even though they weren’t quite sure what they would do with it. They simply had curiosity, interest, and sufficient capacity to explore. The very early adopters also shared patience as a dominant attribute. The Internet “industry” lurched forward with changing systems and “improving” applications, each with its own start-up pains, early failures, and ultimate acceptance or failure. Technologists in the United States were leading the emergence of that telecommunications revolution, within ten years it services would be widely distributed and used around the globe.
The thermal biomass heating revolution, which is beginning to occur in the United States, differs from the Internet revolution in that it already has a substantial history in Western Europe. Early Adopters here are not experiencing the heating equivalent of operating at 300 baud or uudecoding images for viewing in a largely text based system, instead they are enjoying the substantial developmental work of pioneers from Sweden and Austria, most notably.
Systems are currently available in the U.S. that are simple, robust, efficient and moderately priced. More expensive and more sophisticated systems with ease of use rivaling liquid fuel systems are also coming available in the U.S. for the coming heating season. A broad range of energy output levels will be available which will allow for efficient, renewable energy heating of buildings from the smallest, best insulated cottage to institutional buildings.
Right now, consumers are interested in whether burners are top fed, horizontally fed, or bottom fed, how ash is handled, and whether or not the systems comfortably handle pellets that are less than perfect. It is easy to predict that this specificity of interest will give way to name brand recognition as homeowners gain confidence in pellet boiler technology and begin to understand the tremendous economic and environmental benefits of home heating with locally produced renewable resources.
Dutch Dresser
In the interest of full disclosure, Dutch Dresser is a principal of Maine Energy Systems in Bethel, Maine. Maine Energy Systems distributes the Janfire NH burner discussed in this post.
As those who’ve read my posts will know, I’ve enjoyed my MESys 4000 system this past winter, and I have experienced no significant issues with the Janfire NH burner that fires the Bosch cast iron boiler. Nonetheless, others have experienced different issues with their systems, so all burners in the field have been receiving a system reconfiguration this spring to eliminate known weaknesses. I had my burner done last week, one of the last to receive this reconfiguration.
Peter, the Bosch tech, removed the burner from my house, took it to our MESys facility, and performed the necessary reconfiguration. This included a full inspection, the replacement of two temperature sensors, one in the drop shaft and one in the burner bowl, and the installation of new processor software.
Once the burner work was complete, Peter gave my boiler a thorough cleaning, including the flue vent. While cleaning the boiler, Peter discovered that the refractory insulation in my boiler door was cracked, so he replaced it. He also ensured that there was plenty of insulation above the burner aperture. This reduces heat to the drop shaft temperature sensor. It is that sensor that would detect any burn back issues, so keeping it cool prevents any false positive readings.
Any reluctance I’d felt earlier to having the burner modified, I soon lost. Peter did a great job. The burner continues to operate beautifully for me, and seems to spend even more of its time in either “keep alive” or “waiting” mode now that it just heating domestic hot water. I’m anticipating somewhat lengthened cleaning cycles this summer.
I continue to find the transition from oil to renewable, locally produced fuel for heating my home a satisfying experience.
Dutch Dresser
Summer has arrived in Maine at long last. Temperatures have risen into the 80’s and all is well, but the pellet boilers need to be “summerized.”
As temperature differences between my basement and the outside air have converged, I’ve begun living with a continuous “low chimney flow” condition and the associated red indicator light on my Janfire NH burner. I have cleaned the breach of the boiler and the flue pipe, and I always keep the boiler free of excess ash. I have the boiler on an independent chimney, which, as our technician puts it, “would suck your hat off.” The chimney rises well above the house. (June 1, Alas, the “low chimney flow” error was a legitimate problem, my baffles had fallen over the burner bowl. Realignment of the baffles resolved the low chimney flow condition. The baffles tend to “gain weight” as combustion by-products adhere to them; they are scheduled for redesign by Bosch.)
To confirm that the light was indicating an actual overheat condition at the drop shaft sensor, I checked the
As the summer demand for heat changes to domestic hot water, only, systems with very little heat loss in the piping might need to have their minimum boiler temperatures reduced to avoid unnecessarily high boiler temps. In my own case, about 60′ of 1 1/4″ copper tubing leading to and from my oil system “wastes” heat into the basement elminating any such need. In the winter, I appreciate that extra heat in the basement; now, I’m likely to put insulation around the pipes to keep it out of the basement.
Dutch Dresser
Dutch is a Director of Maine Energy Systems in Bethel, Maine.
In the interest of disclosure, I am a principal of Maine Energy Systems, distributors of the MESys wood pellet fired boilers.
I’ve now been through the heart of the Maine heating season with an undersized pellet boiler in my house, and I’m always prone to reflect upon changes like that.
In simple summary, when comparing heating with oil to heating with wood pellets, I’d say it’s just different.
I’m a pretty typical American. I got just a little bit interested in our home heating system four years ago when it was time for a new system. The beautiful Buderus oil boiler tickled me, and I was fully impressed by the substantial savings in oil consumption I enjoyed over use of the old Burnham that it replaced. That fascination consisted more of looking at fuel bills than of looking at the boiler…it required none of my attention and got none.
When the MESys 4000 went in my house last fall, I was fascinated with it for technical, economic, and environmental reasons. It was a mechanical thing that I could understand just by looking at it. As the winter went by, I learned about not just the little boiler, but also about our family’s heat using patterns and how they can be seen in circulating water temperature.
Because I was intrigued by the boiler, I checked it often, noted the modulation level it was running at and the water temperature it was maintaining relative to the target. I listened to it through its various modulation levels, through start up, and through the ashscrape cycle. I got so I could tell what it was doing by opening the cellar door and listening. For me that was fun.
I also learned about its needs relative to cleaning. I started out cleaning out the boiler pretty often, just to get an idea about how the different pellets were burning. When I decided to let it to until ash stopped it, I learned that with the pellets I had a ton of pellets burned would surely stop it. I fell into the habit of cleaning it out every other Sunday afternoon; it took a half hour, and I kind of enjoyed it.
Over the course of the winter, I took great pleasure in looking at my small, newly lined, chimney and noticing only hot air coming from it while nothing came from the large front chimney where the oil boiler vented.
As I’ve noted in earlier posts, my boiler is decidedly undersized for my house at 51,000 BTU/hour for a house with a calculated heat loss of 106,000 BTU/hour. My small boiler heated my house and my domestic hot water to comfortable levels all winter except the days when the temperature dropped below -5F. During those days, the oil boiler would “help out” when boiler water temp dropped below 140F, a completely arbitrary set point I chose. Today, I decided that I wouldn’t be burning anymore oil this year, so I asked my oil dealer to top up the tank while prices are low; I’m afraid they were upset to put only 41 gallons in my tank. With those 41 gallons, I received 7.4 tons of pellets and have approximately 2 tons in my bin. That puts my fuel consumption at the BTU equivalent of about 690 gallons of oil, for the October to mid-April heating season. That is lower than usual despite a cold winter. I’ll have to wait until I can compile a calendar year’s worth of data, but it appears at this time that the manufacturer’s assertion that a boiler which is working at capacity most of the time is much more efficient has proven to be the case in my situation.
Now when I talk to people about pellet fired central heat, I always make it a point to say, “it’s just different” than heating with oil. You will have to understand your heating system a bit; you will have to clean the boiler from time to time (for me every two weeks); and, you’ll become much more aware of how your using your burning fuel.
I like it, but it’s just different in a pleasant sort of way.