Advice on Wood Pellet Stove

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NickyK

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I was intent on getting a solid fuel stove but for numerous reasons (too near window, too near tv, electrics) this is not going to happen. I was advised to consider a wood pellet stove. I first thought of the shed, the hopper and the numerous bags of pellets. On further investigation there are ones available for room heating only.

Does anybody have one? How efficient are they? How cost effective are they? What price would you expect to pay? Has anybody dealt with any companies in the SE or online? Is installation easy? Basically, if anybody has one can you advise me...

Thanks in advance.

Nicky
 
Hi, I have a wood pellet stove for room heating only,
Good thing about it is it is automatic so it will be on when you get home from work, easy clean out, and holds enough pellets for a few days running,
Things to look out for which can be annoying and is making me look into the possibility of changing it
There is a fan in mine to blow the warm air around, which at setting 1 is like a white noise you get used to but any higher setting and it gets irritating, luckily ours runs on 1 most of the time so you dont notice it
the other thing is when the room gets too hot it shuts down completly it wont just stop putting in pellets and let itself burn out, it starts to cool down the stove completly and it is very noisy with the fan going to do this, this takes about 15 mins, and later you will have to switch it on again if it starts to get cold, just things to look out for
Mine is a Extraflame Divina, it is about 3 years old so maybe they have evolved a bit since then
 
Hi F.D.
Just wondering was the installation easy? I've heard that there's not much of a flue requirement because there's not much smoke from pellets? Is this the case?
Thanks,
Nicky
 
I did not install it myself but if i was doing it again i would and would have squeezed an extra few € off the price
Installation looked easy, if you are putting it on an external wall just drill a hole through, the stove has a 4 inch exhaust outlet, i got some 4 inch black cast look alike piping with the stove i ran mine up the wall about 2 - 3 foot above the stove then drilled out ,
there is also an air inlet hole, the fella istalling this did not do this at the time he said that there was enough fresh air coming in from one of the wall vents and that the room was big enough, i think it should have been done, as sometime i think the air gets very dry, i may do it myself some day see if it makes a difference
you also need some where to plug it in also,
one word of warning one day we had it set up on the timer and there was a power cut while it was burning, because the flue just went out through the wall there was no draw(frosty evening) the room filled with smoke
the company i bought it off said to put a 90 degree bend on the out side and run the flue up the wall a few foot and see if it made a difference, i never tried it to be honest
 
Hi, F.D.,
I have seen them installed where the pipe goes horizontially out from the back of the stove to through the external wall. Is this how yours is fitted? Does this cause any black marks on the outside walls? Also any ideas about SEI grants that are available for WP stoves?
Thanks.
 
The grant for a pellet stove is €800 (or €1,400 if it has an integral back boiler). You must have approved bulk pellet storage facilities to qualify, and you must use an approved product and an approved installer.

More info about the Greener Homes Scheme [broken link removed]. General info about wood pellet heating systems here
 
Hi Nicky
Yes i've seen them installed like that also, but ours sits up against a big wall in an open plan room so as a feature i ran the black piping up the inside of the wall a few feet and then out, makes the stove stand out more and breaks up the wall a bit, another point is the heat that radiates off that flue alone adds heat to the room, no theres no black marks on the out side, even when its burning there is no black smoke just a nice smell of wood burning. i got mine before the grants came out so i missed the boat there,
Eamonn123456, where do you get Co2 detectors? i curious to find out if things are ok or not
 
They are CO (carbon monoxide) detectors/alarms.

You can get a simple patch one or a proper alarm.

Available in hardware stores and also in Tesco. Fire Angel is the brand I have, about 30 euro or so AFAIR.
 
Do you think it would be ok to just put flue from the back of the stove horizontally out the external wall? Have you any issues with draughts of smoke blowing back into the room? What I would gain from the grant I'd lose in fitting a chimney/flue externally.
 
I think it would be fine to put the flue staight out through the wall,
we have had no problems with draughts or smoke blowing back into the room. I'm not sure about the grant but i think they insist on a flue going up to roof level or up over the eves what ever you get as a grant will be gone on the flue, ours is in an enclosed corner area and we have had no problems, anyways when i was buying mine every company i went too avertised the fact that you could run the flue staight out through an external was and no chimney was required, the stove had its own fan to make it work correctly and the smoke was clean enough not to cause any harm, only thing i notice when i seen it set up like that is there is a lot of heat blowing out so make sure its gaurded from kids and pets, (that was before grants btw)
 
F.D said:
the stove had its own fan to make it work correctly and the smoke was clean enough not to cause any harm
Click to expand...

That's a good one. Make sure you know what you're doing if you decide to install your own stove and flue.
 
HI Nicky
The flue should rise above the eaves and be in insulated twin wall flue usually about 80mm and about E95 a metre. It should rise so as above in the event of a power outage there is at least some natural draught to bring out the smoke.

Some makes are quiter than others so see if you can see them running in the showroom first with the different fan speeds going. They do need fresh air same as any appliance theat burns so you should need a vent in the room. Also they need to be non combustible surface/hearth and may be checked periodically by sei to ensure the are up to standard. Installation is relativly straightforward but needs to be done by someone who has experiance. Some stoves have passwords to change settings which are available to the instaler only. A 5-6kw stove could be 2500-3500 for a good one plus flue appx 5-600 and installation apx 300. Grant is 800 on an air model but not applicable if its anew house.
Efficiency can be 87/90% if its running at optimum but reality is probably 80-85 which is still pretty gosh darn good.
Running costs should be about 20 cent per hour low heat and about 45-50 cent at high but it depends on what price you pay for the pellets but the quality of the pellets is important too so make sure they are reputable.
 
Hi fmc,
What you're saying is basically what I'm being told by sei registered person. Here's the dilema. The sitting room is not warm enough with just the rads on so I can 1) Put the stove in the position I want it but with the flue just horizontally out from the back of the stove through the wall. This means I don't need to wait for sei grant but I'm unsure how well this would work with regards to smoke coming back into the room. 2) Same as 1 but with about 6 metres of flue up the outside wall. I can get the grant but will need to wait 3 weeks minimum. We've a baby due Nov 27th. 3) Move position of stove to the only other possible place I could put it, use around 2-3 metres of flue and again wait for grant.

Seems what I get in the grant will pay for the flue so I'm wondering why wait for the grant and just put the flue horizontally out through the wall but what about the the potential smoke problem.

Thanks in advance.
 
If the grant pays for the flue I,d say its worth it if you start having problems down the road then you will need to revisit it in any case but without the grant my 2 cents anyway.
 
Hi
Wood pellet stoves are great and can be got fully automatic, Rika, SHT are good boilers if you want to know where to get them I can give you phone numbers. It pays to speak to a knowledgeable engineer that will advice you correctly. You may have to pay for a site visit but this can be refundable when purchasing the stove. And at least then you will know that the system is correct and to your requirements.
 
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