Wood Pellet Stoves
|
|
Wood pellet stoves are a recent introduction to the UK, although widely used in the rest of Europe.
You can use them as small room heating stoves, with outputs of 5 -10kW, with hot water options or as full central heating systems. They burn very efficiently and the pellets require much less manual handling than logs. The pellet fuel is much more energy dense and the hopper of the stove can hold sufficient pellets for several days burning. Pellet stoves are much easier to regulate than log burning stoves, and can be left to burn all day with minimal attendance.
The number of suppliers of wood pellets is increasing and you should be able get them delivered in your area. Any installer of pellet stoves should be able to source you a supply. The flues for pellet stoves are sometimes smaller diameter than for traditional wood and multi-fuel stoves, making them more unobtrusive and installation easier.
A pellet stove consists of a hopper to store the pellets, screw feed mechanism to transfer the pellets into the combustion chamber, electronic controls and electric fans to deliver the combustion air and to distribute the heat. The heat output is thermostatically controlled by regulating the flow of pellets into the combustion chamber. The stoves are ignited electronically and the ash falls into an ash pan at the base of the stove. Because of the high efficiency combustion the ash pan may only need to be emptied every two months.