Pellet stoves, the cost-saving solution

the pans Pellet stoves are a new generation of efficient individual heating appliances and therefore more environmentally friendly than wood. are they cheap Pellets taking into account the maintenance of the boiler or the stove? Can wood pellets be used everywhere? What are the advantages and disadvantages a wood pellet stove?

At the garden school we are passionate about our garden and the environment, and we wanted to analyze this new technology to heat our homes and with which we can do without gas or diesel.

Are wood pellets environmentally friendly?

Pellet stoves are a new generation of efficient individual heating appliances in terms of efficiency, therefore more environmentally friendly than wood stoves without qualifying them as ecological, because there is no ecological energy (apart from wind and solar power, without taking into account the embodied energy necessary for its manufacture).

• The growth of carbon sequestering trees limits greenhouse gas emissions, at this stage this fuel can be considered a renewable energy that is much less polluting than wood.
• However, the calculations are made on the scale of 50 years, therefore less than the time it takes for a tree to capture CO2.
• It is necessary to consume a minimum of wood even if it is not expensive today!

Pellet stoves today represent a relatively reliable and economical alternative to fossil fuels, while being easy to install in new construction or renovations. You can also reduce the price of installation with this stove installation grant pellets.

Characteristics of a pellet stove

The raw material is abundant and allows the use and recycling of waste from the wood industry, since the pellets are generally made from disused sawdust and shavings, either directly from controlled and local forest resources. A very relevant waste recovery method.

• Adjusting the temperature in a pellet stove is not as easy as in an electric heater or a conventional boiler.
• To have a good level of comfort, it is necessary to choose a pellet stove with a device for regulating the flow of pellets which varies according to the temperature or the hours of operation desired.
• Pellet stoves are equipped with electronics and motors prone to breakdowns: the main advantage of a wood stove is that it never breaks down, since the only risk of breakdown is linked to the replacement of a seal defective, broken glass or cracked glass. plaster. iron plate.

After reading the advantages and disadvantages below, detailed by Picbleu in exhaustive and very real detail because the author of this article uses this fuel in addition to solar energy, you will wonder which disadvantages you consider important. and which ones will you be willing to accept.

Higher efficiencies than wood stoves

Wood pellet stoves or boilers can heat your home while limiting environmental pollution, in fact, the performance of pellets is much higher than that of logs. Wood pellets offer real energy savings of 30% or even 50% in some cases, when the house is well insulated.

6. The advantages of wood pellets

• Wood pellets have a very low moisture content, less than 10%.
• The wood pellet stove does not dissipate harmful fumes and pollutants from burning wood in the home like a stove or fireplace.
• Pellet stoves have automatic operation that allows not to reload the device 3 times every 24 hours with wood
• The price of wood pellets is competitive: 1 tonne of pellets is equivalent to 460 liters of fuel oil
• Its combustion, its heat production, its yields (from 80 to 95% according to manufacturer data).
• The advantage of this fuel is that it is fractionated, burns completely and allows advanced and programmable automation: an endless screw feeds the burner by extracting the pellets directly from a silo.
• Pellets are cleaner energy than firewood due to their more complete combustion.
• Wood pellets are made from wood, which is essentially a renewable energy. The raw material comes from sawdust and shavings from sawmills.
• Its very energetic character shows all the interest of this product.
• Its ash content falls below 1%. the calorific value of the pellets is equal to 5 kWh/kg.
• Its combustion allows less frequent sweeping than with logs.
• The combustion of pellets in a stove limits the ashes and therefore their elimination.
• Pellet combustion emits little smoke at the chimney outlet, just compare it to an insert fireplace whose smoke is especially annoying for the neighbours. Future conflicts in perspective are to be expected (the court recently ordered the destruction of a chimney which caused inconvenience to the neighbour) See article on neighborhood disturbances linked to the burning of firewood.
• The pellet stove or pellet boiler can operate autonomously and automatically thanks to a mechanized fuel supply. The pellets allow automatic feeding of an independent boiler with hot water vector.
• Electronic devices allow advanced automation and guarantee excellent boiler performance.
• Wood pellets are made from simply compressed sawdust, with no binders or additives.
• Wood pellets are standardized. The wood pellets have a cross section of 6 mm2 or a diameter of 6 mm and a length of 10 to 30 mm. There is therefore no possibility of being mistaken about the quality and volume delivered (difficulty in assessing the real volume of a pile of logs for an individual).
• Storage is facilitated because the energy density of wood pellets is greater than that of logs or forest chips.
• Its packaging and transport are simplified: either in 15 kg bags which allow it to be transported in the trunk of the car, or on pallets of 66 bags which represent approximately one ton (one bag weighs 15 kg), or delivered in bulk by truck tanker which dumps the granules into the silo in a few minutes thanks to a hose which runs on compressed air.
• Pellets develop the local economy through the jobs they create throughout the sector (for example: forest management, production, harvesting, logistics).
• Wood pellets are an energy whose operating time is programmable, since in pellet appliances electronic settings allow you to adjust the heating time as well as the set temperature to be programmed.