What Boiler?

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Wartime Rationing?
Oil Wartime - that is!
Waste-wood Boiler Time??

From time to time I get interesting letters in my e-mail box. Here is a nice one from Bill P.. in Gloucestershire UK. and I don't mind getting a bit of praise now and again!!


Hi Tony

Just wanted to say thanks for all the effort you've put in to the blog & the insightful comments.

My family & I are (still!) living in AA (insurance speak for alternative accommodation) after being flooded in Gloucestershire last July, believe it or not. We have had much aggro dealing with useless loss adjusters & eventually opted to organise the rebuild work ourselves. This is quite good timing in one way, as building trades are now a lot easier & cheaper to get hold of than when the rush was in full swing last year.

Originally we were going to replace our oil boiler with another one, but as each week sees another several per cent rise in oil price, I started looking at alternatives & landed on pellet boilers quite quickly. Looked too good to be true, but I'm old enough & skeptical enough to wonder what I was missing (or they weren't telling me...). Service, pellet supply were my main concerns as the links I saw all looked distinctly amateurish.

Then I found your blog this morning & since reading your points on storage & other key areas, it all gelled. I'm definitely going to skip it until Dandoss & the like enter the market. There are grants here too of course, but I'm sure the inverse value rip-off law operates here in just the same way.

As we are rural with no gas, we're looking at an electric boiler which I never would have imagined feasible, but install costs are low & if we get the right tariff deal may not be a disaster. More stable than oil I suspect

I'm still seriously considering supplementing this with a standard multi fuel burner to run some radiators, but I shall make sure the flue isn't going to end up clogged with unburnt creosote in a few years though :-)

More power to your elbow!

Cheers
Bill P....


I would be inclined to use a multi-fuel boiler myself, one that could burn anything from shavings and sawdust, to acorns, wood or coal. Like the sort of thing illustrated above. In a shortage situation it could keep the home fires burning!!! Disadvantages - are that it takes work to feed and tend the beast. The advantages are that these types of boilers are cheap, less than 1000 Euro, almost maintenance free, and can burn literally rubbish.


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