Yet More Wood Pellet Woes

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Play it Again Sam
Another Wood-Pellet Problem

Bee Jay has left a new comment on your post "WoodPellet Woes try SEI for Help":

Hi all,

Very interesting site - wish I knew then what I know now etc...
Bought a wood pellet/solid wood combined boiler with a nominal rate of 22Kwh. House is 2200sq feet and is new so should be well insulated. The installer put in a 750 litre buffer tank as well as 3 mixing valves, HW, downstairs and upstairs. I only spend 12 weeks a year in the house and use around 5 tonnes PA –

The thing never switches off except when it crashes - over 120 times in 17 months. It has what is daintily called a “week hopper “and I thought I could get a caretaker to load it up once a week - a small job and as it was on reduced timings all would be well. Not a bit of it.

The whole system cost €21k and is useless. I have tried it on logs and the only warmth generated is me sweating trying to keep logs in the thing. After 10 hours non-stop the intake temp was only 40 degrees - which for radiators is useless. I am in the process of getting an oil burner installed. I have been in contact - many times with the manufacturer and they happily tell me that I only had a contact with the installer - even though this company is on their website as a recommended partner in Ireland. So as they are happy to tell me that I do not have a contract with them and the installer is gone bust I can amuse myself by rocking on my heels. They did also say that they could not be responsible for installations done by others. I pointed out that they shouldn’t recommend installers if they are not sure if they are any good but that fell on deaf ears. They have agreed to replace a control unit as the original is bust and only had instructions in German – I know I know!

If there are any boffins out there who know the correct ratings please tell me how bad this really is. I keep getting the stuff that bulls are good at making. Oh and as I had installed it without SEI’s permission they laughed at me when I applied for a grant.

If there is a numpty prize I will get it for sure.


ED. Thanks BeeJay for sharing your tale of woes - hopefully it will help some other Joe Soap avoid some pitfalls.

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