WoodChipBoiler

Wood Heat at the Centre

In October 2003 the 120 kW fully automatic woodfuelled boiler was commissioned to provide heat to the Visitor Centre, offices and the Wetherdown Hostel for the Sustainability Centre near East Meon in Hampshire.

 

 

Some 50 tonnes of seasoned woodfuel per year are sourced from the site and from local sustainable woodland management. The system currently heats the Visitor Centre, and the recently converted half of the Hostel.

Installation Cost Summary:-

(2003 costs in UK Pounds)

120kW Veto Boiler & 6cu.m. chip hopper 11,000

Design, installation & commissioning       10,000

Tanks, pumps, pipes etc                      6,500

Controls                                           2,000

200m underground ring main               6,500

Hostel hot water storage system        5,000

Site preparation & groundworks         14,000

TOTAL PROJECT COST                     55,000

 

Heat Load:-

 

Area supplied

 

Design load

Wetherdown Hostel heating

430m2; 1,290 m3 (converted half of building). Well insulated

21kW

Wetherdown Hostel hot water

Ready for solar heating in summer.  Sized for whole building

42kW (max)

Visitor Centre heating

700m2; 2,100 m3

Poorly insulated

45kW

Visitor Centre hot water

Solar heating in summer

17kW (max)

Ring main & other losses

200m between buildings

7kW (max)

Operational Key Facts:-

  • 50 tonnes chip used p.a.
  • 125,000kWh estimated annual useful heat produced
  • 38 tonnes CO2 emissions avoided
  • 2.2p/kWh energy cost
  • Fuel cost of £2,750p.a.
  • Confident that no alternative fuel back-up required

Technical summary

  • The installation comprises a Veto 120 kW stoker-boiler, Veto Maxi 6m3 fuel hopper and feed auger and Veto 120 kW burner head.
  • Combustion is controlled by a Technomatic modulating boiler controller, optimising combustion according to flue gas oxygen concentration for maximum efficiency and minimum emissions.
  • The controller automatically modulates boiler output between 30% and 100% of maximum continuous rating (MCR) to match demand with the boiler, automatically kindling during periods of zero demand.
  • Boiler efficiency is greater than 86% (at MCR) and emissions are well within the requirements of the Clean Air Act.
  • The boiler is installed in the Hostel boiler house with hot water piped via a pre-insulated underground heat main to the Visitor Centre heating system.
  • The system delivers an estimated 125,000 kWh / year of renewable heat, avoiding some 38 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide emissions per year.

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    Woodfuel supply

    • Some 50 tonnes of seasoned (30% moisture) woodfuel per year is sourced from local woodland management.
    • Woodfuel is stacked and seasoned on site and chipped to an on-site fuel store.
    • The Centre has set up wood4heat ltd. a wood chip supply business which will start to supply this site and others within a 15 mile radius in 2006.

      • The system was installed by Econergy Ltd.

      Funding support by Onyx Environmental Trust