Winter just around the corner

Weather is not quite that bad but the central heating was running out of fuel so today it was refuelling day. We have a wood pellets unit which to all intents & purposes runs exactly as oil. The tanker blows the pellets into a bunker room through a 10cm pipe (the one hanging out the back of the truck). The whole process takes about 30 minutes and is no different from an oil tanker except that the diesel smell is missing.

The heating process is identical to oil, fully automatic except the ash container (about 12in x 12in x 6in) has to be emptied every 1 to 3 months depending on the time of year. 2kg of pellets has the same energy as 1 litre of oil. The delivery today of 5.5 tons cost 1,225 Euros, heating oil would have cost 2,350 Euros. The running costs (electricity) is more or less identical.

While the ecological bit was a nice by-product, it was not our main reason for changing to wood. In 2005 as our oil unit was so old that it was no longer legally allowed to be operated - unit has to be checked yearly by the district chimney sweep and he had signed the death certificate - so we had to get a new unit and move it above ground. The heating unit plus the room for storage cost about 6000 Euros more than a new oil unit. We could have re-equipped the 10,000-liter in-ground oil tank to hold the pellets but went for a room directly next to the unit. Given that we save over 1000 Euros a year, the unit has now paid itself off. Up to today, it has not had a single failure. Let's hope it stays that way. Just wish I could find a cost-effective solar module to heat our water in the summer. The water storage tank has the connections ready so it's basically just the module, pump & piping but at the moment the cost is too high.