Property: detached rural cottage in the Eden Valley, Cumbria, UK.
Construction: local stone, with slate roof, double glazed.
Previous heating system: oil fired boiler.
Reasons to change: inefficiency of existing heating system, rising cost of oil, plentiful availability of wood.
Peter Clarke spent a considerable amount of time researching wood-fired boilers. He attended a course and several trade shows, where he met Eco Angus.
Eco Angus work with a network of trusted installers across the UK. All are MCS accredited, following strict procedures and codes of conduct for installations.
Eco Angus were able to confidently recommend Simon Haskins of SandS Microgeneration as the local installer in the region. His work was so neat that he had in fact installed the Eco Angus demonstration boiler for them in North Somerset.
After receiving the contact, Simon Haskins contacted Peter and went to visit him to discuss the pros and cons of wood gasification boilers. Once the proposition had been considered and decision made to go ahead, Simon carried out a thermal survey of the property to establish the heat requirements of the building.
The calculations revealed a requirement for a boiler of just over 18 kW. Simon suggested the Eco Angus Super 25 kW boiler would cover the requirements with a little in reserve for some of the extreme cold weather that can affect this Northern region.
Due to some unusual features of the site, the boiler was installed in a passageway that runs around the house and the 1400 litre Akvantti EK accumulator tank was fitted in close proximity, in a specially constructed recess within the same passageway.
The original Grant gas boiler was retained as an insurance policy, but has not in fact been used.
Peter has some woodland of his own and additionally, manages to source wood from fallen trees and from sawmill off-cuts. He has managed to create some very innovative drying sheds for the wood, these can be seen in the accompanying video and enable him to dry the wood from the original 35% moisture content down to the 18 or 20% that he requires for efficient operation of the boiler.
Below is a film about the this Case Study, please click screen to veiw larger.
