How to choose the right heating boiler: liquid or solid fuel, gas, pellet

The issue of efficient heating of a private house, office or production is faced by almost every resident of our country. The climate in Ukraine, although warm, but the winters are very harsh, so the rise in gas prices leads to high utility costs, and the transition to other energy resources is often ineffective. In this situation, how to choose the right heating boiler and what to start from in the choice.

 

The main problem of our buyers is the lack of available information about technologies and equipment, as well as the lack of awareness of the masters of the available opportunities. Usually, whether they are residents and home owners, directors of enterprises wishing to heat offices, warehouses, retail space or production, everyone wants to get a ready-made solution from the specialists they turned to.

Workers in the regions more often work with gravitational heating systems on one circuit and are already experiencing qualification problems when connecting several regulated circuits and boilers, as well as rather complex weather-dependent automation. Others, knowing about the problems, simply sell monoblocks with elementary modular mounting. Still others sell and install their equipment without thinking about the individual characteristics of the object. All this complicates the purchase, so we have collected the most popular tips to help readers understand heating issues.

"Working" solutions for efficient heating of private houses, offices, industries and retail space

The existing realities in recent years have made it possible to form effective approaches to the deployment of a heating system. The main starting points are the type of object and its characteristics, as well as the budget that the customer wants to allocate for the equipment and its installation. Buyers' request is often associated with the need, whenever possible, to use existing heating equipment in order to reduce costs.

A few tips will allow you to form an understanding not only of how to choose the right heating boiler, but also to deploy an entire boiler room for your needs.

The most important tips:

• the most profitable fuel for space heating in Ukraine is an agropellet with an ash content of 5-7%. The use of high ash granules implies certain equipment requirements. European pellet boilers are designed for heating with wood pellets (1% ash content), therefore, they require higher heating costs compared to agricultural pellets. But the costs will be much less than for gas heating;
• for heat supply of frame residential buildings, offices with open spaces and production facilities, greenhouses (rapidly cooling rooms) most efficiently air heating... In rooms with a large cubic capacity, warm air recirculation systems should be installed in order to reduce heat loss;
• for residential buildings the most effective is considered hybrid heating system:
  • a) including several boilers in the system;
  • b) having a backup heat source with automatic equipment that connects the equipment when the specified conditions are reached;
  • d) there are several heating circuits designed for operation in different seasons;
  • e) if there is a surplus of heat, heat accumulators are installed, which make it possible to automate the operation of a solid fuel or solar boiler house.
• modern heating means use of weather-dependent automation... Moreover, the requirement becomes more stringent with an increase in the volume of heated premises.

These standard solutions are complemented by individual ones. For example, the choice of equipment based on the budget of the owner of the home, its type, the level of comfort, the required level of automation.

How to make comfortable and pleasant heating in the house

For most households with houses with an area of 70-100 m2 for autonomous heating, it is sufficient to install fireplaces with a cast-iron insert with additional air heating. An electric or gas boiler can be used as a backup heat source for the coolant, which is connected when the temperature in the premises drops.

But for lovers of civilized comfort, you can stop at a condensing turbocharged gas boiler with 25-30% savings. This approach is quite effective and moderately expensive, provided the house is insulated, the presence of thermostats on the heating circuits, climate control control, or the use of weather-dependent automation of the boiler group.

When calculating the heating of production facilities, it is important to pay attention to the specifics of the enterprise. For example, is there any entry / exit of cars into the premises through the gate. In addition to air heating of the premises, additional heating of workplaces and the installation of thermal curtains are required.

These approaches, of course, imply the design of a heating system for a residential building, production, shop or office, but in practice they rely on standardized solutions used by analogy.

Is there a one-size-fits-all solution? Pellet boiler rooms FOCUS - "what's the trick"

Of course, manufacturers always promote their own solution. The production company "Focus" offers solid fuel boilers with a pellet burner of its own production, which are adapted to Ukrainian realities, granular ash fuel and are a universal high-performance heat source for residential, commercial and industrial premises. It is the versatility and low price of fuel that allow them to be brought to the first positions in the technical rating of boilers. The boilers are supplied with pellet burners and pellet storage bins.

Advantages of pellet equipment:

• Efficiency 95%;
• full automation;
• no need to save heat due to low costs;
• weather-dependent automation in accordance with the "passive house" principles;
• maintenance of heating systems with multiple high-temperature and low-temperature circuits;
• pellet burners can be installed on boilers from other manufacturers, which reduces the cost of purchasing a boiler house;
• remote control and maintenance of any number of heat consumers.

Advantages and features of FOCUS pellet boiler rooms:

• the use of volumetric combustion technology, when ignition occurs in the entire volume of the fuel and provides the highest possible efficiency;
• pyrolysis afterburning of combustion products with a recirculation system;
• record useful area of heat exchangers;
• increased reliability due to the design features of the boiler (boilers are assembled from solid stainless steel sheets practically without welding, all thermal deformations are taken into account, unique grates are installed);
• the design of the boiler and pellet burner provides ideal thermodynamic characteristics to support volumetric combustion in the furnace;
• automatic cleaning system (independent of the quality of pellet granules);
• automatic fuel supply.

Assembly features:

• the best components produced in the EU;
• minimization of the number of welds;
• modular sets of equipment with assembly in the image of Ikea and Lego for low-power boiler houses;
• production tests.

Main feature pellet boilers the latest generation is the use of volumetric combustion technology with precise control of the combustion rate due to the supply of pellets and air to the combustion chamber. It is this physical process that enables the combustion of fuel of any quality with the 95% as efficient as electric boilers, but at a conceptually lower cost.

The main recommendation is to buy pellet equipment with flare burner and boilersdesigned to work on pellets with high ash content. In this regard, it is worth giving preference to domestic boilers, since equipment from the EU countries operates only on wood pellets with a standardized ash content of 1%.

Tables of the cost of a kilowatt of thermal energy

The table shows that the inhabitants of Russia have the opportunity to choose, for the Ukrainians the question of choice is almost unambiguous. The disadvantage of pellet equipment is the high price. A full-fledged pellet boiler room with a torch burner will cost 50-100 thousand hryvnia, but you can save money if you install a pellet burner on an existing boiler.

Price per kWh of heat in Russia when using different types of fuel

Fuel	Calorific value according to standard	Required amount, 1 kW * h	Estimated fuel price (2020)	Fuel cost per kW
Gas	8.6 kWh / m3	0.116 m3	5 rub / m3	0.58 rubles
LNG	12.8 kWh / l	0.0782 l	24 rub / l	1.87 rubles
Pellets	4.96 kWh / kg	0.202 kg	2.3 rub / kg	0,464 UAH
Diesel fuel	11.1 kWh / l	0.91 l	47 rub / l	42.77 rubles
Electric heating	—	1 kWh	3.3-5.66 kWh	3.3-5.66 rubles
Solid fuel (firewood 790 kg / m3)	5.5 kWh / kg	0,4 kg	RUB 1.25 / kg	0.5 rubles

 

Price per kWh of heat in Ukraine when using different types of fuel

Fuel	Calorific value according to standard	Required amount, 1 kW * h	Estimated fuel price (2020)	Fuel cost per kW
Main gas	8.6 kWh / m3	0.116 m3	8.07 UAH / m3	0.936 UAH
Liquefied gas	12.8 kWh / l	0.0782 l	11.60 UAH / l	UAH 0.907
Wood pellets	4.96 kWh / kg	0.202 kg	2,3 UAH / kg	0,464 UAH
Diesel fuel	11.1 kWh / l	0.91 l	15.80 UAH / l	UAH 14.37
Electricity	—	1 kWh	1.68 kWh	1.68 UAH

 

Very useful tips: how to choose the right heating boiler in terms of power and other characteristics?

When designing a heating system, the power of the boiler is selected based on the calculation of the heat loss of the house, its cubic capacity and the requirements of the climatic zone. In the general case, it is assumed that the insulation is carried out according to GOST standards, then the power calculation can be reduced to a simple formula: 1 kW per 10 square meters of living space is required.

Additionally, you need to consider:

• the DHW circuit will require an additional 5-7 kW of power;
• for hot water supply in pellet and solid fuel boiler houses, an indirect heating boiler is installed;
• if the heating facility is located in a climatic zone with temperatures dropping to -30 ° C / -40 ° C in winter, then a 20-30% power reserve is required. For example, for a house of 100 sq. m, located in the north of Ukraine, a 12 kW heating boiler is recommended;
• if an automatic or semi-automatic boiler is bought, then you can take equipment with a lower power. For example, a 65 kW automatic feed boiler is comparable in efficiency to a 100 kW manual feed boiler. With an excess of thermal power in the off-season, the boiler can smoke, especially in the absence of appropriate automation;
• boilers with automatic feeding make it possible not to install heat accumulators to store excess heat, which makes it possible to reduce installation costs by 15-20 thousand hryvnia. Please note that it is with the help of heat accumulators that the automation of heating in systems with solid fuel heat sources is ensured. Automation controls a three-way valve;
• pellet, bunker boilers with auger automatic feeding can freely operate at 25% of their capacity, which is especially important in the off-season;

How to choose the right heating boiler: tips for choosing other types of boilers

It should be borne in mind that the versatility pellet boilers Focus works well in large houses and objects. In small households, pellet boiler rooms from 17 kW are designed for heating the house and hot water supply. The purchase of more powerful equipment will allow you to heat the homestead buildings, a greenhouse, terraces, sports grounds and a swimming pool with cheap heat.

For these purposes, Focus stainless steel pellet boilers of 100 kW can be purchased together with flare pellet burners... Such a boiler house can provide autonomous heat to small workshops, farms and retail space. The cost of heat supply will be insignificant, especially if you make your own pellets.

Gas boilers

When using gas to heat a home or office, it is worth worrying about good thermal insulation of walls, ceilings, floors and windows. The condensation technology of heat extraction and the climate control system with weather-dependent automatics additionally allow to reduce the gas consumption.

In turn, liquefied gas is almost unavailable in Ukraine.

Liquid fuels and diesel boilers

Diesel in our country is as expensive as gasoline. This type of fuel is suitable for air heating boilers for temporary residence in the house. With the help of such boiler rooms, fast heating of the house with a high level of comfort is ensured.

Solid fuel boilers

The use of solid fuel implies the installation of a heat accumulator, with the help of which it is possible to provide round-the-clock heating of premises with one firebox a day. The use of weather-dependent automation is especially effective.

Please note that you cannot use pellets in stoves and solid fuel boilers without a burner, as the ash content will reach 50-60%. Lignin pellets are used only in automatic boilers and freestanding boiler houses due to the unpleasant odor.

Pellet boilers production The EU

Requires only wood pellets with an ash content of 1%.

What is the bottom line

It is clear that pellet technology is not available to everyone. It is designed for high heat consumption, in this case it is the most efficient in terms of cost and installation costs. For homes, offices and commercial premises, you can use other types of fuel, with higher costs, but in this case it is recommended to use weather-dependent automation and appropriate insulation of the room.

The best option is the deployment of a hybrid heating system, which allows heat to be removed at the most advantageous period and in exactly the amount required to obtain comfortable heat. For private homes, the Focus brand offers flare burners installed in floor standing boilers of any type. But if you have not bought boiler equipment, consult us on how to choose the right heating boiler for your task. When using solid fuel, a pellet burner must be installed on it.