How profitable is electric heating: comparison with a pellet boiler

 

Right at the beginning of the article, it must be said that it is not correct to compare electric heating with the costs of heating with a pellet boiler. These are different technologies that provide different capabilities.

Of course, any FOCUS pellet boiler will be almost an order of magnitude cheaper to operate compared to electricity and gas as a heat source. But economical electric boilers are effective in cases where it is not possible to install a pellet boiler or install individual gas heating.

 

 

Electric heating is more expensive than a pellet boiler

Manufacturers of thermal panels and electrode boilers are trying to create cost-effective technologies. And it's quite successful. The negative side of this is the comparative fragility of the devices. Moreover, electrode boilers will work much longer than any thermal panel. 

However, using electric heating in a house is not profitable, but it is quite effective as a backup version in addition to fireplace heating, heated floors from a solar system or a pellet boiler. Although, of course, it is difficult to imagine that there is no pellet granule in the household. If this may still be the case, buy a pellet boiler with the ability to manually load fuel when operating in emergency mode. This option is offered by FOCUS by default in most TT boiler models.

 

When using pellet heating, the level of comfort is maintained at lower costs

Pellet heating allows you to automate home heating and regulate fuel consumption, supplying heat “on demand”. What does it mean? This means that the FOCUS boiler is a modification of a solid fuel boiler with a horizontal pipe heat exchanger and a pellet burner controlled by a PLUM microcontroller in accordance with the outdoor, indoor and coolant temperatures. 

Control data can come from all heating circuits, which is realized using temperature sensors. In addition, you can set heating scenarios using a touch panel or touch thermostats, available for installation in wired and wireless versions. The microcontroller ultimately summarizes the heat demand data and issues control commands to the pellet burner and the auger feeding the pellets. The boiler is also switched on automatically by automatic ignition when the temperature in the room and outside drops below a certain level.

Eventually, a pellet boiler with any climate control installation can save you heating costs by at least 50-70%. As shown in the illustration, various heating systems can be connected to improve your level of autonomy. Besides everything, it's completely heating system, which makes you independent from the pricing policies of utility services, their raids and collection actions.

But the deployment of such a system will be quite expensive; the installation will include:

• pellet boiler room for households (150-200 thousand UAH versus a gas heating project, which costs 100 thousand UAH for 2024);
• pellet hopper;
• hydraulic piping kit;
• climate control sensors and deployment devices;
• multi-circuit heating system.

After installation, heating costs are reduced by approximately 50-70%. If you have a large amount of agricultural waste and a granulator, then the resulting cost per granule will be zero.

However, installation, of course, will require considerable funds, including the installation of a multi-circuit heating system. In some cases, the boiler will not be used at full capacity, since FOCUS pellet boilers have adjustable power, a minimum of 2 to 30 kW.

 

Compared to electric heating

The advantages of a pellet and electrode boiler are that you get adjustable heating without gas. You pay for the equipment, not the project, and also save significantly on operating costs while enjoying a high level of comfort.

Electric heating can be implemented more simply by installing an electrode boiler on each individual circuit with programmable pump control from a coolant sensor and a room temperature sensor. Settings similar to PLUM climate control can be implemented using controlled radiator thermostats, provided that modern radiators are installed. Relative regulation of the heating circuit can also be done by controlling the boiler pump; most often this is quite sufficient for small houses.

Advantages of electric heating from electrode boilers:

• low installation cost (a 2 kW electrode boiler in monoblock format costs 5,000 UAH);
• low cost of installation of heating circuits according to the “each circuit has its own boiler” scheme;
• climate control;
• no need for a project (pellet boilers are also installed without project approval);
• savings in operating costs compared to gas, electric fireplaces and boilers with heating elements.

Disadvantages of electric heating compared to pellet heating:

• the need to allocate more kilowatts per home, on average 6-10 kW versus the nominal 3 kW;
• high operating costs (over 5 UAH per kW for 2024) or their reduction taking into account the need to install a home solar power plant to compensate for consumption under the “Green Tariff” (200 thousand UAH per 10 kW for 2024);
• dependence on backbone networks.

An installed mini-power plant on solar panels will not generate the required amount of energy for heating in winter. In this regard, it is better to use a solar system to heat the coolant, maintaining the coolant temperature from a backup electric boiler.