Pellet Stove central heating?

[Ellie]

I have purchased an old villa in Dunedin and installing heating is to be my first upgrade but it's proving a challenge.
There is a central hallway with a lounge at the front of the property, the kitchen / diner at the rear (a bedroom in between them) & 2 other bedrooms on the opposite side of the hallway.

Beyond the k/d is a laundry, bathroom and WC on a concrete base with a very shallow roof (added circa 1974) - this area is absolutely freeeeeezing and the advisor deemed this area as "difficult" and "costly"

I've had a couple of 'heating' advisors to visit and one solution is a pellet boiler installed in the lounge which feeds hot water to radiators in each bedroom and in the hallway. There is good clearance under the house (1-1.5m) so it would be relatively easy to run the pipe work although lengthy.

Many heating shops in Dunedin sell pellet fires but they don't sell the stoves which can run central heating, but I don't really want to rely on 1 advisor / 1 quote.

Any personal experience of pellet fires / stoves & central heating?

Note: Dunedin doesn't have mains gas and LPG is more costly to run than a pellet stove

[Kaye]

Have you considered a log fire I put in a Blaze King Socorro last winter only ULEB that has an over night burn and it heats the entire house.

http://heatstore.co.nz/sirocco-sc30-uleb-wood-fire/

[klauster]

A pellet boiler installed in a suitable place as base for central heating of all room is a great way.
In Europe for single homes there are 2 types of central heating common; burner installed in the basement with raising pipes for each room (no pumps etc required), or burner and heating element on the same level
(controlled pumps needed for water flow) – look up the term “Etagenheizung”. I installed a system 40 years ago, very economical and long lasting solution. I do expect (but can’t confirm) still working.
For the “Etagenheizung” the burner with a hotwater boiler looked like the size of a washing machine, design to fit in the laundry, kitchen, etc…. well in these days I would expect much technology in that area.

[klauster]

Another way to heat the entire house is with a “Kachelofen”, experienced in Russia in 1972. The Heater was built in the centre of the house and the rooms around. The oven heated everything including hot water. For modern European solutions search for “Kachelofen” or see kachelofenwelt.de

[Ellie]

Kaye
Thanks for the wood burner recommendation. We've ruled them out as neither of us (myself and adult daughter) want to stack, store or chop logs. But I do wonder how your fire heats the whole house - is it open plan or 2 storey. Mine is neither.

Klauster
I lived in Germany in the early 90's and our apartment had amazing underfloor heating - practically unheard of in the UK at the time. I am used to gas central heating but where I live in NZ, there's only bottle LPG available and it's expensive so that's not an option.
I think the stove you refer to would be nice but my home is not open plan and impossible to make open plan as there are bedrooms between the lounge and the kitchen.

So central heating has to be the way forward but will a pellet stove be sufficient and efficient?

[Kaye]

Yes Ellie open plan living, 3 bedrooms off the dinning/kitchen area the master is at the rear of the house and even that's heated now. I just shut of the bathroom and toilet as can't see the need to heat them. Student Job search is the answer to stacking the wood so long as it's dry firewood it doesn't take more than a couple of hours to move 7 metres.

[hawkeye]

We have a heat pump (floor level) in hallway which we keep at 17 degrees and it heats all the rooms off the hall in winter to take the chill off. It made a big difference installing this. We are in christchurch. Is it too cold in Dunedin for heatpumps? They are the easiest!

Perhaps it’s worth it to remove the roofing iron and insulate if you can.

[klauster]

Heatpump – for rental ok, but for my home I wouldn’t make me vulnerable to surging power prices, or even power outages when I need it most.
The concept of central heating based on pellets, etc (look at the huge amount of wood waste from the logging industry) or even undefloor heating in the same way – you can’t beat it. I even provide in rentals two heat sources (heat-pump and wood burner), because the entire electricity infrastructure is not far from disaster.

[sparxNZ]

hot water heat pumps run great for central heating. probably the lowest cost and lowest labour input option if you dont want to cut wood. pellet burners work out extremely expensive to run because pellets cost a lot. pellet boilers can run coal with little modification - the mckenzie one actually has a coal version and a pellet version, the only difference i think is the auger speed. coal is crazy cheap if you don't mind shovelling a couple of tons each autumn.