Who makes commercial wood or pellet fired boilers?

[teatersroad]

I scanned the ad banners, trying to be sure to not step on toes. apologies if I missed something.

I am helping someone with a little preliminary planning for a commercial/civic structure in a small town in SE Alaska. The obvious fuel for them is pellets or cord wood, provided they feel satisfied with the quality of available burners. Looking at commercial 500k btu boiler or furnace, I'm not seeing many options. WoodMaster.

My mother is on the planning committee for this endeavor, she asked me what I knew. I told her I would scratch around a bit. I have set up waste oil boilers that size, I'm not a complete hack. They have an interest in wood fired boilers, but are expressing a lot of concern about durability. A little more information will hopefully lead them to the product options and qualified assistance they need. I did point them to examples of commercial applications elsewhere in their neighborhood.

otherwise,, all's well here. I don't get on the forum as much as I used to. Hope you'all managed winter fine.

 

[teatersroad]

couple things transpired since I posted this moments ago.

they've decided against wood as the fuel source, and, a new pope has been chosen. i'm not sure if the two are related, seems like they might be.

 

[ELEVOFF]

Wood Gasification boilers - heaters from Alternate Heating Systems

I was pretty impressed with the E1000. Check out the video.

 

[teatersroad]

Wood Gasification boilers - heaters from Alternate Heating Systems

I was pretty impressed with the E1000. Check out the video.

nice, thanks, I want one. word is they are going with a ground source heat pump. the project has quite a ways to go, probably will not break ground for another year. plenty of time for them to change their minds. I do not care what they do, but I intend to learn a bit more and pass it along still.

 

[zogger]

They are going with 100% electricity?? How is the power generated there, diesel or fuel oil? No matter..can they get a long term, ten years out rate lock in?

Man, alaska..seems wood would be a no brainer, plus help the local economy more. I am just guessing though, never been there.

Smaller scale, where I live, here are my theoretical options..burn electricity (one way or the other), burn propane, burn heating oil..or burn the trees gathered right here on the farm.

Anything but wood is just retarded economically when you are 100% surrounded by it.

 

[walkerdogman85]

I believe central boiler make a pallet burner?

 

[teatersroad]

They are going with 100% electricity?? How is the power generated there, diesel or fuel oil? No matter..can they get a long term, ten years out rate lock in?

Man, alaska..seems wood would be a no brainer, plus help the local economy more. I am just guessing though, never been there.

Smaller scale, where I live, here are my theoretical options..burn electricity (one way or the other), burn propane, burn heating oil..or burn the trees gathered right here on the farm.

Anything but wood is just retarded economically when you are 100% surrounded by it.

I see it the same, in less harsh terms. I'm not sure what their decision process is, I may prod a few more times along the way.

edit> the climate in SE AK is pretty mild,, dreary even.

 

[zogger]

I see it the same, in less harsh terms. I'm not sure what their decision process is, I may prod a few more times along the way.

I wasnt trying to be harsh, just some things seem so obvious. This is a problem already solved by many memebers here, a normal big wood furnace or boiler. And not pellets, those have to be made, logs, cut locally, stacked up in abundance during the whatever season is the best time to do that there..

from what I understand, delivery of anything is expensive in alaska, and sometimes becomes impossible, espeically during the winter months, whereas if this is a small community surrounded by trees, and the members have ways and means to harvest the trees..just not seeing the debate process here unless they got a lot o extra money and want something automatic, that no one has to mess with outside of setting a thermostat.

I just dont know, is the electricity supply that cheap and good there, never goes down? I thought electricity and other things like that were quite expensive there.

 

[teatersroad]

I wasnt trying to be harsh, just some things seem so obvious. This is a problem already solved by many memebers here, a normal big wood furnace or boiler. And not pellets, those have to be made, logs, cut locally, stacked up in abundance during the whatever season is the best time to do that there..

from what I understand, delivery of anything is expensive in alaska, and sometimes becomes impossible, espeically during the winter months, whereas if this is a small community surrounded by trees, and the members have ways and means to harvest the trees..just not seeing the debate process here unless they got a lot o extra money and want something automatic, that no one has to mess with outside of setting a thermostat.

I just dont know, is the electricity supply that cheap and good there, never goes down? I thought electricity and other things like that were quite expensive there.

they have pellets or cordwood at their disposal, though I would not rely on the pellet production. I've seen those producers start up and fizzle-out enough. I think they may have a few hand wringers making decisions concerned about having to be Alaskans. First word I got is that there were plenty of folks willing to pitch in to bring wood to the nest (library, clinic, post office, some other uses). Started looking into it then was hearing other concerns, reliability mostly. I'm sceptical that the homeowner boilers would be suitable, but a couple commercial lines I've seen seem plenty durable. I don't have a dog in it, but given a task I feel capable of lending a hand. I do not know the effiiciency of ground source heat pumps, or what they pay for power. maybe .12/kwh ?

Of the two manufacturers listed above(WoodMaster, AHS), I still have not seen a 500k btu cord wood burner. (I have seen the pallet burner, thanks, not suitable).

 

[teatersroad]

addm: Why it appears the 500k AHS does not burn cordwood is that it and the 1000k model do not list log capacity. It's for me to figure out otherwise, but that's my first impression.