Who Are the Best Candidates for Heating with Wood Pellets?

Merchant quantities of wood pellets are produced in the United States and Canada. According to the Pellet Fuels Institute statistics, 800,000 US building owners buy wood pellets for residential use. Pellets can be bought from different supply stores in forty pound packages or ordered and delivered in bulk.

European experience of installing wood pellet heating systems not only for residential but also for commercial, governmental and industrial purposes has become a common practice in North America, particularly in New England. It is obvious that heating requirements of municipal, federal, business and educational establishments are greater than those of residential settings. That is why for this type of buildings wood pellet boilers are used instead of stoves and pellets are bought in bulk.

For successful installation and utilization of a wood pellet heating system the following aspects should be taken into account:

• Centralized hot water heat-distribution system to meet the space heating needs of the entire building
• Adequate space to install and use the boiler
• Easily accessed silo to store and deliver wood pellets
• Distance between loading and delivery point should not exceed fifty miles to make charged per ton wood pellet deliveries most cost effective.