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[Finterested]

Hi,

let me first introduce myself, we are a small family owned dairy farm in Finland. We are specialized in making cheeses in our medium sized (finnish scale) dairy. At the moment we use electricity for the production plant, all the cheese vats, pasteurizers etc have water circulation but are heated with coils. I calculated that our average load during production is around 60Amps on all 3 phases, so the bills are quite large...

Now I'm trying to figure out a (affordable) way to use wood instead of electricity. OWF and cord wood is not very popular in Finland, maybe for the lack of knowledge. Usually bioheating in here involves a automated woodchipstokerplantmonster with all the bells and whistles. I am not so keen on those as the prizetag of those is usually around 75k$ and upwards.

Ok, the situation is following. We currently heat our residence and dairyplant with woodpellets (50kW burner/170kBtu) and there is a canal (can only handle 160F) leading to dairyplant. In the dairy there are 2 different accumulator tanks that need hot water and should be connected to the OWF. To the end of that line I'm thinking of putting a 3000 litre accumulator tank that is connected via heat plate exchanger to the canal leading to our existing boiler. All the accumulator tanks will be connected through heat plate exchangers. I wish to preserve the old pelletboiler as a backup and for those days when there is no production going on in the dairy.

Does this sound doable, at all? There is a sales rep for Empyre in Finland.

ps, sorry for the typos and such. I don't get to use english all that much nowadays, my cows only speak finnish.

edit, I noticed those chip burners for OWFs. Are they reliable or affordable?

[franky1]

Finland,,Wow
Check out the Enviro 500 at portageandmainboilers.com

[Scott7m]

Have you considered a Pelco boiler?  You can burn a wide variety of products in that unit and the design is nothing short of amazing.  For what your using now it would be great, and you could continue to use pellets.

In regards to the empyre dealer, he should be able to provide you with info regarding them as there made by pro fab, the parent company of empyre

[Finterested]

Hi all and thanks for the replys. Actually yesterday I received a call from Portage and Main, I had sent them an email earlier. Looking forward to receiving a quote on the Envirochip.

I have also looked into the Pelco boiler, I talked to the sales rep last fall and if my memory serves me it was way too expensive (maybe 30k€). Pelco can burn grainsized stuff? Not woodchip etc.

[Scott7m]

Yes it's pellets, seeds, and ground material

Likely just to big for what your doing

[slimjim]

Good morning Finteresred, I'm glad you spoke with the office @ Portage and Main about the Enviro 500, I guess I am sort of the GURU on the boiler in the field, here is what I can tell you about it, I got my first one in March of 2012 at the Saratoga Springs, New York Bio- Mass seminar and immediatly fell in love with it's simplicity and stout construction, it will burn most any Bio- Mass  from perfect paper grade wood chips that sell locally here in Maine for $40 per ton to reasonably dry horse manure or low grade wood chips, typically around her are free from the guys that trim the sides of the road, depending on the quality of the fuel you can expect somewhere between 200,000 and 700,000 btu's. It is the only wood chip boiler to ever pass the US federal EPA / CSA /and UL while burning wood chips. the ones that we have in the field are performing very well and the customers love not only the boiler but the availability of raw wood chips and the labor savings over cordwood. It is a simple very well built unit that burns smokeles at over 2000 degrees in the firepot with a stack temp of 320 degrees when clean and up to 420 after 6 weeks without cleaning the fire tubes. I run the boiler at about 20 different shows per year in front of the public and will be running one here to heat my home and shop ( last year I burned 35 cord of wood here ), I do not have time to process and feed 35 cord of wood again this year, I can't wait for winter! As far as your application, WE CAN DO IT, I have installed several wood boilers in situations like yours in the past and will be happy to assist you in any way I can, Talk to Brian @ 800-561-0700 and he will give you my contact info or PM me here with your info and we can talk

[Finterested]

Good evening Slim, we have quite a time difference. Finland is GMT +2...

You sure have cheap fuels there, in here energy is bit more expensive. Electricity is (yearly consumption of 120MWh) 130€/MWh, wood pellet 50€/MWh, wood chip 35€/MWh. And of cource, heating oil is around 1€/litre, gasoline 1.6€/litre. Current exchange rate is 1€=1.27$. Do the math, now you know why I want cut down on the electricity...

I have thought about the setup all day, I'm quite confident about it. Only thing that concerns me is the amount heat plate exs and pumps that are needed for the installation. We already have more than 10 circulation pumps and 3 plates. More you got equipment, more they break down. Usually in winter and at night   

And the price for this is also a key factor. I really don't understand why outdoor boilers aren't used more in europe. Building a boiler room is surprisingly expensive, usually they cost around 500-1000€/m2 (50-100€/sqf) and the amount of building permits/fireproofing/insurances is staggering. I'm really hoping for a good quote on the Enviro 500, I bet my neighbours will be crapting bricks if buy an outdoor boiler. And maybe they will adjust their thinking when they use their calculators...

Thanks for the help, I really hope I can join the "outdoor boiler" -community! Who knows, maybe I can even sell a few...