11632 Olive Waste Burners

This thread (towards the end) mentions sansa boilers:
[url]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/building-renovation/11264-needs.html#post106870[/url]

Neilo has a Sansa heating system. I'm sure she will help if she sees the thread - if not - send a PM.

And a good excuse to have yer mates round. Never the same if you're all standing round to watch the bloke from the gas company connect his hose to your bombola:laughs:

[quote=jamie;110315]Hi Guys,

We are currently investigating heating options for our home in Puglia. Ive found many useful threads on here re the relative merits of gas v termo camino v pellet boilers etc... but does any one have any direct experience of olive waste burners, I think theyre also called sansa burners. Similar to pellet burners but apparently they also burn olive waste, almond shells, solid wood etc... any comments, advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks
J[/quote]

Dear ohh dear..... the winter in Puglia can't be longer than 3 months....

Everybody is looking for cheap and sophisticated boilers/systems handing over their hard earned cash to the plumber/builder/geometra. Why ohhh why???

I would never advise for a holiday home other than a gas boiler and rads. Even for a permanent home in Puglia likewise. The initial capital investment is too great to justify this course of action with wood boiler/accumulator/sansa boiler/pellets (suppliers all take a chunk of money for their unique technology) and all the necessary regulatory equipment to make it a comfortable life not a stokers' one. You are always going to need a back up anyway.

Solar is definitely the best option being that far south (+ back up) in Puglia.

Put your money into insulation instead you'll get your money back ten fold in a short space of time and you won't need the air con (yet another capital outlay).

Use the structure of the building to regulate the in-door climate!!!

It really is simple!! :smile:

All this talk of sophisticated heating systems, boilers et cetera and their capital outlays cannot beat sophisticated cheap insulating materials and techniques.

...and another thing the German across the field from us, keeps raving on about the fact that in Italy there is no quality standard that pellets have to conform to and consequently they are a rip off! You are in the hands of the supplier with most things but pellets are an imotive subject around here.

[quote=Noble;110343]...and another thing the German across the field from us, keeps raving on about the fact that in Italy there is no quality standard that pellets have to conform to and consequently they are a rip off! You are in the hands of the supplier with most things but pellets are an imotive subject around here.[/quote]

... besides your point above.

I have had discussions with our wood supplier who does not appreciate me arriving with my moisture meter and discussing a discount based on the water content.

Or ... our GPL supplier offering "Euro gas 3" and delivering "Euro gas 5" which has a lesser energy content but they make good money at it... if I weren't so observant....

And isn't it funny when they change the Elnel meter supply consumption increases quite dramatically...?? How does that work???

I also asked Enel why our supply cost per Kwh had gone up and they said because oil was at $140/barrel so I rung them a few weeks ago when oil was $35/barrel and hey presto it wasn't about the oil then.... how does that work???

Don't get me started on my soap box about petrol prices at the pump... how does that work??

A rip off as usual... agree in some respects there should be standards ... Hey... but this is Italy .... never goin' happen... at least not in my lifetime.

The cliche "buyer beware" comes to mind!!

Well if we called each other on SKYPE (but we must not) we could rant and rave on this subject which is close to my heart. Around here a wood merchant would only sell you wood once if you took a moisture metre with you!!! It seems that there is little true competition and no consumer protection in the fuel business. I would encourage those with holiday homes to install a wood burning stove, ideally with a little oven as part of the design. And then take the easy option and burn those solid sawdust bricks that you can buy in bulk, all wrapped in polythene packs, so easy to store and clean to use. When you first arrive the stove heats up a house far quicker than the central heating will, especially if it is a house made of stone.

Many pellet central heating boilers will also burn sansa, nuts, maize etc, its just a matter of some adjustments to the electronic control system for the fuel. It seems fairly easy to get accredited Din+ pellets from Austria.

Hi Guys,
and thanks for the comments (the constructive ones anyway). To put you in the picture we are going to be living in Puglia full time and yes the winters are cold. Its a new build and we fully intend to insulate the property thoroughly but obviously some form of heating/hot water will be needed. We intend to supply the majority of our hot water via solar panels and had investigated using these to also provide heating. But, the initial outlay is prohibitive for us and we are informed that the panels are at their least effective in the winter which is when we would need them the most. We have a quote for a sansa burner (which along with the olive waste will burn among other things wood pellets, almond shells and solid wood) it has 2 chambers one for heating and one that will supplement the solar panels for hot water. It kicks out 30kw which is more than enough to heat our whole property should we wish and also provide hot water. Whilst I appreciate that the more energy we require the more quickly it will burn we are informed that the hopper shouldnt need refilled more than every other day at full blast and much less frequently under normal conditions. The cost is only slightly more than the quote we have for a top notch condensing gas boiler and considerably less than the quote we have for a combined gas boiler and termo camino which was our initial choice. We are looking for a more environmentally friendly/renewable/responsible way of powering our home and I dont want to be at the mercy of the gas companies.

Moving slightly sideways we had quotes for radiators and underfloor heating and the difference in cost is negligible so I would encourage anyone who had written off the idea of underfloor as just too expensive without investigating to think again because I think things are moving on (obviously this may not be the case with an old or renovation property)

Nielo thank you for your comments you are the first person Ive come across who actually has one of these burners, you sound positive and it looks like the technology has moved on even further. Lotan, do you have experience in this field, Im curious why you think I should just go for gas when I cant see any good reason to?

J

Just wanted to second the comments about underfloor heating. I manage a couple of properties with underfloor heating and I have been extremely impressed by the comfortable heat it produces. Even when run at quite a moderate temperature, the house has an even temperature throughout. The property that operates its underfloor heating by means of a gas boiler, probably the most expensive option, still has heating costs that are not excessive.

Underfloor heating, is by far the best method of heating a house. The temperature required is far lower than radiators, so you save from day 1. Do not though use it like a radiator system, whereas you turn the heating off during the day. Better to keep a fairly constant house temperature and maybe reduce slightly for overnight.

Just as an addition, these are some calculations taken from mid Sept to today, for heating/ hot water costs for the house here, using underfloor heating.

House @19C, DHW @ 48C. estimated Euro 570. Perhaps someone can give a comparison, based on GPL, wood, pellets etc