ÖkoFEN – Europe’s specialist in pellet heating – celebrated on April 19th a historic day with installing the first Pellematic e-max. This milestone is the start of the pilot phase of the electricity generating pellet boiler for apartment buildings and commercial facilities.The pilot installations serve to gain more experience outside the company’s test laboratories and further developing the product towards series production.
Salient Features
More heat and power out of wood pellets
The 55 kilowatt boiler supplies now the required heat for a family house in Bruges, Belgium. So far, this is nothing unusual for a wood pellet boiler, but the Pellematic e-max can provide more: The system produces heat and up to 4.5 kilowatts of electricity simultaneously. In one hour, the system generates 4.5 kilowatt hours of electricity – this yield might be used to travel about 40 kilometres with an electric car.
The Pellematic e-max is the sole heat generator and supplies the heat for the 400-square-foot single-family house and the swimming pool all year round. An optimum condition for the Pellematic e-max is a high heating demand to obtain the highest number of operating hours and thereby to achieve high electricity production.
In addition to the electricity generating wood pellet boiler, a buffer tank with a volume of 1,600 litres has been installed. This serves, among other things, to compensate the peak loads and store heat for domestic hot water. Another advantage when using the buffer tank is that the Pellematic e-max may only operate in full load mode. This ensures permanent ideal operating conditions and as high as possible yields of electricity.
Cutting-edge technology for high electricity production
For the Belgian family it was the most important thing to install an innovative and environmentally friendly technology for heating the home. The fact that the Pellematic e-max generates electricity too was the decisive factor during the selection process. From now on green electricity can be produced directly at the place of consumption. Through this fact the independence and the self-sufficiency rate are significantly increased. Excess electricity is fed into the public grid.
Know-how for the latest technology
The main objective of the pilot phase is to get extraexperience in installing different heating system types, for example, as a base load boiler or as the sole heat source.Currently, all Pellematic e-max testing systems are being installed and put into operation directly from the Austrian costumer support department, in order to use this expertise for the further developments of the product.
High electricity production in cascade use
The Pellematic e-max operates more efficiently in a cascade system. The big advantage is that with an optimally installation design, an almost continuous boiler operation is possible and therefore 8,000 or more operating hours a year can be achieved – provided a permanent heat demand of 55 kilowatts.Under these conditions, a year-round high electricity yield and therefore short payback periods are possible. Thus, the own green electricity production using wood pellets as fuel is also economically feasible.
Based on the press release by ÖkoFEN
For more details, contact Gregor Schneitler,Email : gregor.schneitler@oekofen.com
