Guide to Wood Pellet Boilers

Pellet boilers use naturally sourced wood waste to replace traditional oil and gas models. Biomass materials include fuels like wood pellets, chips, and logs. A pellet boiler is an efficient and sustainable investment for practically any heating application.

Common questions we receive about wood pellet home heating systems include:

What is Pellet Central Heating?

Pellet central heating is the process of burning wood pellets inside a pellet boiler or pellet furnace and transferring that heat to your building's air and water. Pellets are pure, compressed wood scraps with zero additives. Modern pellet boilers respond to thermostats just like other boilers and furnaces.

Pellet-fired hydronic heaters are available as outdoor and indoor models. At Tarm Biomass, we sell convenient indoor models that require lower maintenance than outdoor models. It is possible to replace your current pellet furnace or add a pellet boiler for a primary source of heat while retaining a backup source.

How Does a Wood Pellet Boiler Work?

A pellet boiler system consists of a few main components - the pellet storage area/container, the pellet boiler, and often, a buffer tank to provide consistent heat output. Each model will vary in size, but the overall operating mechanism remains similar.

The pellets enter the combustion chamber automatically and are ignited with an electric igniter. The pellets burn and create heat, which is pulled through heat exchange tubes to heat the water. When no more heat is needed, the boilers modulate and then shut off and de-ash automatically. 

Can a Pellet Boiler Heat a Whole Building?

It is common to heat a whole house or commercial space with a pellet boiler. Wood pellets are more economical than a traditional propane or oil furnace. Modern pellet boilers have automated features so you can set a thermostat and forget it. A wood pellet boiler is a simple and effective replacement for any traditional furnace or boiler.

Fröling pellet boilers have an automatic ash collector and cleaning system to eliminate regular hand cleaning. They are well insulated to help keep heat exactly where it is wanted.

Why Is a Wood Pellet Boiler Not a Pellet Stove?

Though boilers and stoves may seem like similar appliances, these terms are not interchangeable. Boilers are fundamentally different than stoves by producing heat from wood, transferring it into the water, and pushing it into the building's central heating supply, where it can then heat water for taps, showers, and various forms of radiators for space heat.

Instead of heating entire facilities, pellet stoves typically only heat the air in certain rooms, via blown hot air and some radiant heating.

Why Is a Wood Pellet Boiler Not a Wood Pellet Furnace?

Pellet boilers also differ from pellet furnaces. Boilers heat facilities using hot water or steam, while furnaces deliver heat using warm air. When boilers heat the water, they transport it to baseboard radiators, cast iron radiators, and radiant flooring systems through a pump. Wood pellet boilers can also use exchangers to heat air.  For this reason, wood pellet boilers can replace wood pellet furnaces, but wood pellet furnaces cannot replace wood pellet boilers. 

Wood furnaces use a blower to channel heated air through the building's ducts to generate high ambient temperatures.

Get Stoked to Opt-Out of Oil With One-Touch Warmth With a Pellet Boiler

Pellet boiler heating is an efficient and easy way to heat a home or business. The Fröling PE1 wood pellet boiler is the perfect boiler to heat a home or smaller business with heating requirements between 68,000 to 120,000 BTU/hr. The Fröling PE1 is compact and quiet, with easy-to-use features and an attractive price. 

For larger pellet boiler heating applications, including larger homes and commercial and institutional applications, Tarm Biomass offers the larger Fröling P4 wood pellet boilers, the Fröling T4 Wood Pellet, and Wood Chip Boiler and the Fröling Turbomat boiler. These boilers can handle loads from 160,000 BTU/hr to 1.7 MMBTU/hr and beyond with up to four cascaded boilers.

Why Choose Tarm Biomass?

Tarm Biomass has years of experience helping homeowners, business owners, and property managers find the ideal central heating pellet boiler systems for their applications. Our goal is to provide sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel heating and enable individuals and organizations to shrink their carbon footprint and increase their energy efficiency. It is possible to save money and encourage independence from big energy companies with ease.