Windhager Biowin Pellet Boiler

Hi guys. I'm new on here but I'd like to share my story. Last fall I finally got fed up with the high cost of heating oil in New England so I bought a pellet boiler. It's a Windhager Biowin. Everything went well this past season and I estimate I saved around $1500 on heating costs.

The boiler is an Austrian unit and the distributor is in MA. I'm doing my part as a happy customer to bring about brand awareness to those who may be interested,

Here is a link to the website.

I have pictures of my install that I'd like to share. I'll post them when I have a minute to dig them up on my computer.

 

I found some pics:

 

Thanks for the pictures! I really enjoy pictures.
On the other site that we won't mention, I was known as Hobbyheater.

 

Then you've probably seen these pics before.

 

Welcome Dana. There are quite a few pellet burners here. Glad you found FHC.

 

Thats a nice setup Dana sounds like your pretty happy with it thanks for sharing

 

I've been known to read a book that I like more than once!

 

Yeah it was a pretty brutal winter here in New England as in other parts of the country so the savings probably won't be so great every year but my wife and I were looking at it as a long term investment as we have two young children and plan on staying in the home at least until they are graduated from high school. The payback should be about 7-8 years and that includes a plumber doing the install and a chimney guy dropping a liner. I also got a Nyletherm heat pump to do the domestic hot water during the non heating months. So now we're pretty much off of oil. I left the oil boiler in place as a backup though.

I've been in communication with others who've bought the Biowin via the internet and they all seem to be happy with it too. NH had a rebate for pellet fuel systems but I decided to forgo that because it would have only put me a couple of hundred in the black after it was all said and done. I don't mind the manual feeding. The supplier I've been buying pellets from drops the pallets right at my bulkhead and I can usually get two tons stacked on a pellet in the basement in under an hour. I'm actually looking forward to my son, who just turned three, being old enough to help me out, kind of a father son bonding thing, like going fishing or something.

The Biowin has a 320 lb. hopper and even during the coldest spells I could go for a few days without having to add more pellets. I guess the most important test is time. How will the unit hold up over the next 20-30 years. But so far so good.

 

The boiler is pretty nice. I looked into some other brands such as Kedel and Harmann and Windhager seemed like the best value. There's also Okofen and Frohling but the prices are astronomical.

My home is a 10 year old 2400 sq ft New England colonial. I've been doing insulation projects here and there. I air sealed the attic myself last year but need to add insulation because the fiberglass batts are probably only giving me about R20 up there due to age and compression. i also had my basement rim joists spray foamed last December.

I ended up going through six tons of pellets last year. I'm hoping to get some more insulation in the attic in the next year or two to make the house a little more energy efficient.

 

I'm a network engineer by trade and don't have the level of technical understanding regarding boilers, plumbing etc that many of you have so I try not to offer information that I'm not sure about but I do know that the boiler modulates itself. There's a lot of intelligence in the controller that you don't see with a pellet stove or most conventional oil boilers.

The boiler has an actuating plate on the bottom of it that rotates open and closed to drop the ashes in the compartment below it. Below the burnpot at the bottom of the unit is an auger that moves the ash to the left side of the unit. On the bottom left you will see the black box. That is the ash box. Above that is the hopper. At the bottom of the hopper I believe is an auger that pushes the pellets from the bottom of the hopper to the burn chamber on the right hand side of the unit where they fall into the burnpot.

 

here is a animation video of how the unit operates

 

Hi Dana. Progress is slow on my BioWin project. A hole saw I was using from the outside to cut a hole through the foam and sheetrock snagged in the concrete bore and twisted my wrist up pretty bad, so that'll slow things up more. (I'm relocating the oil tank to make room, bored holes through concrete, and put foam and sheetrock on wall-attempting to finish wall now before moving tank.)

I didn't realize that if you get the auto feed setup, it doesn't come with the nice hopper cover, etc that you have. While you can feed it manually, it's not as nice. So, I guess I will be doing auto with the three ton bag storage in the basement. Marc is supposed to be bringing back a fancy dancy baro damper from Europe. I've got to get moving...

 

Sorry to hear about your hole saw mishap. Are you even able to use your hand now?

A lot of other people I've talked to who own the Biowin have preferred to go with the automatic feed system. For a number of reasons I decided not to go that route. I like how the manual feed keeps me from being lazy, at least in one aspect of my life. It also keeps me more in tune with the boiler as I look at the settings and all that each time I feed bags.

I have an unfinished basement and it's doubtful that we'll be finishing it any time soon. There are a few lawn items and kids outdoor toys, a workbench with tools but other than that my basement is empty and I could literally store 15 to 20 tons down there if I were so inclined and I could afford to buy that many tons at once, which I can't. but at least I have enough space to store a season's worth. I have one ton down there now and the plan is to have another five before mid October.

when do you think you will have that project wrapped up and ready for Marc to commission?

 

"Sorry to hear about your hole saw mishap. Are you even able to use your hand now?"
Yes. I'm wearing a brace. I feel stupid because I tell my wife to be careful when she drills holes flower bulbs.

I have no idea when it'll be finished-it's going at a snail's pace. I haven't even opened the buffer tank box yet.

I might if it'd be possible to buy a kit to make it manual.