An analysis of the power demand and electricity consumption of automatic pellet boiler

Pellet boilers are increasingly popular on the market, largely due to the fact that their use does not demand constant control by the user, but is reduced only to replenishing fuel and cleaning the combustion chamber and heat exchanger every few days. However, this functionality creates additional costs in terms of power consumption due to the work of boiler components, such as the pellet igniter, screw conveyors motors, fan, pump and controller. The purpose of this research was the analysis of the power demand and energy consumption of the electricity devices installed on the automatic pellet boiler in two operating modes, determining the total energy consumption and costs of electricity due to heating seasons in each mode. In the first mode, the boiler worked with modulated power, and in the second the boiler was working with nominal power. To carry out the mentioned research, a pellet boiler installed in the AGH UST Laboratory of Renewable Energy Sources in Miękinia was used. All the data obtained was used to simulate the total electricity consumption during one standard heating season and the costs involved. In the first case the boiler consumed 623,195 kWh of electricity per heating season and in the second the boiler consumed 304,503 kWh electricity per heating season. Although electricity consumption in the modulated mode is higher, the total cost of heating is lower, due to lower fuel consumption.