The new woodpellet heating system provides a fully automatic responsive heating system, running on a sustainable fuel which has very low carbon dioxide emissions, with the boiler has a better than 90% efficiency rating. The old night storage heaters were proving to be an expensive embarassment, being hot on warm days and not particularly effective if we got an unexpected cold snap. (They can only respond to adjustments made the day before you need the extra heat!)

Although the boiler arrived much earlier in the year (in April) we had to wait for warmer days to turn off the electric heaters for the very last time, these were taken out and the plumbing in of radiators etc was completed by the end of August. The next major step was the installation of the flexible stainless steel chimney lining completed in just a few hours on the morning of 18th September. The Engineer returned the following week to commission the boiler and test the pipework. With the addition of a three-way valve to ensure a good boiler return temperature at all times, the system has been up and running successfully since the 29th September.

The plumbing installation work has been done by a small band of volunteers, working mostly at weekends to avoid too much disruption in the workings of the AONB Office. We were especially fortunate to benefit in a training and work placement volunteer, Trevor Pollard from Lancaster, who had recently completed a plumbing course at college.

If you want to know more about the system chosen call in at the AONB Office for a chat - or click the link to look at our suppliers website - Cumbria Green Fuels