Effect of Thermal Storage on the Emissions and Efficiency Performance of a Wood-Pellet-Fired Residential Boiler.

Wood pellet boilers for residential heating applications offer the promise of low emissions, high efficiency, and automatic operation. However, when operated in the field, these units operate often at very low loads causing them to cycle. In this study, the performance of a 25 kW modern pellet boiler under emulated field conditions and fixed nominal loads of 15 and 100% has been studied in a lab-with and without a buffer tank.