The owners replaced an oil-fired boiler which had been very expensive to operate, with a Klover Smart 120 is a pellet–fired boiler/range cooker to make considerable annual savings on their fuel costs.

The main function of the Smart 120 is to supply the central heating and hot water system, but it also incorporates a sealed oven and a cast-iron hot plate which are used for cooking. Its nominal output is 17.5kW to heating/hot water and 5.2 kW to room, but by closing or opening the stainless steel hob covers the proportion of heat going into the room can be regulated.

 

It has a 32kg internal ‘day’ hopper which needs to be kept topped up manually with three 10kg bags of wood pellets, roughly once a day in winter and every 2 or 3 days in summer (for the hot water load). In practice hot water is heated by an immersion heater in peak summer conditions.

 

The boiler is directly connected to a 500 litre unvented thermal store which functions as a buffer for the central heating system and also provides mains pressure hot water.