Sampson Hydronic Pellet Boilers

Have a large area to heat and looking for a central heating setup? Pellet Fires Tasmania sell a range of Samspon hydronic pellet boilers that will heat water or both air, like a standard pellet heater, and water. Pellet boilers are great for very big homes, anyone who wants to heat their entire house to a desired temperature or commercial settings like large offices and have an enormous amount of space to heat and require a lot of heat to keep the building warm. As you might guess hydronic pellet boilers are usually found in very cold climates because even the “small” models put out an enormous amount of heat.

What’s a Hydronic Pellet Boiler?

The main difference between a pellet heater and a hydronic pellet boiler is the way they distribute the heat they generate. A pellet heater is a space heater that heats an area via by blowing hot air out into the room. If you buy a pellet heater in Australia, these are the most common type of pellet heater available. These types of heaters are good for heating a specific room and can also warm other rooms via natural convection but they are not central heaters.

A hydronic pellet boiler, also known as a pellet boiler, is a central heating system that burns wood pellets like a pellet heater, but the heat it generates is transferred to water. This hot water is then circulated through pipes to radiators or underfloor heating systems, providing warmth to the entire home or office. The heat can also be used for hot water for domestic use.

Pellet boilers are central heaters and pellet heaters are space heaters. If you want your entire house or office and maintain a constant temperature no matter which room you are in, then you definitely want a pellet boiler. Read the what’s a hydronic pellet boiler if you’d like to learn the specifics of hydronic pellet boilers, how they work and how they differ to standard pellet heaters.

Pellet Fires Tasmania Pellet Boiler Models

Pellet Fires Tasmania sells different sized hydronic pellet boilers which can heat water or both water and air. The brand they sell is the Sampson hydronic pellet boiler and comes in 18kw, 24kw, 35kw and a 50kw model. There’s essentially two types of boilers. One which is a dedicated traditional boiler in the sense that it only heats water and another which heats both air and water. These air and water pellet boilers deliver roughly 1/3rd of heat via air to the room the boiler is installed in the remaining 2/3rd heats water. Here’s a quick breakdown of these two different types of hydronic pellet boilers.

Sampson Hydronic Heater Boiler

These models (18kw, 24kw, 35kw and 50kw) are dedicated water based heating boilers. They are typically installed under the house or somewhere outside of the house as they don’t actually heat the air like a standard pellet heater. They have a built in water tank that is heated by pellets that are burnt and then this hot water is transferred around the house, typically to radiators or via underfloor heating.

The water based hydronic pellet boilers are central heating systems. While you can control the heat that goes to rooms via radiators so they are on/off etc, the idea behind these water based only pellet boilers is your entire or most of your house will be connected to the pellet boiler. This obviously means you will have a radiator in every room or at least every room you want to heat and may also have underfloor pipes to heat the floor. If you live in a very cold climate, luckily Tasmania isn’t that bad, then this is something you’d see in houses for heating.

Sampson Hydronic Heater Boiler

These heater boilers (18kw and 24kw) come in a combo style that heats the air, like a standard pellet heater, but also heats water, like a standard hydronic pellet boiler. When they are running, 1/3rd of the heat they generate heats the room via hot air and the rest heats water. So, if you had an 18kw model, then when running on high heat 6kw will heat hot air to warm the room the boiler is in and the remaining 12kw heats water, which then is pumped to rooms in the house to provide heating.

Because this type of boiler heats air and water they need to be installed in a living room or somewhere just like a normal pellet heater would be installed, so that room is also heated. It’s pointless installing something like this under the house or in a room you never use, as you will be wasting heat. They only come in an 18kw and 24kw size, which is still much larger than a standard pellet heater (13kw is the maximum), but much smaller than the water only models which go up to 50kw.

This combo type water heater boiler is still a central heating system. However, it would be installed so when it is running in the lounge room you get hot air coming out of the boiler and then the other rooms in your house would be heated using radiators. This is a step up from a standard pellet heater because it can be used as a central heating system but at the same time doesn’t go all in like the Sampson 35kw and 50kw models that only provide heating via water.

Sampson Hydronic Pellet Boiler Features

All of the Sampson hydronic pellet boilers come with built-in water tanks but you can connect these to external buffer tanks if you want, which increases capacity. This holds water that is heated and the more water they hold the larger area can be heated. You’ll see that the 18kw boilers have the smallest water capacity and the 50kw has the largest, this is because the massive heat they generate on high.

You’ll also notice that the 18kw boiler has a hopper capacity of 30kg and as the size of the heater increase, so does the hopper capacity. The biggest the hopper the more pellets the pellet boiler can hold and the longer it can run without having to put pellets in. However, keep in mind that the bigger the pellet boiler heat output the more pellets will be burnt. This is why the 50kw has the largest hopper because it consumes a lot of pellets to generate such an immense amount of heat.

Which Sampson Hydronic Pellet Boiler Model Should You Buy?

Which Sampson hydronic pellet boiler is best for you really depends. First, do you want to use it to heat water only, so you would use radiators in rooms or underfloor heating, or are you looking to heat a room the boiler is in via hot air and then water for radiators? If you want a pellet boiler that does both air and water you have narrowed it down to the Sampson 18kw or 24kw. Both of these pellet boilers will provide more than enough heat for most houses, as the 24kw heats up to 435m2 of space.

If you want to heat only using hot water, then you can pick from the 18kw, 24kw, 35kw and 50kw models. Next, I’d be looking at the space you want to heat. The 18kw and 24kw would put out enough heat for most houses in Tasmania and Australia in general. Unless you had an enormous area to heat, I’d be picking one of these two. The 24kw models has a good sized hopper and a good sized water tank, plus it’s pellet consumption is still very reasonable.

The 35kw and 50kw models put out a lot more heat but I seriously doubt you’d need such immense heat in a house. They would be great for heating commercial areas but if you look at the table below the burn time with the default hopper drops off considerably compared to the 18kw and 24kw models. Again, this is due to the massive amount of wood pellets that are needed to create all that heat.

So, I’d say the 18kw and 24kw either water only or air and water pellet boilers would be the best value choice of Sampson hydronic pellet boilers. My favourite would be the 24kw due to good hopper size, good water tank capacity and still very reasonably long burn time for such a huge heat output. Here’s a table that shows a quick breakdown on the various Sampson hydronic pellet boiler models Pellet Fires Tasmania stock.

You can see that hopper capacity, water tank and how long the boilers can run before needing more pellets does vary between models and might be something to remember when deciding which boiler would work best for your heating needs. You can also see that even though the hopper capacity is 40kg, if running the hydronic pellet boiler on high or maximum heat you will burn through wood pellets very quickly. Most “normal” pellet heaters will get about 23 hours out of a 30kg hopper. So this is another thing to keep in mind. Hydronic boilers pump out a lot of heat but this means they will also burn through wood pellets faster.

Other Hydronic Pellet Heater Brands to Consider

If you are in Tasmania, then Bass Pellet Heaters in Launceston also sells hydronic pellet boilers. They sell a pellet boiler they call the Bass 37, which going by the picture appears to be very similar if not the same as the Sampson 35kw boiler above. This is the only model they sell. There are other retailers around Tasmania and Australia selling hydronic boilers, but they aren’t popular, so they don’t really advertise them.

Summary

I personally don’t own a hydronic pellet boiler, would love to, but just don’t have the need for so much heat. While most people who buy a pellet heater in Tasmania just get the non-boiler types, hydronic pellet boilers are a much better choice if you want to heat our entire house evenly and more efficiently.

Resources:
Pellet Fires Tasmania Boilers