Knowing how to correctly manage and use wood boilers can expand their useful life. This activity is often delegated, when the facilities are small, by a player from the local community or from the company, who is not necessarily fully skilled in this issue.
However, a boiler operator is the key piece towards the correct operation of the boiler. This person listens to the machines, oversees that the fuel chosen is ideal, registers consumption to avoid any element that causes damages, and guarantees that the heat is distributed evenly throughout the building, optimising user comfort. For all of these reasons, the presence of these individuals is essential, so they can understand how to install them and perform enhanced follow up.
With this aim and in collaboration with the Environmental and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) and the Regional Centre for Renewable Energies (CRER), the Regional Union of Forestry Communities (URCOFOR) in Aquitaine organised a “Boiler Management” training session, on 22nd and 23rd October in Pau. Some 15 boiler operators from the Atlantic Pyrenees and Les Landes attended. The two-day session covered the issue of wood boilers, with two visits to facilities and an extensive programme covering the following:
- The advantages of wood energy and its characteristics
- The different fuels and their usage limits
- The supply contract and receiving deliveries
- Introducing the boiler, its surroundings and the hydraulic circuit
- Maintenance and inspection of the heat production system
- Maintenance and inspection of the hydraulic circuit
- Maintenance and inspection calendar
- Practical tasks: boiler audit
The training can be organised again in august 2020 if any new operators are interested.
Based on this training, a group of wood boiler operators has been created in the Atlantic Pyrenees Region, with the aim of exchanging their problems and solutions, and enabling them to gauge a greater understanding of how these boilers work. The first group meeting will take place in early 2020. The group
organisation is funded by ADEME, the Regional Council of Aquitaine and the Interreg Promobiomasse project within the framework of its pilot action.
This project has been backed with the experience of an already formed group of this type in the Aquitaine region: the Poitou-Charentes Club of biomass boiler users, coordinated by the CRER for some years now, and which has given good results.
