In Belgium pellets heating is not common: only a few pellets heating installations are placed in the residential sector. The installations are mostly pellets stoves. The aim of the project is to promote and to stimulate the use of wood pellets as a CO₂-neutral fuel for central heating of dwellings by initiating a demonstration project. Zonnige Kempen is a progressive social housing company building lots of new projects in which renewable and sustainable techniques in materials, water and energy are integrated. The company plans to build a new collective heated project in Grobbendonk in which a pellets boiler would be integrated as a CO₂-neutral energy. This would be the first pellets project for several dwellings in Belgium.

The pellets project consists of the building of 26 new collective heated dwellings. The heating installation consists of a wood pellets boiler (100 kW) in combination with a gas fired boiler (100 kW). The aim is to cover 90% of the heat demand with wood pellets, resulting in a reduction of fossil fuel consumption with 85% or 190 MWh/year and a CO₂-emission reduction with 38 tons per year.

The project located in the municipality of Grobbendonk exists of 4 new building blocks: A, B, C en D. Block A has 14 social dwellings, block B has 12 social dwellings, block C has 17 service flats and block D has 6 smaller dwellings for political refugees.

The project is located in the neighbourhood of the centre of the municipality of Grobbendonk, next to the rest home. Figure 1 shows a picture of the project in Grobbendonk.

For the heating of building block A and B a collective heating installation consisting of a boiler on wood pellets (100 kW) and a gas fired boiler (100 kW) is planned. Both boilers are working in cascade with priority to the wood pellets boiler. For the pellets boiler the research institute Vito does the study and engineering work.

This is the first collective heating installation on pellets in Belgium. The start of the construction is the beginning of 2005. The installation of the pellets boiler is planned for the end of 2005. The dwellings will be occupied in the beginning of 2006.

Below you can find more information on:

• Social housing company Zonnige Kempen strives for sustainability
• Why use collective heating from pellets?
• Calculation of heat demand, pellet consumption and CO₂ reduction

Monitoring:
The project will be closely monitored in 2006 by the research institute Vito (the Flemish Institute for Technological Research). The following measurement systems are incorporated:

• Heat meter for measuring the heat production of the wood pellets boiler.
• Electricity meter for measuring the consumption of the wood pellets boiler.
• Heat meter for measuring the heat production of the gas fired boiler.
• Gas meter for measuring the natural gas consumption of the gas fired boiler.
• Temperature sensor for measuring the pellets boiler water temperature.
• Temperature sensor for measuring the flue gas temperature of the pellets boiler.
• Temperature sensor for measuring the outside temperature.
• Point measurement of the emissions of the pellets boiler.

Further information:

Builder	C.V. Zonnige Kempen Sociale Bouwmaatschappij Grote Markt 39 B-2260 Westerlo Phone: +32 14 541941 e-mail: zonnige.kempen@cipal.be www.zonnigekempen.be
Technical consultant	VITO (Flemish Institution for Technological Research) Boeretang 200 B-2400 Mol Phone: +32 14 33 55 11 e-mail: johan.vanbael@vito.be www.vito.be