Länsi-Savo: A man from Kouvola squeezes pellets from fallen maple leaves

I live in Kouvola Jukka Lampila the sauna heating costs decreased significantly when he started making pellets from maple leaves. The newspaper reported on the matter West Savo.

Lampila got the idea from a German newspaper story that told about pellet pressing. He has enough raw material from his own backyard, as there are four large maple trees growing in the yard of the detached house.

Lampila decided to use the autumn leaf harvest and ordered a pellet machine from Germany. It cost a good thousand euros, but it paid for itself in a year. The Lampila family consumes 1,500–2,000 kilos of pellets per year, because the sauna heats up almost every day, and a lot of it. Firewood would cost at least a thousand euros a year.

Jukka Lampila estimates that his device could produce perhaps 4,000 kilos of pellets per year. He calculates that the price of a kilo of pellets will be about four cents when the raw material is free. Electricity is included in the calculation.

About 30 kilos of pellets are used to heat the sauna per week. At one time, it drops to a maximum of five kilos.

Lampila says that the pellet burns efficiently and cleanly. Very little ash remains.

“I like to heat with pellets when they don’t get dusty when handling and there’s no garbage like firewood,” he says.