Should You Switch to Biomass Heating This Winter?

by Woodyfuel | Oct 5, 2022 | Biomass

The winter season is quickly approaching, bringing the cold weather with it. With the cost of fuels increasing exponentially in recent times, businesses and households are starting to worry about the price tag of heating over the Christmas season. This article will discuss biomass heating and whether it will be good this winter.

wood pellets and logs in a fire for heating energy

What is Biomass Heating?

Using biomass as energy, you can generate power from burning wood, plants or other organic matter, like household waste and manure. Compared with fossil fuels, it releases significantly less carbon dioxide when burned. The combustion of wood pellets, chips, or logs provides warmth in a single room or powers central heating and hot water boilers.

In addition to heating a single room, stoves can also provide water heating via a back boiler. Boilers burn logs, pellets, and chips and are connected to commercial heating systems (a hot water system). The cost of heating your home with a biomass boiler could be as much as £1,100 less a year than with an old electric heating boiler.

To see wood fuels for biomass heating, click here.

Benefits of Biomass Heating Systems

It is challenging to decide about something that costs money. Especially if you will need it this coming season, here are some benefits of biomass boiler fuel.

Cost of Biomass Heating

The cost of wood fuel can vary; however, it is often cheaper than any other heating option, meaning you can funnel that extra cost into other matters.

See our wood fuel options now.

Efficiency

A wood-burning system such as biomass boilers using wood pellets can achieve efficiency levels of around 90%, comparable to a existing heating system powered by gas and oil.

Renewable Energy Source

Our fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal, and oil consumption is outpacing production, so we are running out of these commodities faster than they are being produced. Biomass boilers work because they will always have natural resources as fuel if plants are planted and grown, making it a sustainable renewable heating option.

Carbon Footprint

Although carbon dioxide emissions still occur when burning the wood fuel in a biomass system, it is the same amount that was absorbed by the tree while growing. This means the process is carbon neutral as long as new plants grow in place of the utilised wood. This lower carbon option is even better if you choose a local wood fuel company which uses locally sourced fuel. Therefore, the cultivation, manufacture and transport are lower overall.

At Woodyfuel, this sustainable method is employed to ensure the best forest management and carbon neutrality when collecting wood fuel for clients.

Government Payments

If you are a household, installing a biomass boiler in your home could qualify you for government payments under the Renewable Heat Incentive, a biomass boiler project.

Find out more about this incentive program here.

Disadvantages of a Biomass Heating System

Even the best things in life can have some disadvantages, so to keep you well-informed about biomass heating this Christmas, these are some disadvantages.

a man on the phone in front of a biomass boiler in a wood pellet storage place

Space

Due to the physical nature of biomass fuel, biomass boilers require much more storage space than standard boilers. It is not only necessary to dedicate space for the boiler itself but also to store fuel. A great fuel store option is a protective shelter outdoors or inside storage, such as a garage or warehouse.

Maintenance

The maintenance requirements will differ significantly depending on whether you purchase an automatic or manual heating system with biomass. Manual models need weekly ash removal and fuel topping up every other day. A hopper in an automatically fed pellet boiler allows it to self-clean and refuel itself, which is very handy!

Unlike a traditional boiler (like an oil boiler system or a standard gas-fired system), the fuel store of pellet boilers or log boilers needs an air source heat pump with buffer tanks to generate heat and release the nitrogen oxides and carbon emissions. To provide heating in your home, building regulations must be met. Luckily, the flue pipe of an existing chimney can often be used pellet hopper fully automated systems (with a heat exchanger) to have energy efficient, carbon neutral thermal stores with low running costs. Pellet stoves, log boiler or any other biomass boiler work to meet your heating demand while adhering to lower fuel costs and still providing energy efficiency.

Upfront Cost

Due to the fuel and the RHI, biomass boilers are cheap to run. However, the biomass boiler cost itself can typically cost roughly ten times more than a gas boiler.

Nevertheless, up until March 2022, the Green Homes Grant could provide you with up to £5,000 towards the costs of installing a sustainable source biomass boiler to save money.

What Wood Fuel to Use in Biomass Heating?

Let’s assume you have decided that the benefits outweigh the negatives and want to use biomass as your heating energy source. In this case, which wood fuel do you use? Our experts at Woodyfuel can help you select the best option for your needs. We offer both wood chips and wood pellets; however, there is also the option of wood logs. But what are the differences?

Wood chips or pellets are often used for larger buildings or groups of homes. Logs are much more challenging to control than pellets. As with gas or oil boilers, a biomass boiler works automatically if it is a wood pellet boiler. Wood pellet boilers or ones that use wood chips are usually fitted with automatic feeders that replenish the fuel regularly.

On the other hand, it takes significantly more time and effort to fill log-burning stoves and boilers by hand, but this is a manual task, not automatic. As long as you have a reliable local supply of logs, they can be cheaper than other biomass fuels for heating a whole house with domestic biomass boilers. This is why logs are often chosen for a wood burning stove. However, if you are a business, this advantage will often be overweighed by the ease of chips and pellets.

Do You Have a Local Fuel Supplier?

Pretty much all businesses offer delivery services now, as do we. The supply of pellets is more flexible for most companies in mainland Britain and Northern Ireland than for logs.

Availability is only part of the picture. Planning your winter biomass fuel supply before demand peaks can give your supplier time to confirm volumes, check delivery access and make sure the correct fuel specification is ready for your boiler.

The Biomass Suppliers List is a list of suppliers who supply renewable heating biomass fuel to eligible applicants for the Renewable Heat Incentive. If you intend to enter into a long-term supply contract with your fuel supplier, you should check whether they are listed on this list.

Woodyfuel happens to be one of them! We believe in sustainable and efficient green energy for everyone. By being on this list, the government and we can confidently say that we supply sustainable and high-quality wood fuel for our customers.

Wood chip, pellet, brash

Call 03333 447234 to arrange your wood fuel supply today

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