Wood Fuelled Heating Systems
Wood is a very versatile fuel and can be burned in many different forms to provide warmth in a single room or to power central heating and hot water boilers.
Wood-
A biomass boiler may be ideal if you live in areas without access to a mains gas supply and could save you nearly £600 a year compared to electric heating.
Wood-
Affordable heating: Wood fuel is less susceptible to fuel price increases than fossil fuels, especially if it comes from your own resource.
Financial support: Wood fuel boiler systems will benefit from the Renewable Heat Premium Payment and the Renewable Heat Incentive.
A carbon neutral option: Wood fuel, appropriately managed, can be a sustainable resource, although burning wood releases CO², it is the same amount as was absorbed while the wood was growing. When efficiently run, wood fuel systems produce little smoke emissions.
Things to consider
Storage space: Wood boilers are larger than gas or oil equivalents. You will also will need a large dry area close to the boiler to store your wood.
Installing a flue: You will need a flue which meets regulations for wood-
Planning permission: If your flue will extend one metre or more above the height of your roof, or your home is in a Conservation Area or World Heritage Site and you plan to install a flue on the principal elevation visible from a road you will need to talk to your Local Authority.
Complying with safety and building regulations: All new wood heating systems have to comply with building regulations, use an installer who is a member of a competent person scheme.
System Sizing: Sizing of heating systems should be done by a qualified heating engineer. It is dependent on many factors including levels of insulation and draught proofing of your home, lowest outside temperature of your locality and patterns of use.
Costs
A pellet stove will cost around £4,300 including installation. Installing a new log stove will usually cost less than half this, including a new flue or chimney lining.
For boilers, an automatically fed pellet boiler for an average home costs around £11,500 including installation, flue, and fuel store. Manually fed log boiler systems can be slightly cheaper.
Fuel Costs depend on the wood suppliers in your local area, as they cost a lot to transport.
Prices in pence per kWh
Savings
Carbon dioxide emission savings are very significant, up to 7.4 tonnes of CO² emissions per year when a wood boiler replaces an oil fired system or 840kg for a standalone stove in a home heated using electricity.
Replacing a gas or solid fuel system with a wood burning system you you might save £100 a year.
Replacing coal, oil or electricity you could save between up to £580 per year.
Wood costs often depend on the distance from your home to a wood supplier and whether you can buy and store wood in large quantities. If you have your own supply of wood fuel then this can significantly reduce your costs.
Earnings
You may be able to receive payments for the heat you produce from a wood boiler through the government’s Renewable Heat Incentive. This scheme should be launched in October 2012.
From August 2011, you may be able to get help with the installation costs of a wood boiler through the Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme.
Pellet and log stoves are not eligible for Renewable Heat Premium Payments, and are not expected to be supported by the Renewable Heat Incentive.
Wood Burning Stoves and Boilers
Wood-
Replacing your old incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lights is the best way to save energy on lighting in the average home. See our comprehensive guide to saving energy with lighting.
The Most Powerful and Most Efficient Way To Generate Natural Clean Electricity Was Discovered In 1901! But When “BIG ENERGY” Realised They Couldn’t Meter It And Charge YOU For It! They Buried The Discovery And Had The Government Label It As “CLASSIFIED”
