Biomass Boilers

saintie1

The guy cannot guarantee any money from the Government as the date the scheme kicks in keeps getting moved back.  If you are buying the system for the money you'll make and he is selling it on this then I would look elsewhere.  These systems should be all about the reduced energy bills not how much the Government is going to pay you.

Pistol1

Thought the RHI date was set for April 2014?


It primarily is about reduced bills - we're currently paying £1.8k per year for gas, and it's not going to get any cheaper. We need a new boiler anyway - so we either buy another gas boiler, which will be at least 10% more efficient but probably not much more of a saving than that, for £1.8k; or, we go the biomass boiler route, which should equate to a 50% reduction in fuel costs, with no upfront cost (with the RHI payments paying off the finance at an accelerated rate).


Plus it's more eco friendly and all that.

SteveCritten

Again. Cheaper to instal and receives the RHI in April. Ground source heating. For the price of the biomass yoi could also install solar panels and a wind turbine and get FIT now!!

Markee

Guys, I know this is a fairly old thread, but there's something else you should consider (this comes from commercial clients who installed a biomass boiler in their new building as part of their 10% renewables Merton rule commitment).

Remember, the heat isn't controllable like it is with a gas boiler. A gas boiler burner would modulate up and down according to demand, a biomass boiler, when lit, will carry on burning until all the wood pellets are used up. So if you have 2 hours worth of burn from a certain amount of wood pellets, and your thermal store, hot water or whatever is up to temperature within 90 minutes, then you will have 30 minutes of burn that is effectively wasted, reducing the efficiency of the system.

Probably not a show stopper, but something to be aware of.

Herbiefish

@Markee I was told otherwise at the grand designs shows yesterday. One of the manufacturers said that when the call for heat is lessening the system starts to automatically burn less pellet and eventually cuts off shortly after the call to say not more heat is required. He said it works almost identical to a gas boiler and you would get very minimal wastage at worst.

Not sure if he was talking bs but I will be looking into it as I hate the though of having an energy efficient source which wastes energy!

rding

Based on what I have seen on these and its the same principle on my pellet fed bbq/smoker doesn't a thermostat control the speed of the auger screw that feeds the pellets from the hopper to the combustion pot so when its up to temperature it only feeds in what's required to keep it at that temperature?

neilball

The issue with biomass boilers Is that there is not set standard for pellet/fuel feed so you have to check the particular feature set of the boiler to determine exactly how it operates. Any good boiler would adapt the fuel feed based on demand, but it is not as quick to respond as a modulating gas burner. For those of us that have had commercial solid fuel boiler (coal) experience we know all about the issues of using a solid fuel source, auger/screw fed burners etc. They always require more care and attention to keep them working effectively.

DOBLY

All the wood pellet products that I have come across have computerised thermostats which control the speed of the feed from the hopper to the combustion pot just as rding says above - they then go into "tickover" mode to keep the water or whatever at the optimum temperature.  Indeed, my home pellet fire does this with the air temperature of the room - when it does this the phrase "modulating" comes up on the remote control display.

ey86798

Coming rather late to this thread (just signed up in fact), but as I have had a pellet boiler since Jan. 2013 my experiences might be helpful.

I have a Extraflame LP20 (nominal 20kW) boiler. This has an internal 70kg pellet compartment which is enough for 3 days in the depth of winter. We buy bagged pellets delivered on a 1 tonne pallet which lasts about 6 weeks during winter, at a cost of around £250 delivered. We get through about 4 tonnes a year for our 4 bedroom well insulated 1950s detached house.

First and most important point is, choose your installer wisely. Get recommendations and if at all possible use someone local. I did neither and am paying the price. I'm in NE England and the installer is in Merseyside, their service and support has been completely atrocious. The boiler has broken down twice now, first time was at the end of Sept. 2013, it took them 5 weeks to fix it (under warranty) and we had no heating for the whole of October. It broke down again the week before last and I still don't even have a date for a repair. The manufacturers (Extraflame) do not respond to my requests for help either.

Fortunately, I've found 2 companies who are working together to help me (massive cudos to The Centre for Green Energy in Hexham, and Piping Hot Stoves in Daventry for going way beyond the call of duty).

When it works (!) though it works extremely well. I replaced a gas combi and had a 250L pressuried hot water cylinder installed in the loft. The boiler feeds the radiators direct (no buffer tank needed) and is controlled by a programmable room thermostat. It takes longer to start up and produce heat than does a gas or oil boiler (10-15 mins) but otherwise behaves much like a conventional boiler.

Despite the problems I've had (entirely the fault of the installers) I do not regret switching to biomass. If this current boiler proves to be unsupportable going forward, I will replace it with a different make from my local installer.

Herbiefish

Bunch of arses. Glad it looks like you are getting somewhere though. How much do you get back in rhi for that size?