Biomass Boiler - Expensive

MartinH32

Can I ask anyone here with experience of Biomass boilers the costs of running these things?

We moved in to a house in January last year that had Biomass bolier already fitted on the government scheme. So far in 12 months we've spent nearly £2400 on biomass. The heating is on 5:30am - 9am and 4:30pm - 10pm every day with an hour for water heating. The house is resaonably insulated. It just seems the cost is ridiculous! If I had an alternative I'd remove the thing!
It's a five bedroomed bungalow, and it's powering 10 rads at the moment.

brunation

Do you know how many kWh the boiler produced for £2400?

MartinH32

No, but I will see if I can find out. What should it be?

brunation

No idea. Given the biomass weight, there should be a (rough) conversion factor to get the expected kWh generated.  

Working backwards with your measured kWh, you can check the cost vs gas and see if there are money savings.

Did you get an EPC upon completion of purchase? This sample shows heat and water demand (on the last page) and without historical data this may be your only baseline comparison.

greenbuildingforum might be useful too.

MartinH32

Thanks for your help. I know I've used 9 tonne so I'll have a look at the boiler information and see

brunation

First link I clicked had 4.9kWh/kg (Granulta wood pellets).

At 9T,   9000 * 4.9 = 44100 units

account for the efficiency of the boiler, say 0.8

44100 * 0.8 = 35280 units

Say 3p a unit for gas (excluding standing charge)

35280 * 0.03 = £1058.40

So Biomass is more than twice as expensive ....

brunation

Of course, if there is no gas mains then oil is a better comparison.

brunation

Fuel costs per kWh

MartinH32

Thanks for the working out - it certainly seems around right based on our usage and our previous usage at our old house. Interestingly the link you posted - £210 per tonne! I wish - cheapest I can get it is about £275 delivered!

saintie1

This table is old (well for oil anyway).  I have not seen 58p/l for several years, last 2 fills it was 40p in Jan 2015, and 29.05p this Jan.  Oil (just now) is a cheap form of heating.