BIOMASS BOILERS

A biomass boiler may not be an obvious choice for every household, but in many scenarios it offers a great renewable and sustainable heating solution Biomass heating involves the combustion of organic products, normally wood-based such as wood pellets, logs and chips.

Pellets are clean, easy but expensive. Logs are cheap, but more messy and more labour intensive. Woodchip is generally for large 50kw+ boilers, is messy and needs a lot of space so isn’t really an option for the average home.

WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS?

There are two basic options: stove or boiler, for both pellets and logs. Stoves are generally used for highlight heating and are often more to do with aesthetic comfort than heating, while boilers are used for whole-house (primary) heating.

The next decision is whether you want the fuel delivery to be automatic or manual. Logs are always manual; that is, logs are loaded by hand and ash emptied by hand. Wood pellet appliances can be loaded by hand (with bagged fuel) or loaded automatically from a bulk store, but ash is usually packed automatically into an ash can.

IS BIOMASS RIGHT FOR MY HOME?

A gasifying log batch boiler works well as a principal heat source for houses that need a reasonably high level of heat, but they do require logs to be loaded manually.

Wood pellet boilers are far more automated but the equipment is more expensive, as is the fuel. It is a good, reliable technology that offers net-zero CO2 emissions and fuel price rises that are usually much lower than fossil fuels. In big, hard-to-heat homes, biomass offers a good option but in more typical new builds, other options are arguably more economic.