Bring down your carbon emissions with a biomass boiler
What you need to know about biomass boilers
Biomass heaters come in two options - boilers, which can be hooked up to your existing central heating and hot water system, or stoves, which will only heat up the room you put it in, though you can also set up a back boiler to supply hot water.
These heaters use either wood pellets or logs as fuel. They’ll often be able to refill pellets automatically, while you’ll need to keep adding logs to the fire by hand. If you’re considering opting for a biomass boiler, keep in mind that you’ll need a fair amount of space to store the fuel.
You’ll also need to ensure the smoke from the boiler has somewhere to escape. It can connect to your chimney if you have one, and if not you’ll need to find somewhere to put a flue pipe.
Is a biomass boiler worth it?
Costs
The costs of a biomass boiler can vary significantly. An automatically refilling pellet boiler costs around £18,000 including installation, while those that you’ll need to refill by hand are in the £4,000-10,000 range. In England and Wales, this cost is reduced by the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which gives households a grant of £5,000 towards installing a sustainable heating system.
When it comes to fuel, the price of wood pellets is driven down if you can buy them in bulk. Logs can be cheaper than pellets, especially if you can source them from a local supplier, as the costs mainly arise from transport. Again, the more room you have for storage, the cheaper they’ll be, as you could potentially buy unseasoned logs - that aren’t yet dry enough to burn - and let them season at home.
Savings
While biomass heating systems will cut your carbon footprint if you’re using a fossil-fuel based boiler, the savings you’ll see on your bills may be limited, depending on the system you currently have. If you already have a modern condensing gas boiler, it’s likely that it’ll still be cheaper than biomass, but if you have an old electric heating system, a biomass boiler could save you up to £1,100 a year.
However, it’s also important to note that the prices of oil and gas heating are consistently rising, so while a biomass boiler might appear the more expensive option right now, this is subject to change.
Downsides of a biomass boiler
Carbon dioxide emissions
One unavoidable issue is that biomass is not a completely clean source of energy. As plants and trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and when the wood is burned, this same amount of carbon is released. Since wood is a renewable resource, this process can arguably still be sustainable - as long as we keep replacing the wood that’s burned with new trees - but when it comes to eco-friendliness, biomass falls short of other renewable heating systems like heat pumps which are fully carbon-free.
Air pollution
Burning wood releases tiny particles of toxic matter into the air, which contribute to air pollution and exacerbate health problems like asthma. Log stoves are worse than those that use pellets, and when you open the door of a stove to add more logs, these dangerous particles are released into the room. However, both systems worsen air pollution to some degree.
Ways to mitigate the air pollution from biomass burners include buying a modern EcoDesign system - which reduces particle emissions compared to other types - hiring a professional to properly install your flue, only using dry wood, and regularly sweeping the flue to ensure it doesn’t become blocked.
Maintenance
Biomass boilers require a fair amount of upkeep compared to conventional boilers. They should be regularly cleaned - though some are self-cleaning - the flue needs to be occasionally swept to remove all soot, and the ash bin should be emptied at least once a week.
If you’re looking to reduce yourenergy bills and your carbon footprint by switching to a renewable heating system, Heatio can help. Start by getting your Heatio Home Energy Score, and get ready to learn how we can help you reap all the benefits renewable energy has to offer.
