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Wood
fuelled heating
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Heat and hot
water from wood fuelled stoves and boilers
Wood fuelled heating systems
generally burn wood pellets, chips or logs to power central heating and hot
water boilers or to provide warmth in a single room.
See how wood fuelled
heating can work in your home
* How do wood fuelled
heating systems work?
* The benefits of wood fuel
heating
* Is a wood fuelled heating system suitable for my
home?
* Costs and savings
See how wood fuelled
heating can work with solar hot water
How do wood fuelled
heating systems work?
There are two main ways of using wood to heat you
home:
*
A standalone stove burning logs or pellets to heat a single room. Some can also
be fitted with a back boiler to provide water heating as well.
* A boiler burning pellets,
logs or chips connected to a central heating and hot water
system.
Log burning stoves and boilers have to be filled with wood
by hand. Some pellet and chip burners use automatic fuel feeders which refill
them at regular intervals from fuel storage units called hoppers.
A
biomass boiler could save you around £470 a year on heating
bills
The benefits of wood fuel heating
* A carbon neutral option:
although burning wood releases CO2, it is the same amount as was absorbed while
the wood was growing. If a new tree is planted for each one burned, there are no
overall carbon emissions.
* A good use for waste wood:
burning wood can be a convenient means of disposing of waste that might
otherwise be sent to a landfill site.
Is a
wood fuelled heating system suitable for my home?
To tell if
wood fuelled heating is right for you, there are a few key questions to
consider:
* Do you have enough space? You'll need a
large dry area close to the boiler to store your wood. Ideally this
should
be close to where the wood is delivered to
your home to minimize the distance you have to carry
it.
* Do you have a suitable flue? You need a vent
which is specifically designed for wood fuel appliances, with
sufficient air movement for proper operation of the stove. Your
existing chimney can be fitted with a lined flue,
which is relatively inexpensive.
* Can you comply with
safety and building regulations? If you live in an old or unusual home this may
be an issue.
For more information, see Part L of
the Building Regulations.
* Do you live in a smokeless
zone? If so then wood can only be burnt in certain exempted
appliances.
* Do you need
planning permission? You need to talk to your local authority if your flue will
extend 1m 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.
Costs and savings
Costs for a
standalone stove are around €4,000 including installation.
A typical
automatically fed boiler for an average home costs around
€10,000 including
installation and installing a suitable flue.
Manually fed log systems are
slightly cheaper.
Savings in CO2 emissions are significant - up to 9.6
tonnes
per year when a wood boiler replaces a solid (coal) fired
system.
Fuel savings are less significant, and if you replace a gas
heating system with a wood burning system you may end up paying more for your
fuel. But if you replace solid or electricity you could save between €200 and
€475 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. Typically, heating and hot water costs for a year will be around €1200 in
a detached property.
To reduce your home's CO2 emissions further,
consider installing solar electricity or some other form of renewable
electricity generating system.