Biomass Boilers - Domestic

Silent_Dancer

muckybutt wrote: »

RHI payments should be in the £1.2K a year bracket, install and stove costing £5.5K. we have loads of room for pellet storage so thats not a problem for us, buy in bulk when its cheap.

Don't assume that the pellets will remain cheap. They are at the moment as they are mainly waste wood based but down the line if demand increase the price is likely to shoot up.

grahamc2003

Silent_Dancer wrote: »

Don't assume that the pellets will remain cheap. They are at the moment as they are mainly waste wood based but down the line if demand increase the price is likely to shoot up.

That's what puts me off pellet boilers. They look great and seem very easy to operate with little hassle, but the big downside for me is they have you by the short and curlies with the fuel, and of course they can't burn anything else at all.

For all the rhi qualifying systems, I'm currently think a wood burning stove is best (atm) - although they are hassle, at least I can get free fuel if I put in enough work.

muckybutt

Johnandabby wrote: »

Interested in hearing more, sounds like a good deal for you. Assume it's a manual feed boiler? How do you get on with your current stove system in terms of lighting it and feeding it?

We have a simple stove in the living room, which we only light in the evenings. Not sure if I would have the patience to be feeding a central stove all the time - I really appreciate having a gas boiler on cold mornings!

Yes its a manual feed pellet stove / boiler, the company we are getting it off have one in their showroom that is a working model so at least you can see it operating and hear how noisy it is / isnt.

Our mulitfuel stove is lovely I wouldnt swap it, it soon gets upto temp and warms the old part of the house through very quickly, lighting it is a doddle a few bits of kindling and some hard wood on top and its off like a rocket, usually have to top that up every 45 - 90 mins or so depending how much you put on it and what you put on it ie hard or soft wood.

So it will be lovely to have the conveiniance of controllability with the pellet boiler for the water and heating and the ambiance of the stove as well as the extra heat from that.

As far as the pellets go I fully intend to buy in bulk and keep in a heated outhouse to keep it dry possibly buying in 3 - 4 tons worth see how that goes, like everything though - yes its new ish technology for the uk and yes things are expensive, pellets are cheapish at the mo but I cant really see them going up like wood has done, far more companies on the biomass scene now and recycling old wood for pellets etc will hopefully mean cheaper supplies for a lot longer.

Silent_Dancer

grahamc2003 wrote: »

That's what puts me off pellet boilers. They look great and seem very easy to operate with little hassle, but the big downside for me is they have you by the short and curlies with the fuel, and of course they can't burn anything else at all.

For all the rhi qualifying systems, I'm currently think a wood burning stove is best (atm) - although they are hassle, at least I can get free fuel if I put in enough work.

Another issue with pellets is that shopping around for an alternative supplier comes with a risk. The burn will be calibrated to a particular suppliers pellets. That supplier will control the quality of consistency of their pellets. However, move to another supplier and the burner is likely to need recalibrating otherwise you will end up with excessive soot or ash.

801395v

Sorry to hijack, I'm a newbie here but have done quite a lot of research into RHI (I'm getting a domestic pellet boiler installed) which I thought would be of interest here.

The RHI consultation document proposes;

i) RHI will pay you for 20 years worth of renewable heat but will front load the payments and pay you over an initial 7 year period. This will make the investment return look ridiculously generous.This will apply to Solar Thermal, Air to Water and Ground Source Heat Pumps. A slight modification is proposed for biomass boilers where a slightly reduced return will be paid in years 1 - 7 and then a lower ongoing payment in years 8 -20. This is to try and stop people installing a biomass boiler and then switching back to fossil fuels in year 8 when they've copped all the payments!

ii) Output will be deemed (not metered) which means you will know exactly at outset how much you will be getting in RHI payments (subject to RPI index linking). Payments will be based on your boiler, heat pump or solar thermal panel output rating. This will be subject to evidence from your MCS installer that the equipment has been sized correctly (to avoid deliberate oversizing).

iii) Only solar thermal is allowed as a secondary RHI earning technology. You can't for example get RHI for Heat Pumps and Biomass for the same property. You can have biomass & solar thermal though (which I personally think is the best renewables solution for off-grid properties).

iv) If you've received the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) for installs pre 31st March 2013, this will be deducted from your RHI payments (seems a bit mean!).

v) Wood burning stoves are not eligible for RHI.

vi) It's meant to launch in July 2013

vii) Using the lowest tariff rate currently being consulted on, I would receive £2,400 per year for 7 years for installing my pellet boiler (installed cost £8,850).

Viii) Tariffs will be reduced as deployment increases (but will not affect tariffs for existing systems). For anyone familiar with solar pv tariffs, it looks a similar set-up.

ix) Payments will be tax-free and RHI index-linked.

Will post anything further I discover. Hope this helps.

grahamc2003

801395v wrote: »

Sorry to hijack, I'm a newbie here but have done quite a lot of research into RHI (I'm getting a domestic pellet boiler installed) which I thought would be of interest here.

The RHI consultation document proposes;

i) RHI will pay you for 20 years worth of renewable heat but will front load the payments and pay you over an initial 7 year period. This will make the investment return look ridiculously generous.This will apply to Solar Thermal, Air to Water and Ground Source Heat Pumps. A slight modification is proposed for biomass boilers where a slightly reduced return will be paid in years 1 - 7 and then a lower ongoing payment in years 8 -20. This is to try and stop people installing a biomass boiler and then switching back to fossil fuels in year 8 when they've copped all the payments!

ii) Output will be deemed (not metered) which means you will know exactly at outset how much you will be getting in RHI payments (subject to RPI index linking). Payments will be based on your boiler, heat pump or solar thermal panel output rating. This will be subject to evidence from your MCS installer that the equipment has been sized correctly (to avoid deliberate oversizing).

iii) Only solar thermal is allowed as a secondary RHI earning technology. You can't for example get RHI for Heat Pumps and Biomass for the same property. You can have biomass & solar thermal though (which I personally think is the best renewables solution for off-grid properties).

iv) If you've received the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) for installs pre 31st March 2013, this will be deducted from your RHI payments (seems a bit mean!).

v) Wood burning stoves are not eligible for RHI.

vi) It's meant to launch in July 2013

vii) Using the lowest tariff rate currently being consulted on, I would receive £2,400 per year for 7 years for installing my pellet boiler (installed cost £8,850).

Viii) Tariffs will be reduced as deployment increases (but will not affect tariffs for existing systems). For anyone familiar with solar pv tariffs, it looks a similar set-up.

ix) Payments will be tax-free and RHI index-linked.

Will post anything further I discover. Hope this helps.

I'm not sure which post you are replying to, but surely rather than type out your (mis) understanding of the rhi, why not just supply a link to the various official releases where the key points are clearly listed accurately?

There is a wood burning stove which qualifies for the rhi, and simply stating that 'wood burning stoves don't qualify' is incorrect and could potentially mislead someone intending to go down this route.

The payments may be linked to RPI (not RHI), but I understand they are possibly thinking of linking it to the generally lower cpi.

DanRichards

Silent_Dancer wrote: »

Another issue with pellets is that shopping around for an alternative supplier comes with a risk. The burn will be calibrated to a particular suppliers pellets. That supplier will control the quality of consistency of their pellets. However, move to another supplier and the burner is likely to need recalibrating otherwise you will end up with excessive soot or ash.

Just to offer a different opinion on this. I have recently swapped suppliers of pellets, and haven't needed to recalibrate anything. I am now getting more pellets for less money! Bonus!:j

Burnardo

Hi everyone,
Thought you might be interested in our experiences with our pellet boiler, it's all on the MSE thread named
MCZ Musa hydro 15kw - thoughts