Biomass to replace oil central heating

scottishpedro

Hi all

I am considering replacing my oil boiler with a wood pellet boiler. My house is around 10 years old and seems well insulated. It has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a study, a sitting room and a large open plan kitchen/living room; there are 17 radiators in total. I would estimate we use around 1500-2000 litres of kerosene a year (around £1200 at current cost). We have a log fire which we use regularly also.

I am looking for advice....

What would the rough cost of the biomass boiler including installation be?

Is the heating system automated? Our heating currently comes on when the temperature in our living room drops below 17.5 degrees.

I understand there is a £950 voucher available towards the purchase cost?

As far as I can tell, the RHI scheme begins in 2014? How much roughly would I expect to be paid each year based on current heating use?

How would the cost of the pellets compare to the current yearly oil bill?

Has anyone got any experience of installers in Scotland?

Many thanks in advance

Pedro

matelodave

Dunno much about bimass, but dont hold your breath for the RHI. It'[s been postponed so many times now that I reckon it will fade away before it gets implemented. I've been waiting since 2010 for some help on the investment in my Air Source Heat Pump, however I got it installed on the basis that I had to get a complete system and didn't want to store, oil, gas or wood in my garden. So far it has worked for me and I reckon it's saving me although it's hard to know how much as we've never had to heat this house before but my total electricity consumption last year was less than 9000kw which I reckon isn't bad as that covers everything and we are at home all day.

crash_ndie

at a quick internet search you can get a tonne bag of wood chip pelets for 288 quid so if this last 2 months it would cost you around 1728 a year in fuel costs ... that said the bags may last longer or shorter or you could get more heat output from the bio mass than from the oil so it would be on for less of the time. Personally until the RHI kicked off id hang on to my cash or would consider a high temp air source heat pump.

albyota

Hi, I take it maths is not your strong point then:eek:, £288 for two months..... For roughly 6 months.......not a year!

That would cost £864

A Daikin Altherma HT would cost a lot more to install than the biomass, and would cost a little more to run.

crash_ndie

nope my maths is fine, if a bag cost 288 quid and will last you 2 month then 6 bags will be needed to last you a year so the maths are as follows 288 pounds x 6 bags of wood chip = 1,728 pounds ..... i dont know were you got your maths from :P

albyota

Not many people heat their houses from April to October, so a years worth of pellets is not required, and heating hot water does not require very much........so.......whether it is your maths or mine.......

crash_ndie

well that depends on how they would like to use it bio mas is used with a thermo store so it heats the same amount of water up continuously. granted it will not have such a hi demand when the heating is off but as the hot water is drawn out off the store, it will need to replace the heat with in the store all year round and will require fuel for this. so consumption during winter/summer will even out over the year it may use more in winter and less in summer who knows ???