Biomass Boilers & EPC

benz

Householders intending to install biomass boilers should be aware that it will, in all probability, negatively affect their EPC.

The reason being that unless the boiler is on the government's Product Characteristics Database, a generic boiler efficiency of 65% is used, instead of, in my case, an efficiency of 95%+. I've read of one case where replacing a 20 year old boiler with a 92% efficient biomass boiler reduced an EPC rating by 26 points.

For a manufacturer to have their boiler on the Product Characteristics Database each model and fuel must be tested at vast expense. In the case of wood burning biomass boilers there are only 5 manufacturers on it.

For me it means that without spending a vast amount of money, my house cannot be in the 'D' EPC band and so be entitled to the feed in tariff for solar panels.

thozza

benz wrote: »

Householders intending to install biomass boilers should be aware that it will, in all probability, negatively affect their EPC.

The reason being that unless the boiler is on the government's Product Characteristics Database, a generic boiler efficiency of 65% is used, instead of, in my case, an efficiency of 95%+. I've read of one case where replacing a 20 year old boiler with a 92% efficient biomass boiler reduced an EPC rating by 26 points.

For a manufacturer to have their boiler on the Product Characteristics Database each model and fuel must be tested at vast expense. In the case of wood burning biomass boilers there are only 5 manufacturers on it.

For me it means that without spending a vast amount of money, my house cannot be in the 'D' EPC band and so be entitled to the feed in tariff for solar panels.

This may be that case for wood chip or log boilers as there are a limited number of boilers listed (6 boilers from 1 manufacturer for wood chip, 24 boilers from 5 manufacturers for logs), however for pellets, there is much more choice.

As of today, there are 105 models of pellet boilers on the Product Characteristics Database from 14 different manufacturers.

This is one of the things that the installer should be discussing when proposing which model to install, it was certainly a point covered by our installer (and the EPC assessor who came prior to the installation).

The point about assumed 65% efficiency in the SAP calculation applies to any boiler of any fuel type (not just biomass) which is not listed in the database.