If you’re making a call between putting in a biomass boiler or a extra typical fuel boiler on your central heating system, there are lots of elements to think about.
Value is probably high of the checklist, however there are different essential elements too. Whereas the preliminary outlay of a biomass boiler will likely be considerably extra, long run it might be a prudent funding with a fuel boiler ban on the horizon. Offset that with a authorities grant in the direction of set up plus carbon impartial positive aspects and the scales begin to tip.
However fuel boilers should not essentially be dismissed completely. There may be a number of disruption including a biomass boiler to your own home, and typically your property may not be appropriate. Right here we clarify the advantages and downsides of every system, as a way to resolve which kind of system is best for you.
Biomass boiler vs fuel boiler: An summary
The primary benefit with fuel boilers is that they burn gas effectively. Nonetheless, not like biomass boilers, they launch additional carbon emissions into the ambiance and thus exacerbate world warming.
“A biomass boiler usually makes use of wooden pellets and is deemed as being roughly a carbon impartial equipment, because the C02 created when the equipment is in operation is balanced out by the rising of latest vegetation and timber that take in C02,” says Martyn Bridges, Director of Exterior Affairs at Worcester Bosch.
Nonetheless, the distinction in dimension, how they’re put in and the way the gas is provided additionally wants to return into consideration when weighing up the professionals and cons of biomass boilers vs fuel boilers.
“Biomass boilers are greater than a fuel boiler, and also you want a clear, dry house for the storage of the gas. When you don’t use an computerized fuelling system then you have to to load gas manually into the equipment,” explains Martyn Bridges.
“Fuel fired home equipment are smaller, are available in combi, common and system variations and are wall hung and compact. They’re additionally totally computerized with no handbook intervention wanted and naturally no space for storing for gas being crucial.”
Biomass boilers want house for the boiler and gas(Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
Martyn Bridges
Martyn Bridges has over 40 years of expertise within the heating trade, earlier appointments together with chair of the Technical Panel for the HHIC and a member of the board at OFTEC, CIPHE and the Scorching Water Affiliation. He has appeared in quite a few nationwide media publications discussing web zero heating and was a key determine within the growth of the award-winning Worcester Bosch 100% hydrogen boiler prototype.
Buy and set up prices
Biomass boiler prices are significantly dearer than fuel boilers. How a lot a brand new fuel boiler pricesis between £1,000 and £3,750, whereas a manually-fed biomass boiler will price between £4,000 and £10,000, and an routinely fed biomass boiler (with a hopper) will price £9,000 and £21,000. Which means the distinction within the preliminary price between the 2 kinds of heating system is appreciable.
Biomass boilers are “round 3 times the price of a fuel fired boiler system however they’re eligible for funding from the Boiler Improve Scheme underneath sure situations,” provides Martyn Bridges.
In the meantime, Pete Downes, managing director of Industrial Biomass Ltd explains that biomass boiler prices do range relying on which of the three kind of biomass boiler you utilize: log, wooden chip or pellet.
“Log boilers are the most affordable to purchase and the gas is extensively accessible, however they want fuelling as soon as a day, typically twice in very chilly climate. The rationale for that is they’re what’s known as batch burners, which means they burn the entire contents of the boiler and switch the warmth into water that’s saved till you want it within the buffer,” he explains.
“Chip boilers are typically utilized by folks with outbuildings, house to dry and season their very own logs as gas, and house to deal with the boiler and chip retailer. The chip retailer is normally a minimal of 3m2, with the purpose normally to construct a retailer sufficiently big to deal with a month’s value of gas. The primary drawback with these boilers is contaminants within the gas getting caught within the boiler mechanisms.
“The opposite choice is a barely greater boiler,” he says, “with a hopper on the boiler that you just feed with pellets. Low cost fashions will solely maintain sufficient to final a day at finest. Barely dearer fashions have sufficiently big hoppers to final a fortnight.”
Pete Downes
Pete Downes served an apprenticeship with a then FTSE100 HVAC and mechanical providers firm. Pete has been concerned within the design and becoming of the ETA biomass heating programs in lots of contracts, and enjoys working with purchasers to realize the set up to go well with their wants.
There are three kinds of biomass boiler, every with completely different prices to put in and run(Picture credit score: Alamy)
Operating prices
The distinction in price between a fuel boiler and a biomass boiler begins to work out in favour of biomass when the gas prices are considered over the long run. Biomass gas, consisting of wooden chips, pellets and logs, is usually cheaper than fuel, particularly on condition that the world wholesale worth for fuel is steadily rising, exacerbated notably by the present struggle in Ukraine.
“Biomass operating prices in the meanwhile are across the identical as oil, cheaper by fairly a margin than fuel, and cheaper by a big margin than electrical energy per kWh,” says Pete Downes.
Fuel gas is dearer than biomass gas, at round 10.3 pence per kilowatt hour (kWh) in comparison with 7.9 pence per kWh for wooden pellets.
If a farmer or landowner who’s eager to get rid of wooden waste, then the price of the gas for a biomass boiler can doubtlessly change into even decrease than shopping for in provides from a retailer. Moreover, you probably have entry to a woodland space that may be exploited at no cost, then you definately would possibly find yourself not having to pay something in any respect on your biomass gas.
Eco-credentials
Biomass boilers are carbon impartial as a result of the gas they use comes from vegetation, principally wooden, and normally within the type of wooden chips, pellets or logs. Biomass boilers do nonetheless launch emissions into the ambiance, however these emissions solely include the carbon that was absorbed by the tree anyway throughout its rising cycle. This implies that there’s a ‘like for like’ course of happening.
Nonetheless, fuel boilers use pure fuel, which is a fossil gas. These boilers subsequently launch additional carbon into the ambiance, and this, not like the emissions from burning biomass, exacerbates man-made local weather change (world warming), when fuel boilers are working. On condition that over 80 % of the heating programs in UK properties are fuel boilers, which means that house heating within the UK accounts for round 15 % of the nation’s carbon emissions.
Moreover, the biomass gas utilized by biomass boilers may be changed within the setting, just by planting extra timber, thereby absorbing extra carbon from the ambiance, whereas this isn’t doable with any know-how that burns a fossil gas. On high of this, the world is steadily operating out of oil and fuel anyway, as present oil and fuel fields change into depleted (most of the world’s bigger oil and fuel fields have change into depleted already), whereas timber may be replanted, thereby making extra gas accessible for biomass boilers.
For brand spanking new construct houses, the fuel boiler ban means a fuel boiler isn’t an choice from 2025 as a result of the federal government, eager to drive down UK carbon emissions, has dominated that fuel boilers, or any fossil gas heating system for that matter, can not be put in in new construct houses.
This can nonetheless depart fuel boilers in present houses for a few years to return, however for these householders who’re unwilling to have them changed by a renewable heating system akin to biomass boilers, warmth pumps or photo voltaic thermal, it’s seemingly that the federal government will search to interchange the pure fuel they burn with inexperienced hydrogen, which solely releases water vapour into the ambiance, not carbon emissions.
The worth of fuel is rising which means the operating prices of fuel boilers is on the up too(Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
Ease of set up
Essentially the most generally put in heating system within the UK remains to be the fuel boiler, with loads of alternative with regard to accessible varieties and types of boilers. Set up is normally a really easy affair, courtesy of a skilled Fuel Protected registered engineer and that in flip signifies that in case your present fuel boiler urgently wants alternative, then essentially the most reasonably priced choice is one other fuel boiler.
Nonetheless, fuel boilers can solely be put in in these houses which can be linked to the nationwide fuel community (the fuel grid) until you put in a liquid petroleum fuel (LPG) boiler, during which case the fuel is saved on web site moderately than provided by means of pipes from the fuel grid.
Round 4.4 million houses within the UK, representing 15.1 % of all home properties throughout the nation, weren’t linked to the fuel grid in 2021. This implies these houses want to make use of different warmth sources akin to biomass boilers, air supply warmth pumps, floor supply warmth pumps, LPG or oil.
Biomass boilers work in a different way in that they don’t seem to be put in inside your own home so whereas they are often appropriate for many houses, you do must have an exterior house the place each the boiler and the gas may be safely housed. They’re are also a lot bigger than fuel boilers, which means that they require more room.
For instance, a fuel boiler manufactured by Viessmann, the Vitodens 200-W boiler, measures 850 mm x 450 mm x 360 mm. In distinction, the Viessmann Vitoligno 300-C, burning wooden pellets, measures 1250 mm x 850 mm x 770 mm. The Viessmann Vitoligno 300-C, one other pellet-burning boiler outfitted with a hopper (which shops the wooden after which feeds it routinely into the boiler), measures 1539 mm x 1332 mm x 1224 mm.
Store fuel boilers
Worcester Greenstar 30si Compact Lpg Combi Boiler
It is a wall mounted boiler that’s appropriate for small to medium-sized houses with one toilet and is designed to suit inside a regular kitchen cabinet
Perfect Logic+ C35 Mixture Boiler
That is the upper output of the three Perfect Logic+ combi boilers for 35kW. There are additionally smaller 30kw and 24kw fashions.
Worcester Greenstar 8000 Life 35kw Combi Boiler
This fuel boiler provides sizzling water and heating on demand without having for water tank or cylinder. The Worcester Greenstar 8000 Life is good for smaller houses
Life span of biomass boiler vs fuel boiler
Biomass boilers will final for 20-25 years, whereas you’ll in all probability want to interchange your fuel boiler each 10 years. This once more will increase the associated fee for a fuel heating system.
Though on the subject of biomass boilers, it is value paying a bit of extra upfront say the specialists. “As we get into 12 months ten, eleven and twelve, the shortcomings of cheaper biomass boilers will change into obvious,” notes Pete Downes, “with some having to get replaced as a result of they don’t seem to be economical to restore.
“Previously 5 or 6 years the vast majority of the boilers we match are by Windhager of Austria. They began off at a home scale and have carried on in that dimension, whereas most different makes began with industrial boilers and regularly launched home fashions. The boilers are effectively constructed, effectively designed and the clear burning know-how of a primary machine is unrivalled, with so little particulate matter emitted that it’s counted as zero.”
