We're looking at buying a house. It's rural, detached, and ticks all the boxes but has a biomass boiler.
This is in an outbuilding, I haven't yet seen it. Apparently the current owners get a yearly delivery of pellets.
I'm not concerned about the greenness, it's what's there. But I know nothing of such things having been an urbanite till (possibly) soon. What are the pitfalls, costs, etc? Do these things require regular inspections? What does anyone know about these?
I have no direct experience, but from reading I can think of several things to worry about:
Maintenance: I think they jam up and need cleaning more frequently than oil or gas. All that sawdust...
Deliveries: they get through a lot of pellets. Are they delivering to a hopper or in sacks? If sacks, be prepared for a lot of manhandling (filling from ~20kg sacks every few days). Where does it get stored? Obviously it cannot get wet so needs to be stored appropriately.
Fuel: they can be fussy about the type of pellets. Find out what kind it takes and what the local supply is like. Sometimes there can be relatively few suppliers (=more expensive). What does a year's worth of pellets cost?
Ash: the ash needs cleaning out and disposing of. How do they do this? How often?
Servicing: not sure about that, but ask who services it and maybe contact them to ask what the servicing regime would be like.
Grants: do they get RHI, what's the payment, and will that transfer to the purchaser?
Space: you effectively need an boiler house to take it, store the pellets and receive deliveries. What would be the opportunity cost if you were able to remove it and use the outbuilding for something else?
Personally I think they're a technology whose time is past and only makes sense in limited situations these days, and I would be looking at my options for fitting another heating system. However that wouldn't put me off, I'd just be mentally prepared to replace it in due course (eg when it breaks down or the RHI expires). These were popular 10-15 years ago so I'm guessing it dates from that era. I don't know how much life it would have in it, whether they're fickle or bomb-proof.
How easy would it be to replace it? Oil, heat pump? (LPG either tank or bottles is probably not a great idea at this point). I'm assuming it's not on the gas grid?
Having gone from oil to heat pump there's no way I'd go back to oil, but oil can work better in some circumstances. Oil does need extra space for the tank, and I'm not sure about regs as to whether it can be inside.
Theo
I live in a rural area and have oil fired central heating. It works well I can get away with one delivery per year. The boiler needs servicing annually.
I have considered a heat pump but they are expensive, need more space and don't produce such warm water leading to issues about radiator sizes and insulation.
I don't know anything about biomass boilers. Maybe you could ask the vendor who supplies their pellets and who if anyone services their boiler. Do the pellets have to be regularly put into a hopper attached to the boiler?
On 08/07/2023 12:48, Theo wrote: > Clive Arthur snipped-for-privacy@nowaytoday.co.uk> wrote: >> We're looking at buying a house. It's rural, detached, and ticks all >> the boxes but has a biomass boiler. >>
That largely sums it up; back in 2005 I snagged and serviced a couple of installations, one a Kunzel 25kW heating a block of flats in Brixton. It dumped ash every 6 hours automatically but still needed the bin emptying every couple of days. It also needed an annual chimney sweep and the burner burned out in 4 years because the logic of how it integrated with the rooftop solar thermal panels went wrong so it burned constantly. the internal double skinned flue was 3 storeys high and impossible to sweep from below as the brush wouldn't negotiate the last 2 metres plus a gas cowl terminated the chimney and this clogged up with soot.Replaced with gas, I kept it for spares but it will shortly go for scrap as the yard is developed.
Over the period that I gigged for the firm the price of pellets nearly trebled.
Most of the pellet stoves we dealt with were hot air units, I still have one sitting in my shed and I reverted to a traditional log stove, purely because I get logs for the sake of a bit of labour. The pellet burner was cleaner burning.
There are some numbers here:
In contrast, oil is now about 55p/litre and 10.35kWh per litre, so that's about 5.3p/kWh oil so about 6-7p/kWh heat depending on boiler efficiency.
A heat pump with a SCOP of 3 at the current electricity rate of 30p/kWh would be 10p/kWh heat.
Obviously prices will fluctuate - eg oil has come down but electricity is still high and may come down in due course.
Theo
the Drax effect?
The Ker-ching effect? The price of gas, electricity and oil went up threefold, so why leave money on the table?
(Drax mill and import their biomass directly - I don't think they're buying on the UK open market)
Theo
Plus many with heat pumps will be taking advantage of off peak rates for much of the time, especially if they have underfloor heating with screed changing the time-constant somewhat.
I think my working predates Drax burning biomass, it was 2000-2005 at which time Viesmann closed the business.
I doubt if traditional off peak will last too long with more people buying EVs and having ASHPs, especially in winter when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine.
That's right it will morph into something like Octopus intelligent
My neighbour had one. He said it was a total nightmare. Too much like hard work. Bill
In the worst case just factor in the cost of an alternative of an oil or LPG tank and a new boiler (assuming no mains gas and you don't need/want to change any other components in the CH system).
One thing to consider and depending on your age or fitness is moving the fuel around. Can it be delivered directly to a covered building or would someone have to man handle it from a driveway etc. Where friends live they have deliveries of logs either tripped from the back of a lorry or in double height builders bulk bags. This has to be moved under cover once delivered.
Also consider servicing or repairs. If biomass boilers are not popular in the area you may find it difficult to find someone to provide these services in a timely manner.
Thanks for all the replies, most useful.
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