RHI payments

[Alycidon]

What is the payment received under the RHI scheme with regard to kilns drying firewood,   for example a 20 foot container size kiln.

 

Thanks

A

[SbTVF]

Depends on the size of the boiler. It’s use is irrelevant in terms of payment amount.

[Steve Bullman]

Hasn’t that bubble burst yet?

[gdh]

23 minutes ago, Alycidon said:

What is the payment received under the RHI scheme with regard to kilns drying firewood,   for example a 20 foot container size kiln.

 

Thanks

A

Do you mean for a new one? The rate has dropped a lot now. It depends how big the boiler you use is because it's paid on the equivalent (or was) of about 1300 hours at maximum.  

 

For a woodchip boiler I think your payment will be about half of your running costs.

 

Unless you're running it every day of the year I can't see you would get more than 8k with a 200kW boiler but it's all guesswork without more details. 

[FJMatt]

[FJMatt]

I think Steves right, the bubble has burst 

[Alycidon]

Was not thinking of setting one up but looking at the maths involved as I compete on firewood with two companies with RHI supported kilns.  One gets his wood for nothing as waste from his fencing business, the other buys in at about marker rates.

 

So the cost of running the kiln is not covered by the RHI payments,  far from it from what I think people are saying.   So the only benefit is a fast conversion from green to ready to burn logs but as a cost higher that just letting them dry out naturally over time.

 

This summer I did see some sort of boiler on a farm next to the M6 belching out smoke when the temperature that day was around 30 C,   to far away to see what it was heating though.

 

A

[gdh]

6 minutes ago, Alycidon said:

Was not thinking of setting one up but looking at the maths involved as I compete on firewood with two companies with RHI supported kilns.  One gets his wood for nothing as waste from his fencing business, the other buys in at about marker rates.

 

So the cost of running the kiln is not covered by the RHI payments,  far from it from what I think people are saying.   So the only benefit is a fast conversion from green to ready to burn logs but as a cost higher that just letting them dry out naturally over time.

 

This summer I did see some sort of boiler on a farm next to the M6 belching out smoke when the temperature that day was around 30 C,   to far away to see what it was heating though.

 

A

Originally the payment was much higher, it's to encourage the take up of renewables so everytime they hit a certain number of installations they drop the payment. If you registered a few years ago it would cover the drying cost. I still wouldn't dry it from fresh though.

 

The farm could well be drying grain, a lot switched away from oil powered drying recently which is lucky given the weather. Smoke usually means it's just been switched on or the wood is damp, maybe they're burning waste wood not chip.

[Chalgravesteve]

18 hours ago, Alycidon said:

Was not thinking of setting one up but looking at the maths involved as I compete on firewood with two companies with RHI supported kilns.  One gets his wood for nothing as waste from his fencing business, the other buys in at about marker rates.

 

So the cost of running the kiln is not covered by the RHI payments,  far from it from what I think people are saying.   So the only benefit is a fast conversion from green to ready to burn logs but as a cost higher that just letting them dry out naturally over time.

 

This summer I did see some sort of boiler on a farm next to the M6 belching out smoke when the temperature that day was around 30 C,   to far away to see what it was heating though.

 

A

You can't burn fencing waste as a fuel in a RHI funded boiler. You have to declare what the source of the fuel is. There are some small exemptions for small volumes of waste wood, but it still has to be clean. Treated pallets and treated fencing panels are not clean. 

 

The revenues received from an RHI funded kiln depend upon when it was approved. Tier one is 1326 hours @ the rated output of the boiler as a max. There are different rates depending upon how big the boiler is, the threshold was 200kW I think, so if you were under 200kW then it was a higher rate than than a 200kW+ boiler. 

 

From the post above, if those are current rates, then my tier one max would be 1326 x 195 x 2.96p which is £7,650 if I did it now. 

I wouldn't install one now at the current rates, the payback time is too great against the investment required at the outset. 

Edited October 12, 2017 by Chalgravesteve

[SbTVF]

The extra time it takes the load the kiln alone requires more return than seasoned so it’s a good job I can charge more. Our boiler uses nearly all of our tier 1 payments just heating the houses and log sheds. The kiln tends to use the remainder and then push us into tier 2 payments which only cover the fuel cost as we buy wood in the round then chip. If we bought it ready chipped it’d cost quite a bit more.

Round here those supplying both seasoned and kiln are generally £15 a loose cube more for kiln dry.