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Your own biomass plant


Baldbloke
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Although everyone appears to cut here I’ve not seen much mention of people using their own firewood.

Thought I’d post a picture of our 60kw boiler and thermal store.

Do you have something similar and how do you rate it?

Ours has been in since 2013 and has so far been trouble free.

IMG_1773.jpgIMG_1775.jpg

This doesn’t qualify for any subsidy as it’s supposedly too large for domestic use, and I already claim domestic consumer status to claim tax free subsidy for a 20kw wind turbine.

This plant keeps our largish house cosy through the winter with one fire a day, and only needs fired up once every three days through a decent summer.

Before this we had a large log burner in the house that burnt almost as many logs without the benefit of heating much of the house.

 

 

Edited by Baldbloke
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3 minutes ago, sandspider said:

How much wood do you get through a year?

 

I'd consider a biomass plant of some sort (we currently have two wood burners), but the cost and complexity to install makes the wood burners a lot easier and cheaper in the short term at least.

For two years I bought pulp type wood from the forestry commision until getting my act together so have a fair idea. With soft wood I would say about 30 tonnes or just over considering the weighbridge says a wood lorry load of unseasoned wood is around the 20-24 tonne mark. Our place is quite big (7 bed, x two living rooms etc)

I'm presently using dead elm and recon on about 20ish cubes a year. However this year as spring has yet to spring probably more.

For a 3 bed house older house you'd probably get away with a 30-45 kw boiler and smaller thermal store. With that size you would also get the domestic subsidy payments so might be worth considering. The boilers themselves are quite efficient compared to say an open fire or a log burner that only heats locally.

Ours was 24k and took a team of two 5 days to install. Since 2013 it has effectively already paid for itself when I look at the old oil bills.

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24K and paid back in 5 years?
The castle I look after had an oil heating bill of around £12k. We changed to a ground source heat pump at a cost of £60K. This did away with the oil bill but added £4k/year to the electric bill after. Savings per year are around £8k and after 8 years it has paid off.  
30t of softwood delivered at £40/ton is £1200 + the cost to process say £800; that's £2k/year running costs.  Does this mean you were spending £7k/year on heating before you changed to this system?

 

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10 minutes ago, briquette_seller said:

Domestic rhi has a thermal limit of 45kw

Yes, but you can install larger and only get paid for the size they say you require. Its not metered, so you just get a fixed rate depending on the KW they say you need.

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11 hours ago, bilke_user said:

24K and paid back in 5 years?
The castle I look after had an oil heating bill of around £12k. We changed to a ground source heat pump at a cost of £60K. This did away with the oil bill but added £4k/year to the electric bill after. Savings per year are around £8k and after 8 years it has paid off.  
30t of softwood delivered at £40/ton is £1200 + the cost to process say £800; that's £2k/year running costs.  Does this mean you were spending £7k/year on heating before you changed to this system?

 

You are absolutely correct in that I have not included the cost of the wood or my time for the processing. I enjoy the cutting and the processing keeps me a bit fitter.

The two lorry loads I previously purchased from the Forestry Commission (2015/16) came to £410 and £423. There was supposedly around 22 tonnes on board each time. Delivery by haulier cost a further £250 and £270. 

My oil bills were up to £4.5k a year including running an Aga. 

Oil for the Aga still runs at approximately £1000 to £1200/ year.

 

10 hours ago, ash_smith123 said:

Whoever told you it was too big for the RHI was lying emoji848.png
Domestic would have run for 7 years and if it's a big net very well insulated house you would have got a good chunk on domestic RHI!

Think you are wrong as I complained (in 2014) to various bodies  (DECC, RECC MCS) after a retrospective consultation limited boiler size for domestic consumers to 45 kw. This was immediately after I had the boiler installed.

Absolutely crazy that the biggest houses (and therefore the biggest users of heating oil ) should be excluded from a subsidy payment.

My mistake was getting in too early before they had got the detail finalised.

Which is why (in a strop) I stuck up a wind turbine which not only pays better subsidies, but also helps to power immersions in my thermal store. 

7 hours ago, skyhuck said:

Yes, but you can install larger and only get paid for the size they say you require. Its not metered, so you just get a fixed rate depending on the KW they say you need.

Don't believe that's true unfortunately even though it makes perfect sense. The letter I got from the DECC specifically says for domestic use that the boiler size limit is 45 kw.

Since they stated I was a Domestic Consumer it did allow me to bypass a lot of bollocks and have the reassurance of consumer status for accessing the wind turbine subsidy tax free, as well as only having to pay 5% VAT on the whole installation.  

What is really stupid is that one is actually allowed a 45 kw log or wood chip boiler alongside an additional oil boiler and are still able to access the domestic RHI. Commercial RHI is not so limited for Wattage but does requires meterage. 

 

However if you are correct and can guide me to the correct legislation I'll be due you a pint!

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