Biomass Heating for your home.
For many people Biomass represents the simplest way to renewable heating for the home. It is not only efficient, carbon neutral and simple to install and integrate into your existing heating system, but with the spiralling cost of fossil fuels, will pay for itself in a year or two. Biomass simply means using material produced from living organisms, for household use this usually means wood.
Biomass boilers come in two main types, either dedicated solid fuel boilers or solid fuel range cookers and stoves with integrated or optional boilers. All can be easily integrated into an existing central heating system of radiators and can supply you with hot running water. Biomass fuel is usually sold as either pellets or logs. You can use your own logs if you have access to a ready supply, but always ensure that it is properly seasoned. Burning green (unseasoned) wood can cause all sorts of problems with your appliance and flue. As wood seasons it loses much of its water, if it burnt while still moist much of the energy produced is wasted boiling this water off. This means that the fire is not as hot, which in turn means that the pollutants which would be burnt at the hotter temperature will be released into the atmosphere or form a coating on the inside of your flue. It also means you burn more fuel to get the same amount of hot water.
Commercially available logs or wood pellets are sourced from properly managed forests. This ensures that for every tree cut down for fuel, at least one more is planted to replace it and absorb the carbon dioxide released. Much of the wood is also acquired through thinning back the trees, which encourages new growth and reduces the chance of disease. Log burning appliances may be slightly cheaper than their wood pellet equivalents, this is countered by the fact that wood pellets take up less room to store.
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The cost of renewables.
Don't think that the price of a wood burning heating system is beyond your reach. There are grants and subsidies available for both householders and businesses to install renewable and carbon neutral technologies. The government's low carbon building initiative offers grants for people looking to reduce their carbon footprint by using renewable, carbon neutral fuel. You also have to consider the savings of the fuel. Even purchasing commercially produced wood products (seasoned logs or wood pellets), you will still be making dramatic savings compared to gas, oil and especially electricity. |
