Biomass boiler costs dont end with installation. Mark Brown takes a frank look at the pros and cons of a biomass boiler for a 5 bed detached house.
Installation was largely trouble-free. The UK representative of the Manufacturer (KWB) came out for commissioning and observed that one section of pipework was incorrect. It was quickly rectified. We live in a Conservation area and had planning permission refused for an external flue so we had it route through the corner of the bedroom over the garage. Not a big problem as our installer arranged for builders to come in and box in the flue. We redecorated ourselves.
We are lucky enough to have a maintenance contract that covers five years work. It works out at about 150 a year this way, but you could pay up to 500 pa if unwilling to pay up front for a contract. This contract includes cleaning the flue and boiler.
Cons
Biomass boilers are expensive coming in at anything upward of 9000. You could get quotes for well over 20,000 so shop around. Even if replacing oil it is hard to see a payback without an additional incentive such as the RHI or a cheap on-site source of fuel such as wood chip. A double garage provides ample storage but moving and stacking bagged wood pellets requires physical effort It was really hard to find a domestic installer (or was in 2008/09). Dont forget you will need a buffer tank and storage space for the fuel. We suggest allowing the sort of space in which a small car would fit. Biomass boilers are not really suitable for small homes on the gas grid. They are more beneficial if you have a very large building (ie, farm house, community hall, church, school, etc.) off mains gas.
Your Biomass boiler deserves to be maintained properly. The UK market is only very slowly gearing up so you might be limited in choice. Your average Corgi registered plumber will not touch it. Our KWB boilers controllers are sophisticated to the point of being too complicated. Refuelling from bags can be physically demanding. This makes them unsuitable for social housing, the physically impaired or the elderly. Fuel delivery can be inconvenient (as for any solid fuel) so we normally take the day off work or pay extra for Saturday delivery. Delivery to narrow cul de sacs are a problem in our experience so we always specify a small 8 tonne truck sometimes this message doesnt get through and we have had to push pallets from the road on a pallet trolley with the help of the delivery driver. This is almost impossible for a one tonne pallet, we recommend tonne pallets or less. A tail lift truck is recommended. We always end up part-hand-stacking some of the load to reduce its footprint in the garage. For one fit man this might take 40 minutes to shift 1.5tonnes of bagged pellets (15kg per bag). The other option is to use a large hopper with the pellets blown in but this is only suitable for much larger installations than we have. Having solar thermal can mean the biomass boiler is hardly used through part of the summer. However it will keep the buffer tank up to operating temperature which is wasteful (although this can be switched off). Our system was sized appropriately based upon our SAP rating so this isnt a significant problem.
Conclusion
Given the information we had in 2009 (and the pending Renewable Heat Incentive) we think we made a good choice. However the RHI has not materialised and, as far as we know, might NEVER pay us a penny for this boiler in its final manifestation. When deciding upon this form of heating we did compare it to a ground-source heat pump. We didnt cost up a comparable GSHP but it would only have been suitable if we had been prepared to dig up the floor for underfloor heating plus the garden for the ground loop. A GSHP would need a lot of electricity to run but we wanted to generate most of our own power so it would have put that objective out of reach. Hence biomass was the most local & resilient option. We have great satisfaction with the boiler and our only regret is the loss of space in the garage. We would recommend domestic biomass for rural areas with large buildings off mains gas. Mark Brown Aug 2012