Heat and hot water from wood fuelled stoves and boilers
Wood fuelled heating systems generally burn wood pellets, chips or logs to
power central heating and hot water boilers or to provide warmth in a single
room.
See how wood fuelled heating can work in your home
- How do wood fuelled heating
systems work? - The benefits of wood fuel
heating - Is a wood fuelled heating
system suitable for my home? - Costs and savings
- Find out more
See how wood fuelled heating can work with solar hot water
How do wood fuelled heating systems work?
There are two main ways of using wood to heat you home:
- A standalone stove
burning logs or pellets to heat a single room. Some can also be fitted
with a back boiler to provide water heating as well.
- A boiler
burning pellets, logs or chips connected to a central heating and hot
water system.
Log burning stoves and boilers have to be filled with wood by hand. Some
pellet and chip burners use automatic fuel feeders which refill them at regular
intervals from fuel storage units called hoppers.
A biomass boiler could save you around £470 a year on
heating bills
The benefits of wood fuel heating
- A low carbon
option: the carbon dioxide emitted when wood fuel is burned is
the same amount that was absorbed over the previous months and years as
the plant was growing. As long as new plants continue to grow in place of
those used for fuel, the process is sustainable. There are some carbon
emissions caused by the cultivation, manufacture and transportation of the
fuel, but as long as the fuel is sourced locally, these are much lower
than the emissions from fossil fuels.
- A good use for
waste wood: burning wood can be a convenient means of disposing
of waste that might otherwise be sent to a landfill site.
Is a wood fuelled heating system suitable for
my home?
To tell if wood fuelled heating is right for you, there are a few key
questions to consider:
- Do you have enough
space? You’ll need a large dry area close to the boiler to store
your wood. Ideally this should be close to where the wood is delivered to
your home to minimise the distance you have to carry it.
- Do you have a
suitable flue? You need a vent which is specifically designed for
wood fuel appliances, with sufficient air movement for proper operation of
the stove. Your existing chimney can be fitted with a lined flue, which is
relatively inexpensive.
- Can you comply with
safety and building regulations? If you live in an old or unusual
home this may be an issue.
- Do you live in a
smokeless zone? If so then wood can only be burnt in certain
exempted appliances.
- Do you need
planning permission? You need to talk to your local authority if
your flue will extend 1m or more above the height of your roof, or your
home is in a Conservation Area or World Heritage Site and you plan to
install a flue on the principal elevation visible from a road.
Wood pellets
Costs and savings
Costs for a standalone stove are around £3,000 including
installation. A typical automatically fed boiler for an average home costs
around £9,000 including installation and installing a suitable flue. Manually
fed log systems are slightly cheaper.
Savings in CO2 emissions are significant – up to 9.6 tonnes
per year when a wood boiler replaces a solid (coal) fired system.
Fuel savings are less significant, and if you replace a gas heating system
with a wood burning system you may end up paying more for your fuel. But if you
replace solid or electricity you could save between £170 and £410 per year.
Wood costs often depend on the distance from your home to a wood supplier
and whether you can buy and store wood in large quantities. If you have your
own supply of wood fuel then this can significantly reduce your costs.
Typically, heating and hot water costs for a year will be around £1,000 in a
detached property.
To reduce your home’s CO2 emissions further, consider installing solar electricity or some other form of
renewable electricity generating system.
