Wood fuelled heating

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.

• 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

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 carbon neutral option: although burning wood releases CO2, it is the same amount as was absorbed while the wood was growing. If a new tree is planted for each one burned, there are no overall carbon emissions.

• 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. For more information, see Part L of the Building Regulations, Northern Ireland and Section 3 of the Technical Handbooks, Scotland

• Do you live in a smokeless zone? If so then wood can only be burnt in certain exempted appliances. http://www.uksmokecontrolareas.co.uk/locations.php

• 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 fuel heating 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 electricity you could save around £470 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.

For a list of wood fuel suppliers in your area, visit the log pile website

To reduce your home's CO2 emissions further, consider installing solar electricity or some other form of renewable electricity generating system.

Find out more

What is suitable for your home?

To find renewable technologies to suit your home, try the Energy Saving Trust energy selector tool - coming soon

Technologies

For more information on home energy generation technologies, contact your local Energy Saving Trust Advice Centre on 0800 512 012.

For specific technology questions, visit HETAS

Funding

Find a grant to help with the costs of installing renewable and low carbon technologies - visit the BERR-funded Low Carbon Buildings Programme

To be eligible for a grant you will need to use a certified installer and products.

• Find certified installers
• Find certified products

Certification for products and installers within the low carbon buildings programme is now provided through the Microgeneration Certification Scheme. For further information please visit this website.

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