THE BENEFITS OF A GREEN WOOD FUELLED BOILER

06 February 2013

Save money and switch your business to a greener heating system. As a business you may be exasperated by the cost of heating your business premises and the inefficiency of your expensive oil or gas fired boiler. However, there are greener alternatives out there that are gradually becoming more commonplace and can help to make your workplace more sustainable as well as saving you hundreds of pounds in heating costs.

One of the types of green boiler available for businesses wishing to switch away from fossil fuelled boilers is a biomass boiler which is run on wood pellets.
Dave Compton of green energy company, Freetricity explains how a biomass boiler works and how it can really deliver cost savings to your business.
“In the past year, we have been working with businesses across the UK on our fully funded, green boiler scheme which allows businesses to benefit from a fully automated biomass boiler with little or no upfront capital investment. The boiler is provided fully maintained for 20 years by Freetricity, with the business owner only responsible for providing the fuel, or paying directly for the heat used - which we will help organise.
Although take up of this type of boiler is growing fast, the issue we have come up with time and time again is a lack of knowledge and understanding about the technology. So here then is a beginner’s guide to biomass and its benefits for all those considering a switch.
· Biomass boilers are slightly larger than the traditional freestanding regular boilers. They need to be housed in a space where there is plenty of room around them or in a self-contained unit sited externally.
· They work by burning a fuel such as compressed wood pellets and converting it into heat. This fuel is typically delivered to the boiler automatically from the fuel store by an auger or vacuum pipe system. The big difference is the way in which the fuel is burnt. Biomass systems run in combustion cycles with the heat generated lasting for longer periods of time than traditional direct heat exchanging.
· The environmental positives come from this extremely efficient combustion and heat exchange (95% average). Combined with CO2 neutrality of the material, you can enjoy savings of up to 50% by replacing previous fossil fuels of Oil and LPG whilst saving many tonnes of CO2 emission in the process.
· The biomass system, when designed correctly provides up to 100% of the annual heat load of a building, replacing the demand on the conventional boiler. In addition Biomass boilers encompass modern efficiencies such as automatic ignition, recirculation of combustion gases and continual monitoring of the system operation, as well as automated features for internal cleaning processes and ash removal to a disposal container. What’s more the ash product is biodegradable and makes a great fertiliser!
· When using correctly graded sustainably resourced wood fuels, biomass boilers are a carbon clean technology. The installation process is relatively simple and can be completed in a few days connecting into the buildings existing pipework and is no more difficult than replacing with a conventional fossil fuel option.
· The most common types of fuel used for commercial biomass are wood pellets or wood chips. Once the installation is complete and commissioned scheduled deliveries according to usage and servicing every 2000 hours or so ensures the system will run effectively to continue providing efficient heat for the property for many years to come.”

http://www.freeheating.net and http://www.freeheating.net/commercial.php