Biomass Boilers
Biomass heating systems come in a variety of forms, burning anything from logs or pellets to waste wood or wood chips. Biomass boilers are highly efficient and are considered very environmentally friendly due to very low emissions coupled with burning a naturally carbon neutral fuel.
Biomass boilers are also suitable for all types of property due to the large range of sizes available starting at 7 kw and up. From heating domestic single homes to castles to offices and industrial buildings. Its also common to heat multiple property’s through what we call a district heating.
Gondwana Green Heat has over 20 years in biomass and was one only 5 company’s offering biomass in Scotland before grant schemes took over.
Types of Biomass boilers we can offer.
1. Log boilers
Log Boilers, also known as Batch Boilers, are gasification biomass boilers which burn wood logs or briquettes and charge a (heat) large accumulator tank of water. The water can be used for industrial processes, space heating or hot water to the taps. Log boilers are often favoured by people who have free or cheap wood. Log boilers do however involve a bit of work. They typically require you to set a fire a couple of times a day in winter, and maybe once every 4 to 7 days in summer. Log gasification boilers are available from Gondwana Green Heat from 10kw to 100kw, and larger outputs can be easily achieved with several boiler working together.
2. Pellet Boilers
Most people will now be familiar with wood pellets as a form of fuel, but if you are not: wood pellets are compressed saw dust. Pellets are very dry and can come in small 10kg bags or alternatively in a tanker and “blow in”. The more pellets you purchase the cheaper they become, typically around £300 – £ 350 per 1,000kg. It’s also important to realize you should only use pellets that meet the pellet boiler specification : be aware of poor quality cheaper pellets as they will increase the chance of breakdown and generally have poorer energy value.
Pellet Boilers work differently from log gasification boilers in the way they are automated and fire up and shut down automatically. Pellet boilers are available with large hoppers which hold pellets that are fed into the boiler on demand. Small pellet boilers have built-in hoppers to hold the pellets, and these can often be upgraded to attach to a silo/pellet storage facility that feeds pellets automatically into the boiler. The main benefit of pellet biomass systems is the automated nature of the system, which can be similar to oil or gas systems in operation. Gondawana Green Heat installs pellet boiler systems from 7kw upwards, we no upper limit.
As Gondwana we currently only offer Hargassner biomass boilers, we do this mainly because of unparallel quality. Hargassner boilers have a ceramic combustion core in there boilers, this reduces emissions considerably by having a hot ceramic core, which super heats combustion and burns off more particles. The ceramic core also makes lighting pellets and chips etc easier with less emissions.
Hargassner also have a vast range of quality made in house, fuel delivery options for pellet and chip boilers. Hargassner also do biomass boiler link ups, this means connecting a log and pellet boiler together, giving you the best of both worlds, log or pellet you choose ?
3. Wood Chip Biomass Boilers
Wood Chip Biomass Boilers burn waste wood which is put through a chipper to create a wood fuel. Most chip boilers are for larger commercial or industrial or district heating set-ups due to the higher capital cost involved. If you have your own source of wood chips e.g. estate, farm, industry etc, they can be a very cheap system to run. All of our chip boilers have automated ignition and fire up on demand making them similar to pellet boilers in operation. Like pellet boilers wood chips are stored and collected by a delivery system which is fed into the boiler.
4. Log / Waste Wood Forced Air Biomass
Imagine a drum in a drum: a fire is set in the inner drum which heats up the space between the 2 drums, the hot air between the 2 drums is then blown through ducting to heat the space. No radiators, no hot water, simply forced hot air. The main benefits are low capital cost compared with other forms of biomass, quick heat-up of property and very easy to use.
It should be noted these forced air biomass heaters are designed for commercial space, industrial units and workshops.
Biomass Boilers are a great replacement for oil and gas, with no need to change existing heat emitters. Biomass boilers can be used to heat tiny properties or large commercial buildings – there really is a biomass product suitable for everyone.
Gondawana Green Heat is also heavily involved in district heating, where multiple homes, apartments or commercial buildings are heated from one biomass boiler. This can help reduce the initial cost as well reduce servicing and maintenance costs.
Biomass boilers are particularly popular in rural areas where gas is not available and oil prices are unpredictable and direct eclectic is unfeasibly expensive.
As well as installing biomass boiler Gondwana also supply and fit a range of hot water storage systems which are integral to the operation of our biomass boilers, pleas see the link below to the relevant pages.
