Wood Pellet boilers – how much will I be paid?

If you have a wood pellet boiler then one of the key considerations is understanding whether it will leave you better off.

1 – if you have a recent EPC or Green Deal Assessment there will be two figures on the last page (p 4 of 4) that show you how much space heating, and how much hot water you require in kWhrs. For instance this could be 33,000 hrs and 2500 hours.

2 – If you require to update loft insulation or cavity wall insulation there will also be an estimate on how much this will save you in heating hours.

 

epcdata

 

You now have the information to use the governments Domestic RHI calculator. The advantage of this is that they do keep all the tariffs up to date, so you will know what you will get, providing you install before a certain date.

Once you have figure for what you will get there are key considerations that you can estimate yourself:

What size boiler do I need?

The first thing to do is to roughly calculate what size boiler you need. For instance if your home requires 32000 kWhrs a year of heat then you need to estimate how many hours the boiler will be used for over 1 year.

Estimate 1 – The RHI commercial figure is 1314 hours a year

Estimate 2 – The Energy Savings Trust figure is 1100 hours per year

In reality the figure can vary according to house type – if you have a lot of heat loss e.g. stone walls, then you may need more boiler hours because you are losing lots of heat. If you have a very well insulated home then the home will conserve heat. This is important when it is very cold and determines whether your boiler can keep up with your home’s need.

So – 32000 hours = 24kW boiler using the first estimate or 29kW using the second

If you have secondary heating e.g. a log stove then you may feel that you could use a smaller boiler. If you have poor insulation and no extra heating then you may want a larger one.

If we are invited to do a survey then we have to calculate the size of the boiler, and we do not rely on the EPC figure. However this estimate gives you a starting point.

Once you have got a boiler size it is possible to get a ball park figure for a boiler room installation e.g. no changes to the central heating system, just the replacement cost of the boiler subject to survey.

If you would like us to give you a figure, then please contact us. We do find that our prices are quite reasonable.


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