October 13, 2024 Green Heat and Energy Efficiency
Finding The Right Type Of Eco-Heating For Your Building
Many in the UK are still not aware of the environmental impact of heating. Over the course of a year, a domestic gas boiler emits a similar amount of CO2 emissions as seven flights between London and New York. Yet only 12% of people realise that the two create a similar environmental impact with eco-friendly, eco-heating options like biomass.
If businesses and individuals realise the contribution that boilers make to emissions, and want to reduce their carbon footprint, it’s hard to know where to start. They still need to keep their buildings warm, and their hot water running, and it can feel daunting to assess which sustainable option is viable for them.
Here’s an overview of each option to help you decide which is best for you.
Biomass and eco-heating
How it works: A biomass boiler operates on similar principles as a conventional boiler, but with a fraction of the emissions. As a renewable energy source, a biomass boiler works by generating heat by burning wood in the form of chips, logs, or pellets, rather than fossil fuels.
Commercial and domestic biomass boilers create as much heat as a conventional boiler, if not more — existing radiators and water will heat just as well or better.
Burning wood only emits as much carbon as the tree absorbed in its life, so from that point of view it’s carbon neutral eco-friendly heating.
Biomass boilers are consistent and reliable, not relying on external conditions to operate at full capacity and are highly energy efficient.
Requires space for the boiler and fuel storage, so biomass boilers need more room than conventional gas boilers, and are likely best for larger homes and for businesses.
Commercial buildings with heavy heating and water usage will drastically reduce their carbon footprint, and enjoy large savings on heating costs.
Chips, pellets, or logs are fuel options to suit a variety of circumstances.
Sustainable alternative to conventional gas boilers.
If a home has access to its own supply of wood, fuel is effectively free.
Solar PV and eco-heating
How it works: Solar PV panels convert sunlight into electricity for eco-friendly heating for the building.
- Harnesses the free and renewable energy of the Sun.
- Creates zero emissions.
- Solar PV (or solar photovoltaic) is more of a ‘top-up’ — it won’t generate enough energy to heat a home on its own, but it can reduce the reliance on conventional gas boilers. If you’re aiming to use sustainable, eco-friendly heating and other renewable options that would work for your property, then they would go further.
- To work at maximum efficiency, panels need a south-facing roof.
Heat pumps and eco-heating
How it works: A heat pump system absorbs heat from the air into a liquid refrigerant, then heat the liquid by compressing it. Then the pump condenses the liquid with releases the heat, which the pump sends to radiators or underfloor heating.
If the electricity used to power the heat pump is renewable, then this is a sustainable option.
Heat pumps generate around 3-4kWh of heat for every kWh of electricity.
It’s worth noting that heat pumps create a lower flow temperature than a conventional gas boiler, and most radiators require a higher flow temperature to heat a room effectively. As such, heat pumps aren’t generally viable for most buildings without underfloor heating.
To incentivise and encourage homeowners to improve their home’s energy efficiency, The Boiler Upgrade Scheme launched in April 2022. Offering homeowners grants of up to several thousand pounds to switch to low-carbon heating systems and renewable alternatives such as biomass.
If biomass has caught your eye and you’d like to explore switching to renewable and sustainable fuel, contact us for a no-obligation conversation about the best option. Call 01621 892613 or contact us.
As the UK’s sole distributor of ETA biomass boilers (the UK’s leading brand for domestic and commercial biomass applications), we have a network of accredited installers that install the very best in biomass boiler technology in homes and businesses UK-wide. So it couldn’t be easier to make the change.
