November 21, 2023 Making the Switch to Greener Heating
How to cut business bills and emissions
For a business, decarbonising is essential — the environmental impact of fossil fuels is severe, the prices are volatile, and businesses that pollute are not perceived well.
For the organisation’s electricity, solar PV might be the solution, or in some cases, perhaps wind power. When it comes to heating and hot water for businesses that aren’t on the grid, biomass is often the best choice for reliable, economical, and sustainable power.
How biomass heating works
A biomass boiler burns biological material — e.g. wood chips, wood pellets, or logs — in a combustion chamber. The heat from that process travels to a heat exchanger, where it warms the water of the building’s central heating.
Wood chip, pellet, or log boilers create equivalent heat to conventional boilers, so radiators and hot water will warm up just as well.
How biomass boilers save businesses money
For buildings with high heat demands, the running costs of oil can be enormous. Data from businessenergy.com suggests the average annual bill for commercial energy usage is £7,224, but for those not on the grid who need to use oil for their heating, the costs are much higher.
At £1,500 per 1000 litres, a business could easily spend tens of thousands of pounds every year just on fuel for central heating. Biomass energy solves that.
A stately home and wedding and entertainment venue we worked with had been paying £24,000 per year for heating oil. By switching to wood chips, the venue was able to save £14,000 per year on the cost of fuel.
A restaurant in a former rectory in Gloucestershire was facing rising costs from an increasingly inefficient oil boiler, and the switch to renewable heat through wood pellets meant a saving of £5,400 per year.
Since biomass fuel is much more economical than fossil fuels, those with a heavy heating requirement will easily save fuel costs. Believe it or not, it’s even possible to heat your business for free — if you have your own supply of wood, you can stock log boilers or wood pellet boilers with the natural resources you already own.
How biomass boilers maintain control over your energy costs
Whether a business uses a gas boiler or an oil boiler for heating, prices are so volatile that it’s increasingly difficult to budget predictably. With biomass, not only will the amount of fuel required be predictable, but the cost will be steady, not subject to a volatile fossil fuel market or global events, or international politics.
There’s already so much uncertainty around running a business, heating can at least be one area where you can maintain some control.
How biomass energy reduces your environmental impact Costs aren’t the only thing that biomass saves — Forest Research reveals that an oil burner will produce 6.28 tonnes of carbon dioxide for every 20MWh of power. Biomass (using a wood pellet boiler) only emits 300kg of carbon dioxide for the same output. Burning wood only releases as much carbon as the tree absorbed in its lifetime, so it’s effectively carbon neutral.
How to switch to renewable heat
Making the change for your business energy has never been easier. Innasol is the only UK distributor of ETA biomass boilers (the leading national brand for biomass heating systems). Our accredited installers of ETA boilers have fitted the very best biomass technology for businesses of all shapes and sizes across the UK.
If sustainable, renewable fuel is something you’d like to explore, a quick chat will help you understand the options. Call 01621 892613 to discuss your heat requirements, or to arrange a time to talk — there’s no obligation, just the opportunity to save money and your carbon emissions.
