Any one recently gone down the road of biomass pellet boilers.
what was the real world initial cost and are you getting money back through RHI?
I might get rid of the oil tank and go renewable! Not really got space for a big hopper fed system. so looking at smaller internal ones to run domestic hot water and central heating.

Try the chat forum?

Yes and yes. Cost was probably 2.5x a new oil one but we went for a more expensive option. Running cost is about the same (or was when the oil was less cheap). RHI started coming just before Christmas and should cover most/all costs over 20 years.
Hopper fed system. Pellets stored where the oil tank had been.
Pouring bags of pellets in gives a very tangible sense of how much fuel you’re using.

Just finished our install yesterday and submitting RHI application today. I’m at work now but will write more when I get off duty. Be aware though that the domestic RHI tariff is going down 20% at the end of the month.

I might get rid of the oil tank and go renewable! Not really got space for a big hopper fed system. so looking at smaller internal ones to run domestic hot water and central heating.

Can’t comment on costs as the system my house uses was paid for by someone else – as is the fuel. However if space is really an issue then give it some careful consideration. Our boiler runs on chips and feeds five 3 bed houses and two small flats. at least a tractor trailer load chips, sometimes two or three, gets delivered pretty much everyday. The sheer physical volume of material that gets fed into the thing is startling.

Yes, got a biomass boiler fitted a couple of years ago, but don’t qualify for RHI as I had to sack my RHI installer and get the manufacturer to sort out issues and he wasn’t RHI certified as he didn’t want to pay the yearly subscription fee. So I now don’t qualify…. **** annoying, but they system works well but you do need a lot of space to store the pellets!

If you are going to get a biomass boiler installed, ensure you have a good fitter as mine were shocking and really didn’t know what they were doing, and refused to follow manufacturers guidelines.

For example; working system as defined by initial installer was on target to consume ~22 tonnes of pellets a year and the house was cold, and water was never hotter than tepid.

Working system after it was re-installed by manufacturer, consumes 3.5 tonnes of pellets and house is warm and water is very hot.

Right. Sorry for the delay, its been a mad couple of days.

If you see my other thread on pellet boilers you’ll get the back story but in short we are off the mains gas grid and were coal heated through a multifuel boiler stove.

We are enrolled on the RHI, approved and granted though the first payment is not yet due. We have only had the boiler up and running for 5 days but its pretty much been a dream so far. The house is nice and warm and the pellet hopper is easy to keep on top of. We went for an Austrian boiler – as I understand things the Austrian government invested heavily in the technology over a decade ago and as a result their kit is pretty much the forefront. It certainly seems good. I would suggest that more important in many respects is the installer you choose as you do rely heavily on their abilities. A great boiler badly installed is useless (obvious comment I know but easy to forget i the tech laden armageddon of boiler choice!).

The RHI is reducing but should still cover the cost of an install. Ours covered the install, the shed it went in, new radiators and part of our PV system too. We already had solar thermal which if you have limited roof space I would suggest is probably a better investment than PV. The Ofgem site is actually very good on guidance re systems and choice.

Good Luck!

Told our landlord to get one years ago, he went for some solar panels instead. He’s now seen the light and had a very quick turn around on getting an autofeed/hopper system installed. I am amazed at how much RHI he is getting and quite jealous we are held up building our new place as I am going to miss out on the ever reducing payments.