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Wood Fuelled Heating

Most renewable sources of energy are best used for electricity generation, but it's unlikely that we can make enough electricity to meet all our heating needs in the winter. Wood-based fuels are the best contender for this purpose.

The term biomass refers to wood, oilseed rape, elephant grass, animal wastes, straw, grain husks and other agricultural by-products. All these products can be burnt to produce heat. Currently, only wood products are used for domestic purposes.

Biomass = Carbon Neutral
Biomass fuels are said to be ‘carbon neutral’. This means that the carbon dioxide that is released by burning them is equivalent to the amount they absorbed whilst they were growing. So burning biomass doesn’t add any carbon to the atmosphere that wasn’t there already. This is unlike the carbon in coal, oil and gas which was absorbed by plants and animals over millions of years, but is all being released in a matter of decades. Sustainable wood fuel comes from trees that are replanted as they are harvested, so that the cycle of carbon emission and absorption is continuous.

Wood smoke contains virtually no sulphur dioxide and only tiny amounts of nitrous oxides, so it won’t cause acid rain. Burning wood efficiently gives off very small amounts of particles in smoke. In fact many wood burners are certified for use in smokeless zones and so wood burners can be ideal for urban areas.

Safety First
It is important to operate burners in a way that ensures wood burns thoroughly. Logs need to have a low moisture content. They need an initial fierce burn with lots of air. Once the wood has turned into charcoal, the air supply can be reduced, and red hot charcoal will glow in the same way it does in a barbecue. The first burn is key. At this stage polluting gases are given off by the wood, that are burned if mixed with sufficient air and heat. If wood has insufficient air in the first burn, then it will release most of the polluting gases into the atmosphere. With a complete burn, wood only leaves a small amount of ash, which is, incidentally, an excellent fertiliser, unlike coal ash.

Closed stoves are far more energy efficient than open fires which tend to lose most of their heat up the chimney. If you have the space it is ideal to install a back boiler behind a wood stove – this can save a lot of money on heating water in the winter.

There are a wide range of biomass and wood burning stoves available now, with prices ranging from £600 up to as much as £10,000 for an all singing all-dancing burner with boiler.

Find out more
Low Carbon Buildings Trust: for UK Grants
www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk

Info on stoves and fuels
www.logpile.co.uk