Biomass boiler efficiency

[Pottersfarm]

How hard are people running their boilers? Tier 1 pays upto 1314 hours (1,314,000 kwh) and tier 2 pays anything after that.
There is 8760 hours in a year but you’d never get a boiler running at 100% efficiency to actually do 8,760,000 kwh per year?
Ours runs between 1,500,000 and 2,500,000 kwh per year depending on demand which varies year to year. I’ve had a new consultant to do our ofgem returns and he’s said we are quite low users compared to a lot of his other clients with 1MW boilers hence the question.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

I’m not sure efficiency comes into this.

An efficient boiler will simply use less fuel to hit tier 1

The hours it runs for aren’t measured. The magic 1314 is just used in the calculations

The system should have been sized to hit tier 1 with reasonable ease. If you are struggling to hit it either your boiler is too small or your heat needs are too low

 

[Still Farming]

Most Not the most efficient 80% possibly or less.

 

[555]

To hit the theoretical 8,760,000kw a year you will need 1000kw of demand every hour.

What are you using the boiler for and what is the max heat load on it?

 

[Still Farming]

To hit the theoretical 8,760,000kw a year you will need 1000kw of demand every hour.

What are you using the boiler for and what is the max heat load on it?

And a lot of biomass going in it too.

 

[555]

About 2740T - £300,000 with RHI income of £272,000 (6p/2.6p) so your heating cost is £28,0000 or 1/3p per KW - exceptional value . Another 1/3p to service/spares/comply still very very cheap heat.

All in theory of course.

We have 1mw systems at approx. 5,000,000kw annually , which on straw are still creating a negative heating cost

 

[Still Farming]

Minus labour, electric, biomass straw or wood, cleaning, system maintenance etc etc etc

 

[Pottersfarm]

I’m not sure efficiency comes into this.

An efficient boiler will simply use less fuel to hit tier 1

The hours it runs for aren’t measured. The magic 1314 is just used in the calculations

The system should have been sized to hit tier 1 with reasonable ease. If you are struggling to hit it either your boiler is too small or your heat needs are too low

Efficiency as in financial side of things. Basically the new chap said we should be earning more. It’s sized appropriately and it’s heating a large farmhouse all year round, 30,000sqft of industrial units in varying sizes and a 2000t grain shed and drier. Peek month October when everything wants heat it can’t really cope but it’s literally only about 6 weeks a year and depends on moisture content of harvested crops really. We hit tier 1 easily hence running 1,500,000 to 2,500,000 kwh per year as mentioned. This chap basically said he’d got other clients with very similar systems doing another £60,000 - £100,000 a year in rhi income compared to us. I could run it harder by utilising the drier more it seems like a lot of hassle to me because for our busy few weeks with it it’s like having a mobile drier in that you can’t really be to far away because the fuel feed system will block up or they’ll be a power cut etc. Biomass boilers are temperamental things in my experience.

 

[555]

If you are buying your chip in at around 4p a kw against an RHI income of say 3p a kw.Tier 2 So unless you really need the heat it’s costing you 1p a kw.

 

[Pottersfarm]

Minus labour, electric, biomass straw or wood, cleaning, system maintenance etc etc etc

Electric when everything is going so all the heater blowers in the industrial units, grain drying fan, all the inline pumps etc it costs us £50/day and we are on a cheap tariff at 17p/kwh (3 year deal). However £50/day isn’t every day of the year, it’s just the grain drying period. Then it drops off to about £25/day. Servicing is £2500/year by an approved accredited engineer. In house maintenance last year was £3250. Insurance is £1,000. Our fuel is straw from our own fields so you can cost it at marketable sale value although we chop what we don’t need so our opportunity cost really is organic matter in the soil. Baling, haulage and storage is £15-£20/tonne. Actual labour to man it is about 200 hours a year.
Last years rhi income was £100,000. It’s saved us 10,000l of kero per year and gas to dry 2000t which I don’t have a figure for to hand.
This years RHI is set to be about £115,000.

 

[555]

On straw , makes it viable at Tier 2. I would say the biggest heat load is the industrial units. Are they insulated by any chance? Once warm they stay warm. We put a newly insulated roof on one of our units, heaters hardly on.

 

[Doing it for the kids]

Efficiency as in financial side of things. Basically the new chap said we should be earning more. It’s sized appropriately and it’s heating a large farmhouse all year round, 30,000sqft of industrial units in varying sizes and a 2000t grain shed and drier. Peek month October when everything wants heat it can’t really cope but it’s literally only about 6 weeks a year and depends on moisture content of harvested crops really. We hit tier 1 easily hence running 1,500,000 to 2,500,000 kwh per year as mentioned. This chap basically said he’d got other clients with very similar systems doing another £60,000 - £100,000 a year in rhi income compared to us. I could run it harder by utilising the drier more it seems like a lot of hassle to me because for our busy few weeks with it it’s like having a mobile drier in that you can’t really be to far away because the fuel feed system will block up or they’ll be a power cut etc. Biomass boilers are temperamental things in my experience.

Efficiency as in tons used for x kWh. If you haven’t got the call for heat then you can’t make the meter spin

What system are you running?

On straw , makes it viable at Tier 2. I would say the biggest heat load is the industrial units. Are they insulated by any chance? Once warm they stay warm. We put a newly insulated roof on one of our units, heaters hardly on.

Yeah they call early in the morning then it goes quiet.I think commercial and rhi are the best combo, grain drying is too sporadic unless commercially run