Biomass Suppliers List and Woodsure

[Doing it for the kids]

As of yesterday I have installed a log burning stove in the house with a back boiler capable of 27.8kw and decommissioned the biomass boiler, with the fitters ripping out the feed from the biomass room, and finally detatching the meters. 9 years worth of grief, expense which personally brought our marriage so close to divorce with failed hot water and a cold house during the winter. To say I am relieved is an understatement - one day I will find a way if I can of getting the £27k returned from what was a poor install and the worst decision I've ever made. The Ombudsman was pathetic, RHI themselves are an absolute joke, and Woodsure are a thieving quango, which will only get worse now they seek to nark everyone to the point where they will leave the schemes.

Without doubt they are trying to force everyone out if the scheme, the good days are over I think.

 

[renewablejohn]

Without doubt they are trying to force everyone out if the scheme, the good days are over I think.

It is such a shame as biomass could be such an important renewable fuel but instead its being totally wasted on low efficiency projects.

 

[farmerfred86]

£170 to get my woodsure certificate plus the £20 BSL fee... then I've got to hire in a chipper before weighing, drying and carting into our wood store.
It will be cheaper to burn the wood outside in a great big bonfire and buy wood chip in at £130/t.

Please tell me more. I didn’t think I can get a BSL number (which I need to burn a small amount of chipped storm damaged trees each year)

 

[tullah]

I don't remember seeing in the small print on the signed contract that they could change the rules a few years down the line.

 

[RhysT]

As of yesterday I have installed a log burning stove in the house with a back boiler capable of 27.8kw and decommissioned the biomass boiler, with the fitters ripping out the feed from the biomass room, and finally detatching the meters. 9 years worth of grief, expense which personally brought our marriage so close to divorce with failed hot water and a cold house during the winter. To say I am relieved is an understatement - one day I will find a way if I can of getting the £27k returned from what was a poor install and the worst decision I've ever made. The Ombudsman was pathetic, RHI themselves are an absolute joke, and Woodsure are a thieving quango, which will only get worse now they seek to nark everyone to the point where they will leave the schemes.

Were you a Thermal Earth customer?

there was so many bad reports of poor quality installations! And their still trading!

 

[ukprop]

As of yesterday I have installed a log burning stove in the house with a back boiler capable of 27.8kw and decommissioned the biomass boiler, with the fitters ripping out the feed from the biomass room, and finally detatching the meters. 9 years worth of grief, expense which personally brought our marriage so close to divorce with failed hot water and a cold house during the winter. To say I am relieved is an understatement - one day I will find a way if I can of getting the £27k returned from what was a poor install and the worst decision I've ever made. The Ombudsman was pathetic, RHI themselves are an absolute joke, and Woodsure are a thieving quango, which will only get worse now they seek to nark everyone to the point where they will leave the schemes.

I'm sorry you had such a nightmare. Space heating in Austria is something like 50% biomass with a highly mature market- there are lots of well qualified installers, top manufacturers of kit and plenty of maintenance engineers. The problem was that the UK was and remains a small and immature market. A lot of chancers designed poor systems with second rate kit (that Ofgem should not have approved) and installed them badly. As the industry never got to scale, we now have a shortage of engineers and many of those left are expensive and not always very good (in my experience). They are certainly able to name their price due to enforced new rules.
The worst affected are the smaller systems as the RHI/ Woodsure quangos have heaped admin and cost on them that is utterly pointless. It would have been so easy to only apply all the new silly rules to systems over 100kw.

 

[Rod Dumbreck]

It would have been so easy to only apply all the new silly rules to systems over 100kw.

That would particularly appeal to me with a 90kW system

 

[welshfarming]

I'm sorry you had such a nightmare. Space heating in Austria is something like 50% biomass with a highly mature market- there are lots of well qualified installers, top manufacturers of kit and plenty of maintenance engineers. The problem was that the UK was and remains a small and immature market. A lot of chancers designed poor systems with second rate kit (that Ofgem should not have approved) and installed them badly. As the industry never got to scale, we now have a shortage of engineers and many of those left are expensive and not always very good (in my experience). They are certainly able to name their price due to enforced new rules.
The worst affected are the smaller systems as the RHI/ Woodsure quangos have heaped admin and cost on them that is utterly pointless. It would have been so easy to only apply all the new silly rules to systems over 100kw.

Thank you, just saw your reply.. Given the current scandals being unearthed in Britain I do wonder if the arbitration scheme we have to seek redress for poor BIomass implementation is a cover up/white wash, as on re-reading my arbitration paperwork I think I remain unconvinced on the final decision found against me. Truth will out in the end, now thinking I will do a straw poll of any biomass owners to see if they have had similar issues with arbitration being found against them. Thank you again for your kind words.

 

[welshfarming]

Were you a Thermal Earth customer?

there was so many bad reports of poor quality installations! And their still trading!

Hi Rhys - yes I was a Thermal Earth customer... they've since moved onto Air source heating, and all the references to Biomass have been removed from their website. Also, when I called for them to help with the biomass the other day they said they no longer had any engineers to support (not surprised really as I did take them to the Arbitrator to seek damages, so shouldn't be surprised when they chose not to support).. Thank you for your reply, sorry it took so long, I don't often come on the forum to check, but will make a point to check more regularly now. THink I will do a straw poll of Thermal Earth customers with biomass issues to see how many have been affected, as it would be enlightening to see if any like me went to arbitration to seek redress.

 

[RhysT]

Hi Rhys - yes I was a Thermal Earth customer... they've since moved onto Air source heating, and all the references to Biomass have been removed from their website. Also, when I called for them to help with the biomass the other day they said they no longer had any engineers to support (not surprised really as I did take them to the Arbitrator to seek damages, so shouldn't be surprised when they chose not to support).. Thank you for your reply, sorry it took so long, I don't often come on the forum to check, but will make a point to check more regularly now. THink I will do a straw poll of Thermal Earth customers with biomass issues to see how many have been affected, as it would be enlightening to see if any like me went to arbitration to seek redress.

I know of multiple people with badly set up systems from TE. Have you scrapped the system? If not I do know of some very good heating engineers that would probably be capable to re engineer it to perform for you.


rhys

 

[welshfarming]

I know of multiple people with badly set up systems from TE. Have you scrapped the system? If not I do know of some very good heating engineers that would probably be capable to re engineer it to perform for you.


rhys

Hi Rhys, think I'd like to see if somehow I could get all the TE customers together with badly set up systems so we could see if we could take them to court. Was thinking of putting an Ad into the AgriTrader to see if I could get some response from that, I did take my case to the Ombudsman but that didn't get very far (think there's a lot of vested interests, a bit like the Post Office scandal..) Unfortunately I gave up trying to find another engineer, as the one I did have who was great emigrated to Australia, so I've now scrapped the biomass, and put in a back boiler stove into the house instead. Thank you for your help, it's very much appreciated.

 

[PV & Biomass since 2002]

Hi Rhys, think I'd like to see if somehow I could get all the TE customers together with badly set up systems so we could see if we could take them to court. Was thinking of putting an Ad into the AgriTrader to see if I could get some response from that, I did take my case to the Ombudsman but that didn't get very far (think there's a lot of vested interests, a bit like the Post Office scandal..) Unfortunately I gave up trying to find another engineer, as the one I did have who was great emigrated to Australia, so I've now scrapped the biomass, and put in a back boiler stove into the house instead. Thank you for your help, it's very much appreciated.

Happy to do a Inspection and Condition Report if you need...

 

[welshfarming]

Happy to do a Inspection and Condition Report if you need...

Hi - thank you for the offer, I've had a quote to recommission the biomass, but it felt like throwing good money after bad, so I've now got a lot of unused biomass kit in my shed, and it's redundant now that I've installed a wood burning stove with a back boiler in the house. I'll let you know if I need a report, but otherwise I am probably looking at getting rid of the biomass kit now as it's taking up valuable space while it's unemployed.

 

[PV & Biomass since 2002]

Hi - thank you for the offer, I've had a quote to recommission the biomass, but it felt like throwing good money after bad, so I've now got a lot of unused biomass kit in my shed, and it's redundant now that I've installed a wood burning stove with a back boiler in the house. I'll let you know if I need a report, but otherwise I am probably looking at getting rid of the biomass kit now as it's taking up valuable space while it's unemployed.

No problem, keep me posted if you want to move forward. Rgds, Paul