Our team in Yorkshire were commissioned to design and install a community biomass heating for a client with several properties.
The system we designed and installed included two 90 kW ETA Hack Biomass Boilers running on wood chip which provide hot water to two 2000 litre buffer tanks which then feed all the community properties via a heat main.
Pasture Land – beneath which sits the heat main
Properties on the system include an 1800’s farmhouse owned by the commissioning client, his office and 8 private properties running alongside grazing land. During the initial planning process our client spoke to the tenants about how they could benefit from this community installation and slowly added more private clients to the set up as the system was installed. The system still has the capacity to add up to 3 more 3 bed houses.
The biomass boilers also provide heat to a drying floor behind the clients farmhouse. This drying facility will then provide suitably dried wood chip for the on site hopper and the spare chip capacity will be sold on to other biomass boiler owners.
Two 2 Biomass Boilers use one central agitator
The two boilers are set in ‘cascade’ with one set as the primary unit. Both units use the same central agitator that feed both augurs from one large chip store. The chip store has a capacity of around 80 cubic metres which can last up to 5 months depending on demand and the time of year.
Our client put together a legal agreement with a local solicitor who drew up the contracts. Tenants then pay for their biomass generated electricity by the kWh (5.5p currently), plus a monthly service charge of £25 which includes a monthly inflationary increase. Annual service charge on both boilers is £285 per boiler paid for by the commissioning client.
Hopper – Wood Chip Store – 80 cubic metre capacity
As part of the installation, each property was connected to the main system via plate heat exchangers fed via some 350 metres of heat main. Some of these heating systems were then modified appropriately to ensure the occupiers homes are heated efficiently. Some also had new hot water tanks installed to ensure that a sufficient amount of hot water is available. One home heating system had to be completely re-modified and all systems had to have their plumbing systems changed to ‘S plans’ which took around 1-2 days each. The whole community system was completed in around 1 month.
Tenants pay our client monthly and paid no money for the main conversion, though some did fund their own costs for heating system upgrades. All clients converted from either heating oil or LPG.
Control panel for all properties
The ETA boilers have a complex control system which is able to be viewed and controlled remotely by both Futurum and the client providing us with a minute by minute usage report when required. The software also tells us and the client if there any issues so adjustments and maintenance can be carried out with minimal downtime for all users.
Futurum are able to design and install biomass heating system for 1 to many properties and maintain these systems under manufacturers warranties.
We are an approved ETA installer and were awarded the highest possible score under their UK Customer Excellence Programme (via Innasol). Futurum also install wood pellet and wood log boilers for Eco-Angus, Klover and Windhanger.
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