Wood pellet boiler for an off-gas-grid home

Pellet boilers work well in larger, older rural homes with high heat demand, solid walls and radiators sized for a hot system, where fitting a heat pump would mean major changes. They produce high flow temperatures like an oil boiler, so the existing radiators usually stay.

They suit town houses poorly. The boiler is bigger than a gas or oil boiler, the fuel needs dry storage and delivery access, and in a smoke control area only appliances approved for that use may burn wood.

The boiler needs pellets fed to it, either from a hopper filled by hand from bags, or automatically from a bulk store supplied by a tanker that blows pellets in through a hose. Bulk stores need to be dry, close to the boiler and reachable from a road; damp pellets swell and jam the feed. Think about where a delivery vehicle can park and how long the hose run would be.

Ash has to be emptied regularly; many boilers compact it into a bin that needs emptying every few weeks in winter. The flue has to suit a solid fuel appliance, and Approved Document J governs flues and hearths for solid fuel in England.

Installing a solid fuel or biomass boiler is notifiable building work. Installers registered with a competent person scheme for solid fuel, such as HETAS, can self-certify it; otherwise Building Control must be involved before work starts.

Many towns and cities are smoke control areas, where you may only burn authorised fuel unless the appliance is exempt, often called Defra approved. Wood pellets are not an authorised smokeless fuel, so a pellet boiler in a smoke control area must be an exempt appliance, and you must only burn the fuel its manufacturer specifies. Your council's environmental services team can confirm whether you live in one.

For the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, the boiler must also have an emissions certificate showing that polluting emissions are kept to a minimum.

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme in England and Wales can fund a biomass boiler only if the property is off the gas grid, in a rural location and the boiler has an emissions certificate. Self-build properties cannot get the biomass grant. As with any BUS grant, fossil fuel heating must be replaced, and the installer applies on your behalf.

In Scotland, the Home Energy Scotland scheme funds some biomass boilers where a heat pump is not suitable; it asks for written evidence of why a heat pump and high heat retention storage heaters will not work. Installing a boiler designed to burn only wood, pellets or similar plant material in a home is zero-rated for VAT until 31 March 2027. Multi-fuel boilers and stand-alone wood stoves are standard-rated.

• boiler model, output and emissions certificate
• hopper or bulk store, its size and the delivery route
• flue specification and hearth
• whether a buffer tank and new cylinder are included
• removal of the old oil tank or LPG equipment
• servicing interval and ash handling

Source: gov.uk

Describe the property, the current fuel and where a fuel store could go. After you confirm your phone number and email, biomass installers in your area see the request without your personal details. One of them can buy it; after that it is closed to everyone else. You pay nothing to Offrano.

We tell you the installer's name, address and phone number by email before they see yours. Biomass installers are thinner on the ground than gas engineers, so it may take longer for someone to take the request, and if nobody does within 21 days it is withdrawn. Check the installer's HETAS registration and MCS certification yourself; Offrano confirms only that it is a registered business.