Grant UK often receives positive feedback from installers on the financial benefits their customers are seeing after having a Grant condensing biomass boiler installed in their property, especially those receiving the Government’s Renewable Heat Initiative (RHI).
The Non-Domestic and Domestic RHI financially support businesses, the public sector, and homeowners with installations of renewable heat generators. Since its launch in November 2011, over 6,200 installations have been accredited under the Non-Domestic Scheme.* In April 2014, the Domestic RHI was introduced which pays homeowners quarterly payments over seven years for the energy output of eligible renewable heating systems. We have been speaking to one of our G-One installers who explained the financial perks that a Grant Spira biomass boiler will bring to one of their customers over the coming years.
Blake Ecotec Ltd in Somerset, are approved G-One installers of Grant biomass boilers as well as solar thermal and air source heat pumps. In October last year, the Company installed a Spira 6-26kW condensing wood pellet boiler at Mr O’Dell’s home in Moorlinch. The property was one-hundred and eighty square meters in size and the Spira was integrated with the building’s existing hot water cylinder and a new radiator circuit.
The Grant Spira is fully automatic and performs much like an oil or gas boiler. It uses advanced controls, which regulate the amount of fuel being fed to the burner via an auger connected to the adjacent pellet hopper. At Mr O’Dell’s property, a 110kg hopper unit was installed with the Spira but for some properties, a larger pellet store may be required which allows for bulk storage of fuel. Bulk pellet stores are available in sizes ranging from 500kg up to 6 tonnes and provide greater flexibility for the homeowner allowing them to purchase pellets in sizeable quantities which is more cost effective.
While many modern pellet boilers will lose up to 20% of the energy produced through waste gases exhausted by the flue system, appliances such as the Spira are condensing and have a secondary heat exchanger designed to capture some of this lost heat energy.
The Spira is MCS approved which means it is eligible for Domestic RHI payments. Michael Skidmore from Blake Ecotec Ltd estimates that Mr O’Dell’s Spira boiler will make him just over £3,500 per year on the Domestic RHI tariff, generating a minimum total of £25,000 over the seven years of Mr O’Dell’s membership on the scheme. These are significant figures which not only offset the initial costs of biomass boiler installation, but exceed these costs creating profits for the homeowner.
The payments a homeowner receives are determined by the tariff rates for the relevant renewable energy appliance at the time the application is submitted. The tariff for Domestic RHI biomass applications was reduced in Spring 2015 (air source heat pumps and solar thermal were not affected by this reduction). All new applications submitted after 1st April 2015 and before 1st July 2015 are on a rate of 8.93p per kilowatt hour.
What’s more, once a homeowner has joined the Domestic RHI that particular technology will remain on the same tariff rate for the duration of the seven year membership. The only change that may be seen will be bringing payments in line with the Retail Price Index. Further details about RHI and the payment tariffs can be found at www.ofgem.co.uk.
Despite the introduction of a reduced tariff rate for Domestic RHI biomass applications, the Grant Spira, and forthcoming Vecta, biomass boiler ranges offer consumers sustainable, efficient, cost-effective heating while also rewarding the end-user with a financial incentive – Grant biomass boilers earn their keep in more ways than one.
For further details on our biomass range, please click here.
*correct 30th September 2014.