Welcome for boiler grant
IFA farm forestry chairman Pat Hennessy said: “Increasing numbers of our members are thinning their plantations and producing timber for the first time. Many see this as an ideal fuel source to heat their homes. Already they are stockpiling and drying timber.
“Installing a biomass gasification boiler could reduce your annual home heating bill by as much as 60%, when you consider home heating oil has increased by 40% to €1,000 per litre since the start of 2008. The saving could be as much as 80% if you are using timber from your own forest.”
Mr Hennessy said the past decade has brought considerable advances in efficiency and emission levels of gasifier-type firewood boilers, making them a suitable source of sustainable heat production for homes and small commercial installations. The boilers are manually fed by laying wood into the feed chamber of the boiler. The units can be charged with sufficient fuel to provide heat and warm water for a large house for at least a day. With a suitably-sized buffer tank this can be extended significantly, to as much as once a week for hot water, or once every two or three days during the heating season.
“We are delighted our campaign for the introduction of gasification boilers has been successful and would like to thank the TDs and particularly Tony Killeen, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, for supporting our campaign,” Mr Hennessy added. “Wood is an ideal carbon neutral renewable fuel resource for domestic homes, it is particularly attractive to farm families that may not be connected to gas and therefore be using more expensive and carbon heavy fuels such as oil,” he concluded.
Wood gasification boilers typically use about one-third less fuel than conventional wood burning systems. Prices range from €5,000 to €10,000.
