Can someone please talk me through wood chip biomass please?

[whomovedmychocolate]

I know this is a long shot. I'm developing a property which has a problem with the gas supply - it's going to cost quite a lot to fix (more than I have in the budget).

One option is air filtration heat tanks, but there are radiators so it's not ideal, solar is out (it's in England) so we are veering towards chip biomass but the only people I can find to talk to about it are the people that sell them and they are hardly objective.

Has anyone converted to this and is willing to provide any insights. In particular I'm interested in knowing how much electricity it uses, how much wood etc. and whether you'd recommend an autohopper (which I'm minded to consider because I'm not good at shovelling!)

I know a little and this article here from Friends of the Earth says that Biomass is not all it''s cracked up to be.

The domestic renewable heat incentive will make biomass boilers much more cost effective - but government keeps delaying (now not due until next Summer). But when it's introduced should be an ROI of around 12%.

So it might be worth waiting.

I would recommend searching out either the Green Building Forum or the Navitron forum.. both have lots of treads on biomass and some of these may tell you more

It very much depends on the house whether it is a suitable option - but whatever house you have, your first port of call should always be improving the insulation wherever you can