How Much Does a Biomass Boiler Cost in 2023?
A biomass boiler is a great option for homeowners that don't have mains gas and want a more environmentally-friendly way to heat their homes, as they use wood chips, pellets or logs as fuel.
You may be able to get a grant to cover some of the cost of a biomass boiler – but how much can you expect to spend? We'll go through biomass boiler costs in this guide.
How much does it cost to install a biomass boiler in the UK?
How much it costs to install a biomass boiler in the UK will depend on the type of boiler you choose, how much new pipework you need and where you're located. Expect to spend anywhere between £6,000-£35,000 on a new biomass boiler:
|
Type of biomass boiler |
Average cost |
|
Log |
£6,000-£12,000 |
|
Manually-fed wood chip |
£10,000-£16,000 |
|
Automatically-fed wood chip |
£15,000-£25,000 |
|
Manually-fed pellet |
£15,000-£25,000 |
|
Automatically-fed pellet |
£20,000-£35,000 |
What affects the cost of installing a biomass boiler?
There are a few factors that will affect the cost of installing a biomass boiler:
The size of your home
How big your home is will affect the size of biomass boiler you need. A two-bedroom house will need a boiler with a much lower output than a 5-bedroom house.
You'll also need to consider that the bigger your boiler is, the more fuel you will need, and therefore more storage.
Type of boiler
The type of boiler you choose will also affect the cost of a biomass boiler. Log boilers tend to be the cheapest to install, while pellet boilers cost the most.
An automatically-fed boiler will also cost more than a manually-fed one, but you'll need to factor in how much you value your time as if you go for a cheaper manually-fed biomass boiler you will need to keep topping it up with fuel.
Whether you need new pipework
If you need new central heating pipework for your biomass boiler to work, this will increase the cost. For a 4-bedroom house, it could cost £2,500 to have new pipework installed.
Your location
Where you live will also affect the cost of installing a biomass boiler. Engineers in the south of England tend to charge more than those in the north, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. If you live in a particularly remote area you can expect an engineer to charge you more.
HaMuch has a large database of hourly rates for heating engineers across the country, so check the tables further down the page for a more accurate idea of labour costs. It's always best to get a range of quotes to ensure you get a good price.
How to choose the best fuel for your biomass boiler
You'll need to decide which fuel is best for you before you buy a biomass boiler. Unlike mains gas, which comes straight from your pipes, you'll need to feed your boiler with fuel. That means you need to store it somewhere dry until you're ready to burn it.
There are three main types of biomass fuel: logs, wood chips and pellets.
Logs
Logs are ideal if you have access to a good supply of wood – for example if you have lots of trees on your land. They're also cheap to buy – around £100-£250 per tonne.
To reduce your carbon emissions, you should only burn dry wood. Kiln-dried wood is best. Burning logs with a high moisture content will waste energy as the boiler won't produce as much heat.
It's worth remembering that logs are bulky, so you'll need a lot of space to store them. They'll need to be kept somewhere dry. Log boilers are generally manually-fed, so you'll need to top up the boiler yourself.
Wood chips
Wood chips are a good option for biomass fuel as they are cheap to buy and can be easier to store than logs.
Again, if you have your own trees that you can fell, you could create your own wood chips. Hiring a chipper usually costs around £250 per hour.
A benefit to wood chips is that they work with automatically-fed biomass boilers, so you can store them in a feeder and not have to worry about topping up your boiler yourself. If you buy wood chips, expect to pay £180-£220 per tonne.
Wood pellets
Wood pellets are the most efficient biomass boiler fuel. They are very dense and offer a much higher heat output than wood chips or logs.
Wood pellets generally cost £250-£500 per tonne. You'll pay less if you're happy for your pellets to be tipped out loose onto your property, while the most expensive option is if they’re delivered in bags.
Like wood chips, you can have an automatically-fed wood pellet boiler to save you time.
Are biomass boilers expensive to run?
Biomass boilers aren't as expensive to run as gas or electric heating. Gas and electricity prices have increased in 2022 and 2023, making biomass a cost-effective and eco-friendly way to heat your home.
Here's a breakdown of the estimated costs per kilowatt hour (kWh) for biomass fuels compared with gas, electricity and oil:
|
Fuel |
Cost per kWh |
|
Logs |
7p |
|
Wood chips |
5.7p |
|
Wood pellets |
12.45p |
|
Gas |
10.3p |
|
Electricity |
34p |
|
Oil |
10.3p |
Remember that while running costs are lower with some biomass fuels, installation is more expensive – a new gas boiler only costs around £3,000.
Boiler upgrade scheme
You may be able to get a grant to help towards the cost of a new biomass boiler through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. You can get £5,000 towards a biomass boiler if you:
- own your property and it's not a new build
- have installed, or plan to install your new biomass boiler on or after 1st April 2022
- are off the gas grid and are replacing an oil or electric boiler
- live in a rural location
- have an emissions certificate showing your boiler's polluting emissions are kept to a minimum
You need to use an MCS-registered installer to be eligible for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme. They will apply for the funding on your behalf.
Post your job on HaMuch now and we'll put you in touch with local engineers that can give you a quote for a new biomass boiler.