BIO MASS MADNESS A friend of mine lives in a tied house on a large estate near me. He used to have his house centrally heated by oil. Last year, the estate installed a new wood fired heating system which supplies heat to about 10 houses, an office block and the main house. The intention is to use wood harvested from the estate timber, using a wood chipper to reduce the wood to a combustible size. My friend tells me that the company that owns the estate has received government funding of £20 million over 10 years to cover the cost of the complete installation. Almost all of the big old trees on the estate have now been felled, leaving only those that can be seen by the public from the nearby stately home. A plantation of ash, owned by the estate, is now also being felled and they are selling wood chips to others, in addition to their own use. My friend used to pay a standing order of £60 per month for heating oil and was never especially careful with his heating. He had been told, before the installation, that his heating bill for his house would be about one third of his oil fuel bill. He now is being charged £150 per month, which is 2.5 times his old oil bill. One rather ironic aspect is that the wood from the estate is not dry enough to use immediately and so they have to reduce the moisture content by use of a grain dryer that is fuelled by - yes – heating oil.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 12:31:07 +0000
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