Biomass Central Heating Wood provides about 1% of Ireland's energy needs in the form of domestic and industrial wood heating.

Wood is regarded as a 'carbon neutral' fuel as it absorbs as much CO2 when it grows as is released when it burns - a natural cycle. Wood fuel takes just 5-20 years to grow, whereas fossil fuels such as oil and coal were formed over hundreds of thousands of years.

The main types of wood fuel are chips and pellets. Wood pellets are compressed wood, usually sawdust or wood shavings. They are easy to ignite, are dry, create little ash and will flow freely through feeding mechanisms such as hoppers and augers. These properties make pellets ideal for automatic appliances.

Biomass and your home.

There are two main ways of using biomass to heat a domestic property:

• Stand-alone stoves providing space heating for a room. These can be fuelled by logs or pellets but only pellets are suitable for automatic feed. Generally they are 6-12 kW in output, and some models can be fitted with a back boiler to provide water heating.
  
• Boilers connected to central heating and hot water systems. These are suitable for pellets, logs or chips, and are generally larger than 15 kW.

Stoves can be 80% efficient. They're normally used for background heating. They also add aesthetic value in the living area of the house itself. Many wood burning stoves act as space heaters only. But the higher output versions can be fitted with an integral back boiler to provide domestic hot water and central heating through radiators, if needed.