Biomass boilers, the best option for improving energy rating in buildings
European Union has opted for a more efficient and environmentally friendly building model, so much that in the coming years it will not only affect new buildings but also existing buildings, as indicated by the EPBD (Energy Performance Building Directive) forcing us to reduce CO2 emissions and approaching the energy model of almost zero energy consumption buildings from 2020.
In the case of the rehabilitation of existing buildings, facilities will have to be improved and progressively replacing the most polluting heating systems, such as those based on fossil fuels, by renewable systems and having a zero emission balance of CO2, because of this point is the most important when evaluating the emissions of the building and obtaining its energy rating.
We have different options between the renewable energies according to the climatic zone of our building. We can use systems for capturing solar energy, thermal and photovoltaic, wind systems, geothermal installations or biomass boilers.
The first three have the problem of requiring a high investment and the execution of works have a great technical complexity, especially if we are in buildings to be rehabilitated, such as the placement of solar collectors on the roofs, the placement of wind turbines, in addition, can produce problems of vibrations in the structure of the building, or the excavation of geothermal wells.
In addition, all these systems have to be associated with a traditional support system (boiler), to ensure that the demand for heating and hot water for the entire building, which should be biomass if we want to achieve zero emissions.
Then, how can all these from a technical and economic point of view complicated actions be simplified?
Biomass seems to be the answer.
From the technical point of view, it is simpler than other solutions and it would be only to replace the existing coal, gas oil or gas boiler by a biomass one, making easy modifications to the system and adapting the fuel tanks to be converted into a Biomass storage with an automatic system that feeds the boiler, in this way we maintain the same comfort of using gas and liquid fuels.
From the economic point of view, we already find very competitive prices for the biomass boilers and they are practically the same as the gas boilers and, the works to realize are cheaper than those that would have to realize with the other systems. In addition, if we talk about performance and price of fuel, if we take as an example pellets, currently this fuel is more profitable than natural gas, and much more than gas oil and coal. This is because even if the pellets produce less heat per ton than fossil fuels, the current price of them is also lower.
Biomass boiler example (source: http://www.sustainableprocessimprovement.co.uk/)
Therefore, biomass facilities must be the pillar on which the building market is based in the coming years and, therefore, the increased demand for fuel, should strengthen the creation of an economy based on the management of Natural resources and specially the forestry sector have to be a major producer of them.
