An independent resource on pellet heating, with nothing to sell

What this site is

Pellet Burners is an independent resource for people weighing up pellet stoves and boilers against oil, a heat pump, or simply staying where they are. There is no product to sell here and no installer network taking a referral fee for pointing you towards a particular system. That has one practical effect: the site can say plainly when biomass is a poor fit for a given house.

The Suitability assessment exists for exactly that reason. It sets out the conditions under which biomass makes sense, storage space, an appropriate flue run, a use case that suits a solid-fuel appliance, and the conditions under which a heat pump or staying on oil is the more straightforward answer. Read Is Biomass Heating Right for Your House? or, for a side-by-side view of the two main alternatives, Biomass Against a Heat Pump: An Honest Comparison.

How the figures are built

Every cost comparison on this site states the fuel price per kilowatt-hour, the date that figure was checked, and where it came from, typically an Ofgem dataset or a supplier's published price list. A cost figure without that working is not much use, because pellet prices move and a number quoted without a date has probably already gone stale by the time you read it. The running cost calculator follows the same rule: it shows the heat demand, fuel price and efficiency assumptions behind every result, marks the output as a range rather than a quote, and can be wrong if your house's actual heat demand differs from what you entered.

Where a guide sends you next

Every guide ends by naming an official body to check directly. That means the HETAS online register for an installer's current certification, the DEFRA exemption list for a stove's smoke control status, or the scheme administrator's own page for grant terms. This site cannot confirm any installer's registration, any appliance's exemption status, or any grant's current terms. Only the relevant register can, which is why each guide points there.

What this site is not

This site is not an installer, a retailer, or a manufacturer, and it does not run a referral network that passes your details to one. It does not sell pellet boilers, pellet stoves, or flue components, and has no arrangement with anyone who does. That absence of a stake in the sale is what allows the site to write about running costs, servicing and installation requirements without softening the parts that are inconvenient for a would-be buyer.

Pellet Burners is an independent resource on wood-pellet and biomass heating, built for people who are weighing up a pellet stove or boiler against a heat pump or an ageing oil system. It has no product to sell, no installer to refer and no manufacturer to promote, which is what lets a guide say plainly that biomass is the wrong fit for a given house.

Why this exists

Most of what a homeowner finds when researching biomass comes from someone with a stake in the answer: an installer's website, a manufacturer's brochure, a retailer's comparison page. None of those are wrong to exist, but they are not built to tell you when a heat pump would suit your house better, or when your loft insulation makes the whole question moot. This site was built to sit outside that arrangement, covering the arithmetic, the regulation and the practical constraints (storage space, flue routing, smoke control status) that actually decide whether biomass makes sense for a particular property.

How the guides are put together

Every fuel cost comparison states the price per kWh (kilowatt-hour, the unit used to compare fuel costs), the date the figure was checked and where it came from, because pellet prices and electricity tariffs both move and a number without a date goes stale quietly. Every guide that touches installation, grants or appliance compliance ends by naming the official body to check, whether that is the HETAS register, the DEFRA exemption list or a scheme's own eligibility page. The running cost calculator shows the formula behind its output and is clear that the result is an arithmetic illustration, not a quotation.

If you are still at the stage of deciding whether biomass is worth investigating for your house at all, the suitability assessment sets out the conditions that make the answer yes or no before you spend time on the rest of the site. For anything not covered here, the site can be reached through the contact page.