How much heat your house needs
Annual heat demand, measured in kWh, decides whether a pellet boiler can be sized sensibly for your rooms and hot water.
Check your heat demand →Pellet heating suits some houses and not others, and the difference comes down to arithmetic.
This site sets out the six questions that decide whether wood-pellet heating is realistic for your property, heat demand, space, flue, storage, delivery access and your appetite for handling fuel, and says plainly when the answer is no. Start with the suitability assessment or run your own numbers through the running cost calculator.
Read what has changed recently in pellet prices, grants and rules See whether biomass heating suits your houseSix questions that decide if pellets fit your house
These six factors, more than any brochure figure, determine whether a pellet system will actually work in your specific house.
Room for the appliance itself
A pellet boiler needs a plant room or utility space with clearance for the auger, hopper and ash tray.
Read the installation guide →A flue that can reach outside
The flue liner has to run to an approved outlet point, and a straight run through an existing chimney is not always available.
See how the system works →Dry storage for a season's fuel
A pellet boiler typically needs several cubic metres of covered, dry space to hold enough fuel between deliveries.
Read about storage and delivery →Access for the delivery lorry
Bulk pellet delivery needs a lorry to get within blowing distance of the store, which rules out some tight or shared driveways.
Check delivery requirements →Willingness to handle ash and fuel
Even an automated pellet system needs periodic ash removal and hopper refilling, unlike a gas or oil boiler you can largely ignore.
See what maintenance involves →
THE CALCULATOR
Your house, your numbers
The calculator takes the figures you enter for heat demand, pellet price and appliance efficiency, and shows the formula behind every result so you can check it against your own bills.
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Enter your own figures
You put in your heat demand, pellet price and appliance efficiency.
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See the assumptions used
The formula sits underneath the output, so you can see exactly what produced the figure.
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Read a range, not a promise
The result is shown as a range, because it is arithmetic on the numbers you gave it.
Run Your Own Numbers
Nine guides, each pointing to a specific place to check
Start with the suitability assessment, or run the numbers directly with the running cost calculator.
Is biomass right for your house?
This guide sets out when pellet heating is a poor fit as well as when it works, built around six questions: your heat demand, the space you have, your flue arrangement, storage for fuel, delivery access for a bulk lorry, and how much handling fuel and ash you're willing to take on. A pellet boiler typically needs 5 to 8 cubic metres of dry storage for a season's fuel, and a property that can't accommodate that isn't a candidate for bulk delivery, whatever else about the house suits.
Running cost calculator
You enter your own heat demand and local pellet price. Every assumption behind the sum is shown, the output is given as a range, and the calculator states plainly what it leaves out, including servicing costs and real appliance efficiency. It's an arithmetic illustration, not a quotation.
How pellet stoves and boilers actually work
Covers the mechanism reader question by question: what the auger (the screw mechanism that feeds pellets from hopper to burner) does, how the combustion chamber is fed and cleared, and where the flue liner fits into the system. Useful before comparing quotes, because it tells you what an installer is actually pricing.
What installation really involves
Walks through flue routing, hopper placement and the building regulations that apply, and explains what MCS (Microgeneration Certification Scheme) and HETAS (Heating Equipment Testing and Approval Scheme) registration actually mean for the installer you choose. This page does not replace a competent registered installer's assessment of your own property.
Pellets: quality, storage and delivery
Explains what ENplus certification checks for in a bag of pellets, and what to look for in a supplier's delivery terms. Storage space is usually the constraint that decides whether bulk delivery is realistic for a given house.
Running costs and maintenance, honestly
Sets out what a season of pellet heating actually costs to run, and what routine servicing involves beyond the fuel bill. Fuel price comparisons are shown per kWh with a date and source attached, because pellet prices move and a figure without a date goes stale quickly.
Smoke control areas, DEFRA exemption and the law
A smoke control area (a designation under the Clean Air Act 1993) does not ban solid fuel appliances outright; it bans appliances that aren't on the current DEFRA-exempt list. This guide explains how to check your specific address against the official DEFRA checker.
Grants and schemes for biomass heating
Covers the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS, the current UK capital grant for low-carbon heating) and what actually qualifies a biomass system for it. Every eligibility figure is dated and points to the official scheme administrator, because grant terms change and this site can't guarantee they're still current when you read them.
Biomass against a heat pump
Lays out the conditions under which each answer holds: a well-insulated house on a low-temperature distribution system with room for an external unit usually points toward a heat pump, while an older or off-grid property with existing flue infrastructure and storage space may suit biomass better. The comparison names the condition first, so the conclusion isn't misapplied to a house it doesn't fit.
Where to start
If you'd rather run your own numbers first, the running cost calculator works from figures you enter.