So what is biomass and how will we use it at Town End Farm?

• First the science
  Our planet is absolutely brilliant at trying to balance the atmospheric gases. Plants take in carbon dioxide (CO²) during the day and using sunlight give off oxygen which we need to breathe; we breathe in oxygen and give of CO² which the plants need.   Some of CO² that has been taken out of the atmosphere is locked away in plant materials which over the centuries gets turned into coal and oil. As we burn these we release that CO² from a different time, and this is what is thought to be causing man made global warming.
• Biomass
  This is a sustainable way of heating using plants and trees that take CO² out of our atmosphere today, burning them to fuel our world creating CO², but in balance, called carbon neutral. The biomass boiler we are installing uses compressed wood in the form of pellets. There is nothing added and the natural oils in the wood keep the pellets in shape.
• Storage
  These pellets will be delivered by tanker and blown in to our storage hopper. Our hopper is going to be big enough that we should only need filling up 3-4 times  a year. The pellets are automatically fed by an auger system ( a big screw in a tube) to the boiler as needed. These sustainable compressed wood pellets, are burnt in an amazingly efficient (90+%) way. The waste is minimal and as our pellets are made from clean new wood, the ash formed is potash and is a perfect fertiliser.
• System
  Wood burning boilers cannot turn on and off like gas and oil so they work in a different way. Biomass boilers work best when they are really working hard so they need a  way of storing energy,  They do that by heating water and storing it in super-insulated storage tanks.
• In simple terms
  The boiler is just a charger that charges up a big battery by burning pellets.
  Our battery is a massive super insulated water tank.
  The battery is connected to all of the buildings by super-insulated district heating pipes.
  Once in the barns and our house, this water is used to heat water for baths/showers and the radiators