A £150,000 300kW Ranheat biomass boiler was part of a recent £2m factory investment by Essex-based Westbury Joinery.
The project was the second in the UK to be registered under the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) and Ranheat is the first to go through the RHI process.
Previously, the Westbury factory operated four existing large and inefficient heavy carbon producing gas boilers.
A single biomass boiler burns sawdust and waste hardwood and softwood, providing heat and hot water to the factory and offices, including powering of an underfloor heating system.
The company has no need for gas on the site, while landfill costs have been eradicated.
Westbury has estimated an annual saving of £7,200 on skips and wood waste removal, while the RHI will generate payments of more than £8,000 annually. On top of this are energy savings from removing gas from the equation.
In the first three months of operation Westbury has recovered 47,596kWh of energy through use of the biomass boiler, with the first RHI payment received totalling more than £2,000 for three months operation.
Westbury’s total investment included a £500,000 Weinig Conturex, £400,000 on tooling, software and other machinery and a £50,000 extraction system.
