Biomass Maintenance

Maintenance of your biomass boiler

The main reason for carrying out maintenance of your biomass boiler is to help ensure the system is running as efficiently as it can do and, more importantly, it is still delivering a good return on its investment.

While the makers of the biomass boiler will insist there is an annual check carried out by the installer to ensure it is still functioning correctly and also making sure that the flue is properly cleaned and the bearings are properly greased.

Indeed, biomass maintenance is also important as it may indicate an early warning that there is a problem but it doesn’t need an expert to do this.

Most biomass maintenance can be carried out by the owner

Except for the annual service and check, most biomass maintenance can be carried out by the owner and will include:

Every day: a visual inspection of the boiler and the cleaning of any components as necessary

Every week: check whether the ash needs to be emptied and check for oil leaks

Every month: check the grate, remove bad ash and scrape the combustion chamber clean

Every three months: check the grate again for blockages, wipe the flue’s gas sensor

Every six months: check the flue gas return and clean if necessary, check also the motors and clean the combustion chamber and heat exchangers.

Professional biomass maintenance may be necessary

One potential indicator that there may be a problem and professional biomass maintenance may be necessary is if the boiler begins to use more fuel than it has done previously which would indicate it is working less efficiently than it once was.

By ensuring biomass maintenance is scheduled and kept up with, the boiler should work to its best possible efficiency levels and keep on delivering the savings that the owner is expecting.

However, owners should appreciate that by burning wood chip or wood pellets produces the by product of ash and some tar, which is the tree’s sap, and these can build-up over time to prevent heat from properly transferring and acting as an insulator. This means the boiler will become less efficient though by cleaning regularly the owner will ensure the correct amount of biomass fuel is being used.

Some biomass boilers make biomass maintenance a breeze

Some biomass boilers make biomass maintenance a breeze since they are self-maintaining and have an internal cleaning system which means that their regular service intervals can vary; some manufacturers will insist a service is conducted every 2,000 hours, for example.

Indeed, for anybody considering buying a biomass boiler the question of biomass maintenance is an important one to ask at the very beginning of the research stage because the requirements for biomass maintenance should be understood and considered before buying a boiler so the owner appreciates the potential long term costs they may be facing.