Biomass boosts Larkbeare Grange’s

…green credentials and brings £6k in benefits per year

Our latest state-of-the-art pellet biomass installation at luxury bed and breakfast Larkbeare Grange, near Exeter, is well on its way to helping the business become completely self-sufficient in terms of its energy needs.

Charlie and Julia Hutchings – who own the stunning country house in Talaton, near Exeter – were taken aback by how much money the boiler would save the business each year and also how dramatically it would reduce the business’s carbon footprint.  The business will receive more than £4,500 in commercial Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) payments and save almost £1,500 on its fuel bills each year.

“What a difference our biomass boiler has made to our business,” said Charlie, “and it’s already dramatically improved the way we heat many of our rooms.  Last year we were cautious about running our heating for too long, as the oil for our previous boiler was very expensive, but now we can keep our heating running whenever we want, we have constant hot water, and the house and the guest rooms are kept warm and cosy at all times.  For any bed and breakfast business, it is critically important to offer maximum comfort for guests while keeping overheads as low as possible, and our biomass boiler now plays a central role in making this possible.”

Before designing their bespoke system, we sent one of our specialist surveyors to Larkbeare Grange to carry out detailed heat loss calculations, to work out the size of boiler that would be needed.

Six year payback – followed by 14 more years of RHI payments

We then specified a 60 kW Windhager pellet boiler system, which, thanks to fuel cost savings and RHI payments, will take just over six years to pay back and will reduce Larkbeare Grange’s carbon footprint by 15 tonnes per year.

“This boiler is an excellent solution for Larkbeare Grange and other similar businesses,” said Mark Howard, SunGift’s biomass design engineer, “as pellets require the least storage space of any biomass fuel, they’re easy to handle, and they require the least user intervention.”

Charlie added: “SunGift have been a pleasure to have on site.  The work they’ve carried out has been of the highest quality, every job has been done with exceptional care and consideration, and they’ve left the place spotless.  It’s refreshing to find another business that takes such pride in their work.”