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WOODBOILERS -

Wood fired boilers present a particular problem. To ensure complete combustion of all the volatile gases produced when wood is heated up and burnt, a combustion chamber temperature of over 350 deg.C is required. Conventional coal fired room heater simply wrapped the combustion chamber with a water jacket to extract the heat. Whilst this is OK for smokeless fuel, which have few volatile gases and burn at a lower temperature, it is a disaster when applied, as most manufacturers have, to wood stoves. It simply turns the system into a tar distillation column, tar dripping down even inside the stove and frequent chimney fires. It is for this reason that I have for the last 20 years advised people against trying to heat water with wood. However with the higher fossil fuel prices, the desire for people to reduce there carbon foot print, I have continued to try to find a manufacturer who understands the problems. I am happy to recommend the the new ESSE wood fired cooker with boiler, see ESSE web site. and the Strasbourg (see below) which COSI is importing directly. (Trade inquiries welcome)                                                                                                             

VAT. The government, in its sap to the greenies' has reduced the VAT on wood boiler, and solar panels to 5%, if installed by the supplier. This is similar to the French system which even applies to dry wood stoves. This is not as mean as it first sounds, as all labour and ancillary equipment (new hot water cylinder, pumps etc.) are all at the 5%.  It means that a HETAS registered installer must sell you the stove and install it to be allowed to charge the 5%. If you wish to install yourself, the supplier must charge the normal 17.5%.