Energy Audit for St Mary Redcliffe Church, Bristol

6.7. Biomass
The use of biomass as a fuel for the church boilers instead of mains gas could be considered. The
main issues are the delivery and storage of the biomass pellets. Given the location of the church
along a main road and the proximity of the boiler room to this road access there are no issues with
delivery of the fuel. There is some space in the basement area around the boilers which could be
adapted for storage but in order to store sufficient volumes the possibility of building a biomass fuel
store above the boiler room may need to be considered and whether a low height construction here
(say 1.5m tall) would be acceptable. Given the level differences in the area it is considered that it
may be viable to design and well consider store above the existing boiler room.
There is a fine balance as to the environmental and cost benefits of using biomass in lieu of mains
gas. In off gas grid situations where the fuel source is fuel oil biomass provide clear benefits but
biomass burns less efficiently than gas and gives of greater levels of other flue gas pollutants such as
NOx.
Enquires should be made of John Coffey (Managing Director), PV World Ltd Mobile: 07701 028339,
Telephone: 01580 764401, Email: john@pvworldltd.co.uk who can review the current arrangement
and offer suitable proposals.
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