Energy Matters

Advice needed on wood burning regs

homeowners will need even more help from installers and heating professionals to understand how to use wood environmentally-responsible way to comply with the new rules, says HETAS, the registration body for biomass and solid fuel heating installers. , which came into force at the beginning of May, bans the sale of wet wood and house coal and provides minimum standards for wood fuel and aims to help consumers easily identify the fuels that are best for burning at home. scheme are geared towards ensuring people burn better by being able to easily identify the cleanest fuels to use in their frontline play a critical role in ensuring people understand right fuel to minimise the impact that domestic burning has on the environment and our health.”

plant-derived materials, waxes or petroleum products with other ingredients. All fuels that fall under the , and be proven to have a sulphur content of no more than and sulphur content are legal for sale in England. to m3 will need a proven moisture content of % or less. Suppliers selling quantities of wood over m3 will need to provide their customers with advice on how to store and season the fuel so that is it dry to burn.

Hydrogen heat debate

Responding to environmentalist concerns and calls for the government to withdraw funding for hydrogen, the Energy and Utilities Alliance says that such a move would be short sighted.

“Calls to cease funding of hydrogen feasibility studies are without consideration of UK consumers,” Occhipinti. “There is no denying that we will need hydrogen to help us decarbonise heating. Study after study has demonstrated its feasibility and % of homes being connected to the gas grid, the easiest and simplest way to decarbonise is to convert the existing network

“Tackling climate change is the most pressing housing stock, decarbonisation of heat will not gain the support of consumers and will therefore fail.”

MCS report on renewable energy

A new report from MCS highlights the progress of small-scale renewable energy landscape of home-grown energy -

Since , MCS has registered major renewable energy technologies, generating -plus of energy, and saving nearly million tonnes of CO2e – equivalent to the electricity consumed annually by million homes.

However, at current rates of progress, MCS has calculated that it would take around years to reach the point where all of renewable energy installed.

The analysis also shows that the path of growth has been volatile, with the number of installations spiking and dropping in line with changes in government incentives, notably the -

To read the report, simply enter the online link below on your browser.