Frequently Asked Questions



What level of after sales service is available from Highland Wood Energy?

HWE provide a comprehensive after sales service, offering maintenance agreements on all equipment supplied. In addition, we provide emergency call out services and provide extensive training on the operation of our equipment as standard. For certain wood heating systems, remote monitoring and settings adjustment via modem is also possible.

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How cost effective is wood heating?

The short answer to this is very cost effective! This has recently been further emphasised with the recent rise in oil and gas prices. Costs will be dependent on many factors such as the type of fuel (i.e. log chip or pellet) and will vary, depending on local conditions. Wood Chip Fuel: It is difficult to quote a exact generic price for wood chip fuel, as price will depend on many local factors including distance to supplier, size of wood chip storage area available, delivery method of fuel, method of fuel reception on site (for example tipping into an underground bunker or loading with front end loader), chipping method of supplier etc. The key is that wood chip fuel can be a very cheap form of heating if it is local and the handling of the material is kept to a minimum. This can be ensured at design stage by designing a wood fuel reception and storage system to suit the particular supply operation. Wood chip fuel can at present only be rivalled in cost by natural gas (not available in many rural areas of Scotland). At current prices, when compared to heating oil, a tonne of delivered seasoned wood chip fuel would have a comparative value of approximately £90 per tonne. Therefore, with wood chip fuel currently being delivered by suppliers in many parts of the country at approximately £45 - £70 per tonne and other wood chip users producing their own material for as little as £30- £50 per tonne, it is evident that there are substantial savings to be made. Pellet Fuel: Wood pellets are a more standardised and less localised product and therefore costs are more generic. At present there is no large scale manufacture of wood chip fuel on the British mainland (although there is a large plant in Northern Ireland), however they are available at a cost of approximately £3.00 per bag for a sealed 15kg bag, or from £110 – 150 per tonne for bulk deliveries.

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What are the maintenance times required for wood chip heating systems?

For automatic feed and control wood chip and pellet heating system, maintenance times are minimal. With systems boasting features such auto cleaning of heat exchanger and auto de-ashing, routine maintenance is essentially restricted to removal of ash (every 2 –4 weeks, depending on usage). Otherwise routine servicing will require approximately 20 minutes per week.

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Do you install wood heating systems in single domestic premises?

Yes we do. For domestic premises we usually provide log or pellet heating systems. If you have a plentiful supply of logs, our packaged log heating systems complete with heat storage tanks and heating controls can help you drastically reduce your fuel bills. Alternatively , pellet stoves and pellet boilers can bring automated, low cost and convenient wood heating into the home.

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