April 16, 2025 Biomass Heating for Agriculture

It was never easy to be a farmer, and it is only getting harder. It feels like a hostile environment for agriculture at the moment, with everything conspiring to squeeze margins and pile pressure on businesses. Specifically, when it comes to fuel and heating, recent years have been unforgiving in terms of price levels and volatility, though even now the market is more settled, and costs are hardly negligible.  

Then, there is a drive for sustainability, with pressure from local and national governments, and perhaps your own desire to reduce emissions. The question of how to reduce your environmental impact without sacrificing operations is never simple, but there are simple changes that can make a big difference. One of those would be to transition off fossil fuels — your heating is the perfect place to start.  

So, why is biomass the best choice for a farm’s heating system, and how do you go about choosing your boiler and an installer? 

• A biomass boiler gives you reliable heat at a fraction of the emissions 

• Typical fuel costs are much lower than oil or coal (sometimes 45% cheaper) 

• ETA biomass boilers are among the most sophisticated, powerful, and efficient boilers on the market 

Low-carbon heating solutions for farms 

The narrative from the government has tended to emphasise heat pumps as a low-carbon heating solution, but the messaging has always been targeted at homes, and it is not much help to businesses — especially businesses whose premises are difficult or impossible to insulate.  

Heat pumps are ideal in a well-insulated home with underfloor heating or larger radiators, but they just don’t work for a farm setting. Farms need heating systems with reliable power, and combustion is the only way to get that.  

So, it is far better to use a renewable fuel than to burn oil or coal. At the point of combustion, a fuel like wood chip releases only a fraction of the carbon that fossil fuels emit. 

Source: Forest Research 

Wood heat saves operating costs on farm heating 

The price of fossil fuels varies with market fluctuations and geopolitical events, but at the time of writing, heating oil is £653.01 per 1000 litres. 

Direct comparison of cost per kW/h between wood and oil depends on model, age and efficiency of boiler for each, as well as usage patterns, but for a rough idea, it can work out at 2-3p per kWh for wood fuel, and 5-6p per kWh for oil. 

Of course, if you have your own wood supply for logs or wood chip, you can either supplement your purchased fuel, or heat totally independently, which reduces the costs even further. 

What is the best biomass boiler for a farm? 

Your choice of biomass boiler will of course depend on your farm and your heating requirements, but agricultural businesses often choose the ETA eHack.  

The eHack is a wood chip boiler that comes in a range of 20kW-240kW, so you can choose the model that meets your heating needs. Its remote interface means you can control it from anywhere, and it’s saving time and effort and making maintenance swift and non-disruptive. 

Read about the eHack in more detail.

Ready to explore the path to a low-carbon, future-proof farm? We have a nationwide network of renewable heating engineers who are ready to advise. To arrange a no-obligation discussion of your heating requirements and your suitability for biomass, call 01621 892613 and speak to your local green power expert today.