Containerised Bio Heat Cabin

The Ashwell Containerised Bio Heat Cabin offers a complete cost effective biomass boiler house and fuel store solution ready to “plug in and go”. It offers an easy way of changing to renewable energy and lowering your carbon footprint. The Bio Heat Cabins are complete biomass boiler houses incorporating biomass boilers, pumps, pipe work, fuel stores and electrical connections. They can be incorporated easily within an existing heating system, used as a replacement system (sometimes even keeping the old boiler system as backup if required) or used as a supplementary/backup heating system.

A full range of biomass boilers are offered in the Ashwell Bio Heat Cabin, each one bespoke to the customer’s requirements. Ashwell can assist in selecting the optimal combination of biomass boiler, fuel type, fuel feed system and storage bunker for the specific site requirements.

External features
The cabins are built within standard shipping containers and are available in various sizes from 10’ to 40’ in length and up to 9’6” in height. For larger output requirements, multiple containers can be used to incorporate the larger boiler and fuel store dimensions. A range of decorative wood or steel claddings in a comprehensive range of colours to blend in with the environment.




Boiler house design A computer aided design (CAD) system is used to design a layout offering optimum performance while giving consideration to future maintenance requirements of the boiler.

As the sizing and integration of the system is crucial, Ashwell Biomass offer a complete hydronic consulting design to ensure that the biomass boiler is appropriately sized and can be integrated into a new or existing heating system. Any of our boilers of up to approx 400kW output can be incorporated within the design. Exact specifications will be dependent upon the customer’s requirements, size of container and the selected fuel type.



Integrated fuel storage
The fuel storage area will normally be incorporated within the same container and designed to maximise space and fuel feed efficiency. The most popular fuel type is usually wood pellets due to their consistency, and the fact that they offer a controllable fuel source, achievable due to their uniform nature. The high calorific value of wood pellets means that less storage space is required, an important factor in a restricted space. However, other alternatives can be considered and Ashwell Biomass can design bespoke alternatives and advise on suitability.

Ashwell Biomass has its own fabrication facility and is able to construct most of these fuel bunkers in-house to design specifications. Likewise, fuel feed systems to suit individual project requirements are readily available

Benefits
The Ashwell Biomass Bio Heat Cabin offers a cost effective biomass solution with the benefits of:

• Generous Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) subsidy for useful heat generated of up to 8.3p per kWh for qualifying installations
• ease of installation – ‘plug in and go’
• effective supplementary or back up heating system which can be switched on or off easily
• a portable solution - only a concrete plinth is required and the container is easily removable
• shorter lead times for planning
• lower costs of planning
• a low cost alternative to expensive permanent building costs

Bio Cabin Case Study

Binton Farm (Hampton Estate, Surrey)

Project type: Containerised boiler solution

Boiler details: D’Alessandro 60kW CSA

Fuel type: Woodchip

Site background: As a result of a previously successful planning application on one of their other farms, The Hampton Estate management team agreed that biomass was the preferred fuel for this new project. The project was to build new housing including the conversion of an existing barn on the estate.

Description of problem before installation: New heating system to be installed as a result of a barn conversion to provide new housing. A plant room within the building would be limited due to the existing dimensions and also reduce living space.

Solution: Containerised bespoke design – a complete heating system consisting of an EN303/5 compliant 60kW boiler plus bespoke bunker fuel store and accumulator tank within a container -a pre-wired and pre-piped solution to allow integration into the new heating system. The boiler featured lambda oxygen control to optimize efficiency, full modulation and automatic fuel ignition. This design allowed simple on-site installation due to the prefabricated flow and return system. The system was designed to ensure that it qualified for subsidy under the RHI scheme – see our separate document for details

Wood chip was selected as the fuel of choice as this was already available on-site as a free fuel

Benefits to customer: The use of the containerised solution removed the need to build a boiler house resulting in a low cost solution - reduced planning costs, shorter lead time due to shorter planning process and lower overall cost. Low CO2 with heating generated from the customer’s own fuel supply. Simple connection to mains supply. Qualification for RHI subsidy.

Highlights:

• Containerised biomass solution,
• Bespoke pre-wired and pre-piped heating system within a container,
• Easy installation,
• Low planning costs and shorter application process,
• Enabled use of own fuel supply – free
• RHI subsidy with guaranteed income for 20 years.