Wingham Wildlife Park has seen significantly reduced costs since the installation of two Windhager 45kW BioWIN Excel wood pellet boilers.
The wildlife park, located in Kent, specified the wood pellet biomass boilers to replace its previous oil heating system due to its eco-friendly credentials as well as the money saving benefits from the Government RHI scheme.
The fully automated 90 kW Windhager BioWIN Excel Kaskade system was installed by local installers, Grummant Heating and Plumbing Services, into a purpose built external cabin which also incorporates a separate wood pellet storage room.
The wildlife park had planned to extend its previous oil heating system to heat the park’s indoor play area, which had been out of use during the colder winter months. Instead, the Windhager biomass system is now providing heat to the play area as well as the park’s offices and animal hospital rooms whilst still producing approximately £12,000 in savings a year.
Scott Binskin, Finance Director at Wingham Wildlife Park, commented “We were recommended a Windhager system by Grummant, who assured us that they were extremely reliable and high quality. I was a little unconvinced to begin with but having now seen it for myself I cannot believe how well the system works. It is without a doubt one of the best decisions we have made for the park.”
He added, “The environmental aspects of the system are really encouraging and the incredible money savings plus payments from the Government’s RHI scheme mean that we can heat the park at a lower cost, allowing us to direct more funds to the animals, which is very important to us. By also heating the indoor play area we have been able to keep it open during the winter months, which will attract visitors all year round.”
The wildlife park’s energy savings are enhanced by over £11,000 in payments from the RHI scheme, which together enable it to receive a very quick return on investment of just four and half years. Since the installation the park has also only used approximately £2,500 worth of wood pellets over the course of the year, and has over £5,500 worth still deposited in the wood pellet store despite the increased demand for heating. Having this large capacity store has allowed the staff at the park to simply leave the automated system to operate without regularly needing to refill the pellets.
Available in 10-60kW, the low maintenance BioWIN Excel boiler does not require day-to-day attention due to its automated wood pellet feed system, patented cleaning mechanism and an integrated ash container. The large ash box can hold ash from up to eight tonnes of wood and only needs to be emptied three times per year.
The Windhager BioWIN Excel Kaskade system is the best heating solution for buildings with a large heating demand such as hotels, schools and other commercial properties due to its high output and minimal maintenance. Up to four Windhager Excel boilers can be connected to form a cascade system with an output range of up to 240kW depending on the heat demand of the property. The benefit of having two or more boilers in a cascade system guarantees that if one boiler needs to be shut down for maintenance, the rest of the system will continue to work efficiently.
Scott Binskin concludes, “We have plans to install more Windhager biomass systems in the near future. We would strongly recommend them to anyone that is looking to lower the costs of their energy bills whilst still having an efficient and reliable heating source.”
Further information on biomass heating systems is available from Windhager UK, at www.windhager.co.uk
