Everything You Need To Know about Wood Pellets
As the largest manufacturer and distributor in the UK and Ireland, we thought that in addition to the FAQ section of our website, we would prepare an easy-to-read guide on everything you need to know about wood pellets, how to prepare for the winter, and where to get them!
What are Wood Pellets?
Wood Pellets are small, cylindrical pieces made from wood residue produced as a by-product of Balcas’ sawmilling processes in Northern Ireland and Scotland. The pellets created, are made locally at the highest standards with the original timber being either spruce or pine locally sourced from sustainably managed forests.
As an alternative to fossil fuel, wood pellets are an environmentally friendly fuel. Especially thanks to the manufacturing process at Balcas, where we make them with renewable energy and high-quality materials. Our operations are powered by green electricity, generated on-site thanks to the co-products of all Balcas saw-milling activities.
For every tree we use, 4 more are planted – the heart of our sustainability story.
What are wood pellets used for?
As an alternative to fossil fuel, wood pellets are an environmentally friendly fuel, used for heating purposes. They are used in biomass boilers to produce heat, and hot water in homes. Furthermore, in the commercial and industrial sectors, they are used as a zero-carbon fuel, for heat generation and industrial production.
How Much Do Wood Pellets Cost?
Depending on how you want to store your fuel, we’ve put together the best prices we could. See here the options on how to store your pellet fuel
As we have different prices for each location, you can quickly add your location, postcode, and choose your product type (Bulk or Bags) HERE. Your unique price will be shown on the screen with Delivery charges and taxes included. The quote you get is the price you pay.
Do I need Good Quality Wood Pellets?
When looking to buy your pellet fuel, you have to make sure that they are certified ENplus A1 and they also have a BSL accreditation. At Balcas Energy we carefully screen, test, and quality check each pellet, in order to comply with the highest quality accreditation.
ENplus A1 is the best assurance and guarantee of premium-quality wood pellets that you can get. Low-quality wood pellets can damage your boiler and cost you more in the long run.
Where can you buy ENplus A1 Pellets?
As we manufacture our wood pellets, we’re in control of our supply and stocks. We supply all year round, across the islands of Ireland and Great Britain, and supply from 10 different depots strategically placed around the countries.
We use our own delivery fleet for providing Bulk Wood Pellets – available to order online anytime. Alternatively, you can order via phone, via email, or via our Online Form and our Customer Support Team will place your order for you.
Our 10kg Bagged Wood Pellets are also available online and we deliver across all UK & Ireland. They are available in different sizes: 250kg, 500kg and 750kg. The 960kg pallet for bags is only available on the Island of Ireland at the moment, but we’re looking into making this available for GB soon. Just add your postcode and check your price.
How many wood pellets are used in a year?
Depending on how you want to store your fuel and based on your heating needs, this can vary from as little as 3 tonnes per year in a home setting. However, if this was an industrial setting such as whiskey production or big commercial customers in need of large amounts of heat production, this would be thousands of tonnes per annum.
To find out how much you would use, you have to look up your current energy bill and see how many kilowatt-hours you are using on a monthly basis. If you take into consideration that an average of 4,000 kWh of heat requires around 1 Tonne of high-quality wood pellets, you can easily calculate how many tonnes you would need for your home in a year.
Please also take a look at everything you need to know about wood pellets storage instructions here.
Is Demand High for our locally sourced fuel?
Due to the banning of Russian-origin pellets in 2022, many suppliers had no stock meaning our customer base increased massively. As the market is in a much more stable condition for the 2023 winter heating season, we expect extremely high demand again for our locally produced, ENplus A1 wood pellets. We strongly recommend that you take the opportunity to fill your fuel store well in advance.
If you have more questions…
Please visit the FAQ section of our website. You can also email us or call us anytime, we’ll get back to you ASAP!
