Brave early adopters of biomass take bold next step by completely ruling out oil

Award-winning Devon farm heats six cottages and dramatically reduces carbon emissions

Imagine you’re an award-winning sustainable tourism business that relies on keeping your running costs low, but some of your accommodation is still heated by an expensive oil boiler. 

Now imagine that you can reduce those bills by 80%, make thousands each year in government incentives and boost your sustainability credentials by using more renewable energy.

That’s exactly what the owners of Devon’s Mazzard Farm, Ruud and Jacqueline, have done this month thanks to a new biomass boiler that it has just had fitted by local renewables experts SunGift Energy. 

Some years ago Mazzard Farm – which recently won the 'Devon Sustainable Tourism Award' – was one of the first businesses in the south west to switch a large amount of its heat generation oil to biomass.  Now six years on it has gone a step further, replacing both its original biomass and remaining oil boilers with one 60 kW state-of-the-art pellet boiler. 

The new system that Mazzard Farm has had installed not only provides all of the heat and hot water for the six holiday cottages on Mazzard Farm, but also it heats its owners’ main house and generates an exceptional 16% return each year, thanks to payments from the government’s Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).

What makes the project even more appealing is that Mazzard Farm had the whole project funded by ethical investor Triodos bank.

Dramatically lower costs with sustainable energy

“In a matter of months we’ve gone from being a low-carbon tourism business to almost a zero-carbon tourism business,” said Mazzard Farm owner Ruud Jansen Venneboer, “and what’s more, it makes absolute business sense. We believe it’s no longer an option to continue using fossil fuels and that the tourism industry should take a lead in raising sustainable energy standards.  The total costs of providing 6 cottages and our house with heating and hot water using biomass is about the same as we used to spend on oil for our house alone. The overall saving therefore is more than significant. ”

Mazzard Farm is a collection of award-winning self-catering holiday cottages near Ottery St Mary, Devon. The old farm buildings have been converted into six luxurious, sustainable cottages and their 17-acre site includes beautiful woodland, fields, orchards, a children’s play area and a cobbled courtyard.

Ruud and Jacqueline’s 60 kW boiler (a Windhager BioWIN EXCEL 60kW) is fuelled by wood pellets and includes an 800-litre buffer tank. The couple decided on the system after SunGift carried out a comprehensive site survey and designed a bespoke 60kW biomass boiler system to meet their requirements.  The efficient and cost-effective system provide 100% of Mazzard Farm’s space heating and hot water requirements.  The system took two weeks to complete, which was important to Ruud and Jacqueline so that their cottages were not out of action for longer than necessary.  The couple 're-homed' their old biomass boiler by donating it to the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth.

“When you’re running a businesses that relies on your premises being open to generate revenue, every day that you’re closed affects your income,” added Ruud.  “SunGift understood this, so their work was planned to minimise disruption so that we could use the cottages again for our customers as soon as possible.  Being able to fit in with this schedule – and finish the work off to such a high standard – was one of the real bonuses of using SunGift.”

Ethical bank is ideal lender

There are a number of finance options open to businesses that hope to fund renewable energy projects, but Mazzard Farm’s financing agreement with Triodos Bank (www.triodos.co.uk) particularly suits Ruud and Jacqueline. Triodos lends money only to businesses that ‘bring lasting positive change’ so that the funding can help make a lasting impact on people and the environment.  The bank recognises Mazzard Farm as a sustainable environmental businesses that helps safeguard the environment.

“The biomass system adds another dimension to Mazzard Farm’s sustainability measures,” said Mark Howard from SunGift Energy, “and thanks to generous Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) payments Ruud and Jacqueline will receive an additional annual income of more than £6,500. This means they’ll have paid for the system in just six years and any additional income will be available to them to spend on more sustainable energy measure if they wish.

“We’re increasingly being approached by businesses in the south west that want to lower their carbon footprint but until recently hadn’t realised that switching to renewable energy – be that biomass, solar, or heat pumps – could save them money and generate additional income.  Once they appreciate the financial benefits businesses are often very quick to get the ball rolling.”