Biomass boiler in Salamanca, Castilla y León

A coal boiler was replaced a year ago in Salamanca city (Castilla y Leon Region, Spain). The old one was a centralized coal boiler that was near the end of its lifetime. It was replaced by a biomass boiler, centralized as well, since it was installed on a residential building with many elders who did not want an individual boiler due to they were afraid that they would not be able to make it work.

The boiler is fully equipped, it has two buffer tanks of 1000 and 1500 l, 3 meters, ADSL connection, etc… The building located in downtown Salamanca has 2 apartments per floor with 150 m2 each. There are 6 floors in the building and at street level, you can find some small businesses. The boiler was installed in the same boiler room as the old one, in the basement. The building is oriented south, and the community was initially interested in installing solar collectors, but it was not possible due to several barriers. Since they wanted to reduce space heating expenses and emissions, they finally opted for a biomass boiler installed by BIOENERGY BARBERO. Also, they wish to depend on an energy source that can be provided from their country and from a close provider. During the installation process, there were some issues with the boiler room floor due to the age of the building which was finally fixed by the installer company, with some minor delays. Overall, householders are happy with the change since they are noticing economic and energetic savings considering they are paying the same amount of money annually for a new boiler, as they are still amortizing their initial investment, but with less maintenance needs (and costs) and without operating problems. By optimizing the boiler runs by better boiler control, they are starting to reach additional energy savings. Once the boiler operation is fully optimized they expect savings of around 7000 EUR annually compared to the previous situation, which will be a net benefit once they finalize paying for the investment. At the same time, they are looking for subsidies since they have not benefited from any. They expect to receive some once they complete the requirements for energy efficiency in the building´s envelope of about 15%.

This best practice is issued from the activities of Work Package 4 “Preparation of instruments for replacement campaigns” of the REPLACE project. Read it now to discover many more best practices illustrating the benefits of innovative low-carbon and renewable heating and cooling systems.