Energy, economic and environmental assessment of heating a family house with biomass

The aim of this study was to evaluate energy consumption, energy cost and emission of greenhouse gases from the combustion of wood briquettes for heating a family house in north-eastern Poland during three heating seasons. The quantity of briquettes and its energy content was used to determine heat consumption. Subsequently cost of space heating and domestic hot water was determined. Obtained results were compared to other biomass and fossil fuels. The annual consumption of heat was used to calculate emission of greenhouse gases from burning the analysed fuels. The average consumption of briquettes ranged from 6.00 to 7.13 t/year, while consumption of energy was 109-130 GJ/year. The cost of heat production from briquettes ranged 713-785 (sic)/year. This cost was low when compared to fossil fuels and pellets but high in comparison with willow chips. Utilisation of wood briquettes to heat a family house reduced emission of greenhouse gases from 17.4 to 34.3 t EqCO(2) compared to fossil fuels. Therefore, briquettes can successfully compete with fossil fuels in the residential heating market and can be recommended as a cost-effective energy source with a small impact on environment. However systems of support is needed due to high price of biomass boilers. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.