Briars Hall Country House Hotel, switches to biofuel

Briars Hall Country House Hotel, set in the historic civil parish of Lathom has replaced the 400 kW heating system comprising several gas boilers, with a purpose-built wood-clad Windhager BioCABIN. By converting to biomass, the new system will help the hotel to reduce its carbon footprint, providing a carbon saving of around 180 tonnes of CO₂ per year.

Hotels of any size, anywhere in the world can use the hotel footprinting tool to compare their carbon footprint to the average for their locality. Additionally hotels can use the free HCMI (Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative) tool to measure their carbon footprint per room, stay or meeting, and seek out ways to actively reduce their emissions.

Briars Hall offers 25 en-suite bedrooms and is a scenic venue for bistro dining, weddings, conferences and other events, with a significantly high annual heat demand of 236,520kWh. Installing the BioCABIN which houses three Windhager Excel biomass boilers in cascade, the 180kW system complete with a 16 tonne capacity stainless steel wood pellet hopper will help the hotel to achieve its objective of providing a more sustainable and cost effective solution to heating the premises.

Mark Higham, owner of the Briars Hall Country House Hotel said, “It is extremely important to us that we provide our guests with the best possible experience whilst they are staying away from home. A warm and comfortable environment all year round is essential and this is something that our new biomass system has allowed us to achieve. The boilers provide the hotel with constant, controllable heat and are not only reliable but also extremely affordable. We are saving an extraordinary amount of money and the positive impact on the environment is very rewarding.”

Having made the switch, the hotel will receive 6.8p per kW generated in payments from the commercial Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), with an estimated total of £359,510 over the next 20 years.

Windhager’s BioCABINs are designed to house BioWIN kaskade systems of any size and are tailor-made to meet the requirements of each individual installation. The cabins are delivered to the site and connected to the mains supply of the property through an underground feed. This allows a quick and stress-free installation allowing hotels and other businesses to remain open during the process.

Additionally the system proves reliable all year round as each boiler acts as a backup to the others and can continue to operate and provide a comfortable amount of heat should another boiler need to be shut down for maintenance.

The biomass systems are designed especially for commercial properties, such as hotels, with a high demand for a reliable and efficient heating source. The system can be set to provide constant or variable heat to its maximum capability and produce an output of up to 240kW from up to four wood pellet boilers, tailored to the heating demands of the property.