The Sylva Foundation is a charity which works across Britain caring for forests, to ensure they thrive for people and for nature. Having been gifted 20 acres of land and several large farm buildings a few years ago, the charity has used this to develop a centre for innovation in home-grown wood, to provide an enterprise hub for new and innovative wood-using businesses.
The charity knew it wanted to install a flexible biomass heating solution into the centre. An old 12,000 sq ft potato store had been redesigned and rebuilt to support a number of separate small- to medium-size enterprise wood-using businesses, as well as a teaching classroom. The team didn’t want anything too complex in there, as their main aim was to supply tenants of the Wood Centre with warm workshops that would be cost-effective to run by being fuelled with waste wood and wood offcuts.
A number of possible solutions was evaluated, but the team eventually purchased a WT15 heater from Wood Waste Technology, which was installed by Wood Waste Technology’s experienced engineers.
Paul Orsi, director for forestry and rural enterprise at Sylva, explains: “Wood Waste Technology gave us the perfect solution to our heating problem. We were struggling to find something that fitted our budget and was easy to use, but that would provide a comfortable environment for our tenants. It was also extremely important to us that it could be run on wood waste. We’re delighted with our purchase and the service we’ve received. It’s been a completely smooth process, from purchase to installation.
“Whilst the wood waste heater is situated in a central area, the engineers were able to duct the hot air to provide heat into each of the tenant’s individual workshops. The tenants’ love that it provides them with free heating and reduces their waste disposal bills.”
Paul continues: “Our wider vision for the Sylva Wood Centre is to develop the whole site – which includes several more buildings and the surrounding landscape. We wouldn’t hesitate in contacting Wood Waste Technology again should we have any further biomass heating needs.”
MD of Wood Waste Technology, Kurt Cockroft, says: “We’ve been delighted to be involved in such an exciting and innovative project, and look forward to seeing how the developments at the wood centre continue.”
Wood Waste Technology offers a full range of wood waste heaters, from small hand fired units to larger fully automatic systems, and offers site survey and design, as well as manufacture, installation and on-going maintenance. The company also services all types of wood waste heaters and claims to supply genuine spares up to 60% cheaper than other suppliers.
In addition, Wood Waste Technology is the UK official distributor for Gross Apparatebau GmbH, a German manufacturer of dependable, precision engineered shredders and briquetters, available in various sizes and specifications to suit all business applications.
