Energy crisis: how much will it cost to convert schools to wood heating?
Amid the energy crisis that is so rapidly approaching Europe and Hungary, the Interior Ministry has asked educational institutions to immediately assess the feasibility of switching from gas to wood-burning by purchasing stoves. Of course, this is a fundamental change that poses numerous challenges.
Switch to wood heating
As we have reported before, the Interior Ministry would save money on the heating of schools. Yes, as unbelievable as it sounds, it is intstructing educational institutions to start purchasing stoves as soon as possible. But would switching from gas heating to wood heating really be cheaper and more cost-efficient?
To make the switch, schools would need to assess where wood-burning boilers can be used.They would need a specialist to design the chimney and heating system. On top of these, there are still many other tasks schools have to consider. The Szeged municipality and the city newspaper looked at how much all this would cost, Szeged.hu reports.
According to the experts, it is difficult to imagine converting domestic educational and public institutions to wood heating. They believe that the government should have worked out a strategy to solve the gas supply problem earlier, szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu writes. Still, they have done the calculations. The results are not brightest.
The numbers
In Szeged, the smallest school that needs heating is 1,385 square metres, but there are also institutions with a floor area of 9,900 square metres. Classrooms vary in size, averaging 20-25 square metres, with ceilings of 3.6 metres and often poor insulation.
They would need eight months to obtain a mixed-fuel boiler. There is a problem with the supply of spare parts, which slows down production. The cost of conversion depends on the building and the price will rise as demand increases, so the final price is merely a guess.
According to the newspaper 10,000 tonnes of wood per month may be needed to provide minimum heating for Szeged’s educational institutions. Firewood is also a scarce commodity, but its price in Szeged is already HUF 8-9000 (EUR 20.13-22.65) per hundred kilograms. In a city of this size, firewood alone would cost at least HUF 480-500 million (EUR 1.21-1.26 million), but the amount could reach even HUF 800 million (EUR 2 million).
Conclusion
As can be seen, no matter how much the government thinks that switching from gas heating to wood heating would be a great idea – especially starting with schools and public institutions –, the costs would not at all be low. There are certainly many more things to consider before making this move.
Source: szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu, Szeged.hu, DNH