What is HVO fuel?
06/06/2022
What is HVO fuel?
HVO stands for hydrotreated vegetable oil and is a type of biofuel. Biofuel is a liquid fuel that is produced from renewable sources such as plant or animal waste.
Will HVO work with my existing oil boiler and AGA?
HVO works with virtually any oil fired appliance such as boilers and AGA’s – all that is needed is a simple modication which a heating engineer will be able to carry out during your annual service.
Grant Oil Boilers are already HVO compatible
Grant Oil boilers owners are future proofing their homes as all Grant boilers are compatible for use with HVO. When HVO supplies are made available to your property all that is needed is a simple modification, swapping it from kerosene to HVO. These modifications include adapting the size of the fuel injector nozzle, fuel pump pressure and blast tube, all of which can be carried out by the service engineer during an annual service, making life simple for homeowners and for heating engineers. Older Grant condensing boilers may also be adapted to HVO but this may require a new biofuel burner that is matched with the specific boiler. Again, this can be carried out by a service technician during an annual service.
Will HVO lower my carbon footprint?
Homes that convert from heating oil i.e. kerosene to HVO will see an immediate reduction of 88% in carbon emissions. Whilst this is not 100% renewable source for some homes not connected to the gas grid it will be impossible to fit for example a heat pump. In other cases a heat pump can be fitted but it will not work efficiently meaning. Heat pumps run at a lower temperature to traditional central heating systems. Therefore in order for a heat pump to provide enough heat for your home it must be very well insulated. The challenge being the majority of rural homes are not well insulated. Some may be very large, some may be listed, many are older style properties. Therefore these homes would require very costly energy efficiency measures to be carried out before a heat pump could even be fitted. This can add up to over £30,000!
HVO offers a low cost, minimal disruption to lower many homes carbon footprints
The outcome of this research is incredibly exciting for the heating sector, specifically for those homes which are not currently suited to low temperature systems. HVO biofuel, working with Grant boilers, provides another low carbon heating solution for UK homes which can play a part in helping existing residential housing stock to be decarbonised. While HVO supplies here in the UK continue to establish themselves so that more homes can access this biofuel, installers who fit a Grant boiler can provide their customers with a biofuel compatible boiler which can be converted to HVO operation simply and with minimal disruption.
