Anyone who’s looked into biomass heating for more than five minutes has probably bumped into the terms G30 and G50 and thought, “okay, but what does that actually mean for me?” Ask three different suppliers and you might get three slightly different explanations. Here’s the short version: G30 G50 woodchip isn’t just industry jargon, it’s the difference between a boiler that runs smoothly for years and one that clogs up every other week.
If you’re heating a farmhouse, a school, an estate office or a commercial unit somewhere across Somerset or Devon, this is one of those details that’s easy to overlook until it causes a problem.
So What’s Actually the Difference?
G30 and G50 come from a European classification system for chip particle size. G30 is the finer, more even grade. G50 is chunkier, with more size variation from piece to piece. Neither one is “better” in some general sense they’re just built for different jobs. A boiler engineered around a certain feed mechanism expects a certain size chip, and that’s really all there is to it once you strip away the confusion.
People sometimes assume bigger chip means better value, or that finer chip burns hotter. Neither is really true. It comes down to what your specific unit was built to handle.
Why This Actually Affects Your Boiler
Smaller domestic and light commercial systems are usually set up for G30. The narrower augers and tighter feed systems need something consistent and fine, or you’ll get jamming, uneven feeding, that kind of thing. Try running G50 through a small unit like that and you’ll probably notice problems within a few deliveries chip getting stuck, burn quality going patchy, more manual intervention than you’d like.
Go the other way and feed G30 into a big commercial system designed for G50, and you won’t usually damage anything, but you’ll likely burn through fuel faster than necessary and end up with more ash than you’d get otherwise. Not a disaster, but not efficient either, and over a winter that adds up.
This is the whole point with G30 G50 woodchip it’s not about picking a “premium” option, it’s matching the fuel to what your machine was actually designed around.
How Do You Know Which One You Need?
Check the manufacturer’s spec plate or the installation paperwork first. Most boilers state clearly which grade they’re built for. If you weren’t around for the install, or you took over a property with an existing system, it’s worth a quick call to whoever fitted it, or even the manufacturer directly, rather than guessing.
A handful of larger commercial systems can handle a bit of flexibility between grades, but that’s not something to assume without checking. And honestly, any decent supplier of G30 G50 woodchip should be able to walk you through this without making it complicated.
Don’t Forget Moisture Content
Grade gets most of the attention, but moisture matters just as much, arguably more. Chip that hasn’t been dried properly burns inefficiently no matter what size it is, and it can leave residue that shortens the life of boiler components. If a supplier can’t tell you roughly what moisture percentage they’re delivering, that’s worth asking about before you place a big order.
Why It’s Worth Sourcing Locally
Here’s something people don’t always think about: where the chip comes from and who’s processing it matters almost as much as the grade itself. A supplier who’s buying timber in bulk from wherever’s cheapest that week isn’t always going to have tight control over consistency. Someone already handling wood day-to-day through tree surgery, clearance work, woodland management tends to have a much better handle on both grading and drying, simply because they’re closer to the raw material the whole way through.
That’s the case with RG Tree Services, working across Somerset and Devon. Their biomass woodchipping isn’t a bolt-on side business it grows directly out of the tree surgery and forestry work they’re already doing, so there’s a steady supply of timber coming through and the equipment on hand to process it into proper G30 or G50 grade, depending on what a client’s system actually needs. Instead of guessing at grade and hoping for the best, they’ll talk it through with you first.
Conclusion
Getting G30 or G50 wrong isn’t the end of the world, but it’s an easy mistake to avoid once you know what to check your boiler’s spec, the moisture content of what you’re buying, and whether your supplier actually understands the difference or is just moving bulk chip.
That’s really where RG Tree Services stands apart for anyone across Somerset and Devon. They’re not a woodchip reseller guessing at what you need their supply comes directly out of the tree surgery, site clearance and woodland management work they carry out day in, day out across the region. That means constant access to raw timber, proper processing equipment on hand, and a team that actually understands wood, moisture and grading from years of hands-on forestry work, not just from a spec sheet.
Because they handle both the tree work and the chipping themselves, they can grade material to G30 or G50 depending on exactly what your boiler needs, rather than supplying whatever’s easiest to produce that week. They’re fully insured, qualified (SafeContractor approved, City & Guilds NPTC trained), and used to working with estates, farms, schools and commercial sites that can’t afford inconsistent fuel through the winter months. Add in the fact that they’re local — so no long-haul deliveries or logistics guesswork — and it’s easy to see why RG Tree Services is genuinely one of the best options in the area for reliable, correctly graded G30 G50 woodchip.