Svensk Solenergi (Solar Energy Ass. of Sweden) and PellSam (Swedish Pellet Equipment Manufacturers Ass.) have joined forces to develop combined wood pellet and solar heating systems for the Nordic conditions. The cooperation has three main elements. A co-ordinated development project related to systems for single family houses (with co-financing from the Swedish Energy Agency), a common marketing campaign called “100%” (renewable heat) and certification of installers. The paper will focus on the development project. The development project comprises the development of a system design handbook and a combined system bench-marking and test method development. The test method (based on the Combitest method), is called Direct Characterization (DC) and the result is supposed to describe the annual system performance. It comprises laboratory measurements during 6 days on a whole system including (real) pellet boiler (or furnace), storage tank, controls and (simulated) solar collectors and load (based on selected weather data). The present set-up is for a typical single family building with 13 MWh space heating and 3 MWh DHW load. The test development has comprised a test of a reference boiler and 6 sample systems. Although all tested systems required less pellets than the reference boiler for the given load, only a few of the system designs take all aspects given in the handbook into account. The performance of the different systems varied a lot, from low 19 to high 37% less pellets than the reference boiler. The system tests have been carried out in two laboratories and one system has been tested in both laboratories with a reasonable agreement regarding the main parameters. The overall conclusion is that the test method seems to be possible to develop into a useful bench-mark method and that there are large possibilities for basic system improvements. Most of the tested systems consist of standard components combined into a system with a common control. Major system improvements are thus related to smaller boilers (furnaces) matched with improved and better insulated storage tanks (allowing reduced collector area) and better system controls (e.g. allowing less start and stop of the boiler/furnace). It is thus the intention to carry out a second round of system tests to include improved systems.