Are air dried logs to be made illegal?

[richardwale]

Reminds me when the government said all block paving had to be permeable. Marshall stone nearly went bust because they manufactured permeable blocks that no one bought as the policy couldn't be policed. 

No smoking in work vehicles is another, who polices that? 

There may be a situation when a "moisture enforcement officer" randomly mc.'s the firewood you are selling but that's no big deal.

Imagine the inflated prices of imported wood if it does happen.

 

I can also see dozens of homemade kilns flying up everywhere.

 

Makes you laugh really when you read that report on Draks power station

[Mark Bolam]

I'm looking forward to selling black market air dried logs.

 

They will never take me alive.

[Gary Prentice]

32 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

I'm looking forward to selling black market air dried logs.

 

They will never take me alive.

They'll be harder to keister than the more conventional illicit contraband though!

 

That'll make your eyes water! 

[westphalian]

“Officer, I’m not delivering these logs, I’m taking them for a drive to dry them out to 16%”

[Bob_z_l]

Plus....the people on this Forum are not the real reason for the "wet wood" problem.

 

The misinformed wood burner who picks up and burns any old sh1t or the fly by night casual log merchants who sell freshly felled "seasoned" conifer aren't going to know, or care a jot about this.

 

Then as the guidelines carefully avoid  kiln dried forecourt cr@p it seems another way to stifle a minority of the marketplace.

 

Stinks!

 

#rantover

[SbTVF]

Plus....the people on this Forum are not the real reason for the "wet wood" problem.
 
The misinformed wood burner who picks up and burns any old sh1t or the fly by night casual log merchants who sell freshly felled "seasoned" conifer aren't going to know, or care a jot about this.
 
Then as the guidelines carefully avoid  kiln dried forecourt cr@p it seems another way to stifle a minority of the marketplace.
 
Stinks!
 
#rantover

The consultation does ask ‘should retailers be made to store wood so that it can’t be re-wet’ at least.

[Conor Wright]

This doesn't affect me in the slightest, being in rural west of Ireland many people rather burn turf than logs anyway.. make of that what you will.. ( you can grow a forest in a lifetime, good luck trying to grow a bog.) I still sell a modest amount of firewood.. well air dried, most of what i will be selling this coming winter will be from three to four years old stock.. a mixture of forestry softwoods and various hardwoods brought back from jobs.

By the time I process, store and deliver this it barely pays to do it, winter pocket money and free fuel (excluding time and machinery running costs) is about all it is.

That said there are still people out there cheaper than me, they have to either be a. on social welfare or b. "obtaining" the wood for free or c. both.

Wouldn't like to be relying on woodfuel sales for all my income.

Surely investing the same amount of time and effort into educating people about natural drying techniques and how a little time can save a lot of energy (air vs kiln) is more sustainable than forcing air  dryers to either pack up, go underground or invest in energy hungry drying devices,even the ones that use waste wood from onsite still have to be built and that has an environmental cost too..

Ignorance and short term gains? or is it getting so hard to get enough biomass chips that this kind of underhand tactic may be implemented?

[Chalgravesteve]

My customers rarely buy 2m3 at a time. They buy it in 2 bags (0.5m) 3 bags (0.75) or 4 Bags (1.0m3). Probably less than 5% of my customers want 2m3 at a time. Usually, that customer wants to buy in bulk to pay substantially less for the volume. I'd rather sell it in lower volumes at a sensible price.

 

Its kiln dried and between 17-20% MC.

 

They don't need to store it, they buy enough to use for the time being and then buy more as they require it. If dry wood does reabsorb moisture, then its a bloody slow process and my customers will have used their fresh stock up long before they start to see 22% or more.

 

The issue of course will be, if the demand that I get, owing to everybody wanting/having to have dry wood, will exceed my capacity to produce it. I'm not leaving it in the kiln for 2 weeks instead of 1 to get it to 15%, that halves my production output!

 

Still, if demand increases beyond the capacity for supply, then the price will increase as well, so I will sell the same output for more money!   

[richardwale]

Sounds like you are in a win win situation.

[carpenter1]

I think they should ban kiln dried, as your burning logs to dry, just air dry them, that will save pollution