The woodsure scheme, do we need it?

[WhiteHorseEnergy]

Hi, it's us again (or rather, it's Lauren - I'm the content writer at white horse energy). 

 

Bit of an update. Here is a short article about 'Ready to Burn' and the wet firewood ban, published in a magazine as a freelance piece of writing. All the information should be relevant and up to date, but this particular version of the article was confirmed for publication a while ago so it may lack a few points (let me know if you feel I've missed something out). 

 

See page 70 of this publication - a boating magazine of all places, but still relevant! A more in depth version about this will also appear on our website eventually. Apologies about the blurriness!

 

There's so much information to take in on the HETAS website so I hope this condenses it a fair bit. 

~ Lauren.

 

Link: (& image of article below)

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M Towpath Talk - 24/06/2021

 

[Vedhoggar]

Hi Lauren, 

Thanks for posting the article, a few comments:

1) first paragraph in article is wrong in that wood should be <20% MC but it doesn’t have to be kiln dried it just has to be <20%. 
2) loose bark and radial cracks is misleading and really should not be used as a guide at all as not an indication that wood is <20%, in my experience it could be >25%.
3) on pin moisture meters I spoke to and wrote afterwards DEFRA on 24 May asking them to explain what they mean by calibration of moisture metres which they mention in guidance when selling >2m3 and have not had answer (said there would be a reply in 20 days). We also don’t know on what basis <20% is to be measured. 
4) Not everyone is measuring the moisture content of wood in the same way. 

Edited July 15, 2021 by Vedhoggar

[doobin]

'Particles could get into the bloodstream and airways easily, eating away at organ tissue'

 

What the actual ****************? This is written like some badly scripted horror movie. You should be ashamed of publishing such drivel. You've only suggested 'they could', and haven't given any citations as to how they 'eat away at organ tissue'.

 

White Horse Energy are clearly just jumping on the bandwagon and shamelessly promoting themselves. I can't stand companies like that.

[Paul in the woods]

The article is a bit one sided. The law hasn't banned wet firewood, someone could still buy some lovely kiln dried wood and keep it somewhere wet. You can also cut your own of course.

 

I think you really must make clear than most cheap pin based moisture meters will measure on a dry basis so anything under 25% dry basis is fine to burn. It's about time Woodsure made this far clearer.

[Stubby]

33 minutes ago, Paul in the woods said:

The article is a bit one sided. The law hasn't banned wet firewood, someone could still buy some lovely kiln dried wood and keep it somewhere wet. You can also cut your own of course.

 

I think you really must make clear than most cheap pin based moisture meters will measure on a dry basis so anything under 25% dry basis is fine to burn. It's about time Woodsure made this far clearer.

Exactly .

[Dan Maynard]

Hi, it's us again (or rather, it's Lauren - I'm the content writer at white horse energy). 
 
Bit of an update. Here is a short article about 'Ready to Burn' and the wet firewood ban, published in a magazine as a freelance piece of writing. All the information should be relevant and up to date, but this particular version of the article was confirmed for publication a while ago so it may lack a few points (let me know if you feel I've missed something out). 
 
See page 70 of this publication - a boating magazine of all places, but still relevant! A more in depth version about this will also appear on our website eventually. Apologies about the blurriness!
 
There's so much information to take in on the HETAS website so I hope this condenses it a fair bit. 
~ Lauren.
 
Link: (& image of article below)

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M Towpath Talk - 24/06/2021  

I'm afraid I got a bit stuck at the first sentence because it is factually wrong and sided to the advantage of those selling kiln dried wood.

This type of writing isn't going to help clarify the situation, it's the kind of writing that leads to the "ban stoves" conversations.

[log on tommy]

I've finally got round to registering with woodsure, its a complete farce but there we go. As far as the complaints procedure is concerned, did most of you just copy a standard template of the web?

I put my prices up at the beginning of last season, something I don't particularly like doing, but with the extra admin, insurance and not to mention the subscription I can't see any way of avoiding putting them up again. At least this time I can pin the reason for the price hike on the bureacrats!

[Vedhoggar]

2 hours ago, log on tommy said:

I've finally got round to registering with woodsure, its a complete farce but there we go. As far as the complaints procedure is concerned, did most of you just copy a standard template of the web?

I put my prices up at the beginning of last season, something I don't particularly like doing, but with the extra admin, insurance and not to mention the subscription I can't see any way of avoiding putting them up again. At least this time I can pin the reason for the price hike on the bureacrats!

What percentage increase did you feel was necessary to cover costs related to Woodsure?

[log on tommy]

4 hours ago, Vedhoggar said:

What percentage increase did you feel was necessary to cover costs related to Woodsure?

I reckon about 7%

[doobin]

Prepare to be undercut by every man and his dog 🤦‍♂️ Customers don’t give a damn about Woodsure. I know a bloke locally processing a fair few tons a year- own tractor, trailer and processor and does around ten loads a day during the season. He said to me, ‘**************** em, I’m not registering’. I do maybe twenty loads a year to locals in the village- I won’t be either.