Future Firewood Demand Optimism?

[Billhook]

On 20/10/2021 at 22:09, difflock said:

How to make a small fortune from farming, simple! Start with a large fortune.

 

Found an old 78 record from father’s collection which I dedicated to you on “songs I am listening to” in case you missed it!

Sung by tenor John McHugh

 

 

[Commando]

Forget $100, Options Traders Now Betting On Oil Prices Hitting $200 | OilPrice.com

OILPRICE.COM

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Speculative traders are betting on the options market that oil could exceed $100 a barrel by the end of this year and even reach a record $200 per barrel by the end of 2022

[Commando]

At those prices wood would be a cheaper option!!

[Baldbloke]

30 cube a year, heating a 102 square metre detached (and fairly exposed to wind) old farmhouse in Devon. Sod all insulation. It's just a 20kw stove in the middle of the house. We have to have a little electric radiator on in my younger daughter's room overnight when it's properly cold.

 

I can't see wood catching on in any serious sense. Increasingly restrictive legislation (Woodsure Scheme etc), lack of national supply, extremely high firewood cost and idiot customers who won't season their own all restrict the market's potential to grow.

 

Heat pumps are the way to go I think. The majority of houses in Sweden are on geothermal or air source heat pumps, despite the obviously massive availability of timber and it's much lower cost. That said, electricity being 2-4 pence a kilowatt hour certainly incentivises it. 

 

Insulation is the main issue here. Most houses are terribly insulated. Even new builds (where there is no excuse whatsoever for shoddy specification and workmanship) have the thermal efficiency of a paper bag. My brother's new build in Exeter is always markedly hotter in a heatwave in summer and chillier in winter than our crappy old farmhouse.

 

Anyway, I've planted about 62 hectares of eucalyptus nitens down here, so I'm sure we'll find out how good a firewood that is in a few years [emoji3]

 

30 cube a year is about what we use from October to March for our 7 bed lump of a house through a 60kw biomass log boiler.

No subsidies on ours, and because oil was so cheap last year I didn’t bother busting my arse cutting, and just used the oil boiler. This year looks like I might need to get my act together though, but the 20Kw wind turbine does help, -when it works.

[Billhook]

5 minutes ago, Baldbloke said:

 

30 cube a year is about what we use from October to March for our 7 bed lump of a house through a 60kw biomass log boiler.

No subsidies on ours, and because oil was so cheap last year I didn’t bother busting my arse cutting, and just used the oil boiler. This year looks like I might need to get my act together though, but the 20Kw wind turbine does help, -when it works.

How many litres/gallons of oil did you use to be equivalent to your 30 cube?

Edited October 24, 2021 by Billhook

[trigger_andy]

 
30 cube a year is about what we use from October to March for our 7 bed lump of a house through a 60kw biomass log boiler.
No subsidies on ours, and because oil was so cheap last year I didn’t bother busting my arse cutting, and just used the oil boiler. This year looks like I might need to get my act together though, but the 20Kw wind turbine does help, -when it works.

I like the idea of a Wind Turbine. We certainly get more wind than sun where I am. [emoji16]

What issues have you had with it and how much was the instal?

[Baldbloke]

 

 

I like the idea of a Wind Turbine. We certainly get more wind than sun where I am. [emoji16]

 

What issues have you had with it and how much was the instal?

 

Issues included taking the manufacturer and service provider to arbitration and their subsequent appeal against my award by contesting it through the High Commercial Court in London. This because of total destruction of their product and their attempt to replace my new turbine with a knackered 2nd hand one. I did the arbitration myself but come the HC Appeal I utilised my house insurance legal cover for the HC Appeal. That cost my insurers 60 K. This as well as other downtime associated with the ongoing breakdowns.

This in spite of me being an acknowledged domestic consumer

through Government bodies and the company’s own Directors at contract inception to reduce VAT from 20% to the correct 5%.

Multiple hassles and breakdowns and expensive repairs (14k this year). Not for the faint hearted.

Yet my 91k cost has actually been returned through the subsidies and award since 2014.

13 years of increasing subsidy to go as long as the bastard continues to rotate🤣

 

[Baldbloke]

How many litres/gallons of oil did you use to be equivalent to your 30 cube?

A very good question to which I’d struggle to accurately answer due to the oil tank being partly full and still using oil for its all too easy usability through the spring. Probably a couple of grands worth being a tight arse.

What additionally complicates things is an oil Aga running most, if not all of the year.

Our elderly neighbours admit to an annual oil bill of 7k for their pile.

 

 

 

[Billhook]

1 hour ago, Baldbloke said:

A very good question to which I’d struggle to accurately answer due to the oil tank being partly full and still using oil for its all too easy usability through the spring. Probably a couple of grands worth being a tight arse.

What additionally complicates things is an oil Aga running most, if not all of the year.

Our elderly neighbours admit to an annual oil bill of 7k for their pile.

 

 

 

I am guilty of something similar. In the 1980s I built this house as part of a redundant brick windmill and being in a remote spot, had no electricity.  However the gas main ran 100 yards away on the minor road.  At first they would not connect me but in about1986 they relented and said the connection would be £70 but I would have to pay for the trench and pipe to the house or for £200 they would take the high pressure pipe to the house.  I obviously went for the latter. 

Gas fridge freezer and cooker which replaced the Bosky that seemed to be state of the art firewood cooker/boiler at the time. (It never did either the cooking or the heating satisfactorily.)  The gas was so cheap then that I used to leave the condensing boiler on the whole time and the bills were minimal compared to my parents big old farmhouse heated with oil.  Things are a bit different today and thank goodness for wood and the Aarrow Stratford .  The gas boiler has not been fired up for ages.

With no mains electricity and a Lister Startamatic I was thinking a lot about windpower especially after a few Winters here and I realised why there has been a Mill here since the late 1200s, there is nothing between me and Scandinavia!

So I set up a 24 volt system  with nickel cadmium batteries, inverter and a small Rutland windcharger plus the Lister also charging when it ran.  Sort of did the job but limited to 3000 watts.  But the whole system was a pain compared to mains.

A few years ago the electric board wanted to renew the 33kva line across the farm and also wanted to change its route.

Managed to have a little compensation in the form of and underground 3 phase cable all the way to the Mill.

Well I did have to wait 35 years for it!  Now I will not be able to afford the electric bills for that either!

Wood burning generator anyone??

[Baldbloke]

I’m sure heat pump efficiency has improved vastly over the years, but my experience of them about 18 years ago was not good. A scout building was considered too expensive to heat for its limited use plus a grant was available at the time too. 10 k worth of equipment was installed and ran until the first quarterly bill came in at over £800.00.
The heat pump was removed shortly after that.