Future Firewood Demand Optimism?

[Billhook]

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Edited February 19, 2022 by Billhook

[Doug Tait]

With any luck some of those plucky types at Bletchley can decipher...

[Billhook]

Try again!

[Steven P]

I wonder if the sums above also take into account maintenance costs? An electric heater doesn't need much, but you can add in another £100 - £!50 a year for a chimney sweep, I tend to wear out firebricks every 3 years (at say £35 to £60 a set), in 10 years also 1 new window (not my fault!), a new grate, baffle, and rope seal (about £200 for all of that), and I guess you can also spend a coupe of hundred on a covered waterproof outdoor store for your nice kiln dried logs, and £20 every few years to treat it's wood (and I guess this week, a new roof for it)....

 

Stoves are cheaper than electricity I think but long term when things needing to be replaced and maintained they are a bit ore than the article might suggest.

 

 

Free logs... apart from the £100 in axes, £400 chainsaw, annual maintenance of that and sharpening (plus a couple of chains I knackered while I was learning not to saw rocks), and hours to collect and split, dry and store the wood.. depends on the value of your time. Collect free wood paid for itself in about 2 years using wood as my main heating, more if you only use the stove a couple of hours a day

[neiln]

With it kicking off in Ukraine I imagine gas and oil prices are going to spike up again and by in October the energy price cap could be up another massive increase.  Logs will be cheap then.

[Billhook]

I do not think it will be a question of price much more like insurance against having no heat at all from electric or gas, maybe oil too.  In which case people will pay anything if wood becomes scarce

[neiln]

Estimates from Martin Lewis and on BBC of another ~50% rise in gas and electric prices come  October.  Wood will be cheaper than gas at current prices when that happens.  I'm off to collect some scrounged ARB arisings

[sime42]

About time to start thinking about padlocks on those log stores I reckon.

[mrchips]

I've been a long time lurker on arbtalk and have finally registered to post in this thread as it interests me greatly for 3 reasons...

 

1 - I installed a log burner last year and have it running almost constantly at the moment. It's 8kw. I run it on scabs (I think that's what they're called) from a local wood yard so my fuel is 'free' apart from my time and a good drink for the yard owner. I'm pushing about 25-30kg of hardwood through it per day, 2.5-3kg per hour ish. At that rate, once the heat gets baked into the brickwork after a few hours, it warms the whole house (5 bed leaky 1950's) to the point that the central heating doesn't come on. This is a winner as far as I'm concerned. Only problem is early mornings, which is when the central heating kicks in.

 

2 - I'm currently converting my garage into a 40m2 one bedroom annexe, well insulated per building regs. It'll be heated via underfloor heating by an air source heat pump. Heat loss calculations show that I need 3.2kw ph when it's -5c outside. It's a 5kw heat pump. Will report back on how this performs once it's commissioned in a few weeks time, although admittedly the weather should have improved by then. I'm in the Southeast.

 

3 - British Gas have kindly just sent me details of the 1st April price increase. Gas and leccy combined is something like a 45% increase. Ouch. Time to consider an alternative method for heating my domestic hot water. Any recommendations??

 

[Billhook]

2 hours ago, mrchips said:

I've been a long time lurker on arbtalk and have finally registered to post in this thread as it interests me greatly for 3 reasons...

 

1 - I installed a log burner last year and have it running almost constantly at the moment. It's 8kw. I run it on scabs (I think that's what they're called) from a local wood yard so my fuel is 'free' apart from my time and a good drink for the yard owner. I'm pushing about 25-30kg of hardwood through it per day, 2.5-3kg per hour ish. At that rate, once the heat gets baked into the brickwork after a few hours, it warms the whole house (5 bed leaky 1950's) to the point that the central heating doesn't come on. This is a winner as far as I'm concerned. Only problem is early mornings, which is when the central heating kicks in.

 

2 - I'm currently converting my garage into a 40m2 one bedroom annexe, well insulated per building regs. It'll be heated via underfloor heating by an air source heat pump. Heat loss calculations show that I need 3.2kw ph when it's -5c outside. It's a 5kw heat pump. Will report back on how this performs once it's commissioned in a few weeks time, although admittedly the weather should have improved by then. I'm in the Southeast.

 

3 - British Gas have kindly just sent me details of the 1st April price increase. Gas and leccy combined is something like a 45% increase. Ouch. Time to consider an alternative method for heating my domestic hot water. Any recommendations??

 

Good thinking!   The thing about wood heat that I enjoy most is the fact that once you have done all the work, cutting, loading you can really enjoy the heat, accompanied hopefully by a warm glow through glass.  This is very different to watching a gas meter or electric meter or the oil level in your tank.  It does not matter how wealthy you are it still hurts to witness these things

Our wood stove heats the water and radiators in Winter but in Summer we go on to solar tubes.  These seem to be very efficient and are not to be confused with solar panels

i went on a course in Wales with Navitron.  I have a separate copper cylinder for solar water and an electric switch in the bathroom to operate a changeover valve between the cylinders 

In dull weather the tubes still warm the water, not quite enough for a bath or shower but it does not take long to top up with gas or electric which is a big saving as opposed to heating the water up from mains temperature .  If there is a longer period of cooler Summer weather then the log burner is struck up again 

 

Navitron - The Small Solar Company

WWW.SMALLSOLAR.CO.UK

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Solar Hot Water, Equipment and Systems for Installers and Homeowners. Navitron provides...

 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Billhook