How long have we urban dwellers got?

[sime42]

51 minutes ago, Peasgood said:

Drivingthe 2 miles to the gym is the one I can't fathom out.

The human race is losing or maybe already has lost the plot!

 

A silver lining to the lockdowns was that most of those gratuitous car trips were abruptly stopped. A shame that the air quality / PM 2.5 testing that's supposedly driving the forthcoming ban on wood burners was not done during those periods. 

 

Interesting reading here;-

 

https://www.blf.org.uk/taskforce/data-tracker/air-quality/pm25

 

So our current UK target of 10ug/m3 is still twice as high as the WHO limit. It's going to take a bit more than just getting rid of some woodburners it seems ...........

 

 

 

 

 

 

[neiln]

I know that, you know that but many owners of a modern stove still burn wet wood or worse, or burn as low and slow as they can. I strongly suspect many non exempt appliances can be run very clearly by comparison, dry clean wood and hot fires.

[GarethM]

30 minutes ago, neiln said:

I know that, you know that but many owners of a modern stove still burn wet wood or worse, or burn as low and slow as they can. I strongly suspect many non exempt appliances can be run very clearly by comparison, dry clean wood and hot fires.

Whilst I agree, it just not possible to educate everyone.

 

Education was one of the routes HETAS used for the firewood scheme, we need to educate customers etc.

 

It's an arse backwards argument they use.

Buyers of approved firewood know the score, I shouldn't have to knock on your door like a salesperson of the 90s extolling the virtues of the wonders of "dry firewood".

 

Fine people and the word soon gets out.

Chinese whispers soon gets around town, like horrible garages. Word would quickly spread about selling wet wood or how nice and dry it was, door swings both ways.

Edited March 2, 2023 by GarethM

[neiln]

I agree that many operators jdgas

[Muddy42]

58 minutes ago, GarethM said:

Whilst I agree, it just not possible to educate everyone.

 

Education was one of the routes HETAS used for the firewood scheme, we need to educate customers etc.

 

It's an arse backwards argument they use.

Buyers of approved firewood know the score, I shouldn't have to knock on your door like a salesperson of the 90s extolling the virtues of the wonders of "dry firewood".

 

Fine people and the word soon gets out.

Chinese whispers soon gets around town, like horrible garages. Word would quickly spread about selling wet wood or how nice and dry it was, door swings both ways.

 

Agreed.  I believe seasoning wood is a two stage process. First it needs to sit outside, to let rain wash out all the lignin, sap and starts the rotting process, then it needs to dry out. By the end a good sign is if the bark and some of the outside wood is starting to flake off.

[openspaceman]

5 hours ago, Paul in the woods said:

By that I mean things like investing in nuclear much sooner if you're going to stop using our own gas and actively encouraging energy efficient buildings rather than paying people to waste energy like they are doing now.

Nooo. Now we have gone down the renewables route the cost and time delay of new nuclear is not worthwhile even before you consider the moral dilemma of leaving the radioactive waste for later generations to sort out.

 

Wind power is proving cheap, even if the profits are all going to foreign companies so storage is where we need to be investing.

[openspaceman]

47 minutes ago, Muddy42 said:

Agreed.  I believe seasoning wood is a two stage process.

I don't believe so, the faster you dry the log the less dry matter is respired by bugs and the more energy is available for combustion. Wood essentially burns to carbon dioxide and water as long as the three Ts are catered for

 

Time for the combustion to complete (in the order of a second for a flame)

Turbulence to allow for better mixing to increase the chance of a fuel molecule meeting an oxygen molecule (within the time above).

Temperature in the combustion zone which every molecule is subject to (in the time above) and its 850C.

 

Plus supplying enough air to do the job (about 200% of stoichiometric for a simple stove).

Edited March 2, 2023 by openspaceman

[openspaceman]

14 hours ago, neiln said:

I've been thinking, 'how long?' over the last few weeks too.  Complicated.

Good post with some interesting thoughts but you don't qualify as an urban dweller.

 

I do and have received comments from locals about how bad I am to burn wood, so I am paranoid about emitting smoke.

 

Luckily I supply both near neighbours with illicit logs.

[neiln]

We will have some new nuclear I believe. We will maintain our nuclear deterrent as without it we would not keep our permanent seat on the UN security council. Having a civil nuclear industry it's essential to maintaining a military capability...

Jobs/careers, material and facilities.

[neiln]

I don't qualify?!  I'm in London, inside zone 3 on the tube map (just)