Why are the public anti-softwood?

[firewoodman]

Treenergy all the way mate - I've tried most of the "big players" over the years, and I reckon these are the best.

 

Andy

 

wher you based then andy??

i'm not far from david and was lucky enough to have a tour of his plant recently, bit on the sneaky side on my part though, but he is quite a nice guy

[County4x4]

I'm up near the Cumbrian border mate. I've met David a couple of times - very nice fella I reckon.

 

Been away camping on a site that allowed camp fires this weekend - and of course just about EVERYONE has one when they're allowed. Watched an awful lot of people struggling with some very smoky fires - while we used briquettes, and had a blazing fire in no time with no smoke at all! Should have set up a stall I reckon but the farmer selling the nets of logs might not have approved!

 

Andy

[renewablejohn]

thanks mate, very helpful

 

 

 

did you have any success using your heizohack to get fines to use in briquettes?

 

Partial success with the 30mm screen about 80% of the right size which I intend to sieve with a 10mm screen. The rest will go through the hammer mill and end up in the wood pellet production.

 

As regards screw extruders I was warned against them due to the high wear rate and energy usage.

[firewoodman]

I'm up near the Cumbrian border mate. I've met David a couple of times - very nice fella I reckon.

 

Been away camping on a site that allowed camp fires this weekend - and of course just about EVERYONE has one when they're allowed. Watched an awful lot of people struggling with some very smoky fires - while we used briquettes, and had a blazing fire in no time with no smoke at all! Should have set up a stall I reckon but the farmer selling the nets of logs might not have approved!

 

Andy

 

ha, thats funny so was i, went canoe camping on the wye from hereford to ross on wye,

we had open fires at camp site, but i was burning my own well seasoned .........

 

wait for it........

 

CEDAR.......yes cedar.... and it smelt lovely, with very little smoke

 

 

and i did take some briquettes from treenergy to show my mates what they burnt like:thumbup:

[County4x4]

I did ask David about wear rates with his screws, and he said that basically he had no real concerns in that area. I forget how often he said he had to change them, but it wasn't excessively often by any means. Power consumption is around 1kWh to produce 100kWh worth of briquettes by all accounts. I guess feedstock will have a bearing on this figure but his recipe remains fairly constant. A lot of the machines in developing countries will probably be briquetting much harsher materials than sawdust I suppose.

 

On the camping side - it would be great to sign up a few local sites and provide fire baskets and logs or briquettes to burn on them. We stayed at another place in the Lakes last year and the local firewood guy came round with a trailer full of nets every tea time - the campers were queueing up to hand over their money! He did a package deal of a net of logs, plus a small plastic bag with a handful of kindling plus a cube of firelighter for about a fiver. I'd say the vast majority of the campers onsite had a fire every evening - viewed from the hill above, the site looked like a refugee camp with smoke from dozens of fires drifting across it - the wood guy must have been making a killing!

 

Andy

Edited August 3, 2010 by County4x4

[blue beastie]

I can't understand why the public have this fixation with hardwood logs..

 

I've been trying to tell people for ages now, ALL wood is good firewood as long as it's seasoned.

 

Even ash logs burn better and more efficiently when they are seasoned.

 

When you think about it, softwood should be the most wanted wood - it burns fine, there is loads of it about, it's much cheaper to purchase, cheaper to produce, cheaper to process, easier on machinery, lighter and so more volume if buying by weight and easier and generally cleaner to handle!

 

Having said all that, around here I have to say the birch is the king.. birch and pine is my personal preference.

 

HEAR HEAR!!

[davetaz]

May be the public aren't so keen on soft wood as it is generally sold as a cheaper product - in their eyes that means poorer quality. I might try putting some out there for a higher price and see what happens!

Most properly seasoned softwood burns absolutely fine in a stove, providing the stove works properly as well. Hardwoods do tend to produce a bit more heat over a slightly longer period but I don't think the differences are that significant

 

£100/cube for hardwood or £80/cube for softwood, if I was buying it for myself I know what I'd be buying

[gensetsteve]

I think its a third more heat for twice the time. so more contolled burn from hardwood would be good for open fires, but softwood ok in stove

[g&l tree]

softwood can cause sooting up of flues and leave a tar like residue, it also burns quicker so you need more of it.

hope this helps Gordon

[firewoodman]

softwood can cause sooting up of flues and leave a tar like residue, it also burns quicker so you need more of it.

hope this helps Gordon

 

um, no it doesnt!!!

i have done several trials with burning softwoods to throw out all these myths on softwood.

 

e.g. cedar....an apparent softwood will out burn willow, an apparent hardwood

 

sooting/tarring of chimneys occurs from wet or high moisture content woods