prices.

[Frank]

Best bet is to work out the actual calorific value of the wood you are selling so you can give customers the price per kWh/t to compare with gas prices etc.

 

Can really help justify to customers when your prices increase.

[robbo 110]

I was under the impression FSC was actually to do with Rain forests.

 

Also the UK only harvests about 40% (8 million tonnes) of its sustainable yield each year. The guys selling cheap aren't even a speck on the landscape.

 

u may be right with your thoughts on 'fsc' darren, i was merely guessing!!!!! im glad though there is others that agree that £80-100 is reasonable, i dont see myself as being greedy thou..............

[scbk]

FSC = FSC UK - Forest Stewardship Council

 

Suprised you have never seen it on cardboard boxes/sawn timber etc

[robbo 110]

FSC = FSC UK - Forest Stewardship Council

 

Suprised you have never seen it on cardboard boxes/sawn timber etc

 

lol, ive just checked, my kentucky bucket has no such markings!!!!, doesnt seem to appear on the 'fridge pack of bud' either!!!!! thankyou for clearing that one up thou!!

[Highland Forestry]

I was under the impression FSC was actually to do with Rain forests.

 

Also the UK only harvests about 40% (8 million tonnes) of its sustainable yield each year. The guys selling cheap aren't even a speck on the landscape.

 

FSC (FSC UK - Forest Stewardship Council) is the Forestry Stewardship Council

 

When timber is sold as FSC Certified it means it has been harvested from sustainable, well managed forests and woodlands.

 

It means all the people involved with the woodland or forest are suitably qualified, all the timber is harvested under an environmental policy to avoid pollution and contamination to water courses, everything from the land owner to the management and the contractor is audited.

It also ensures a chain of custody right through from planting to harvesting, sale and transport.

 

We still deal with non-FSC from time to time but the emphasis is becoming more and more towards sustainable resources which are certified.

[Highland Forestry]

lol, ive just checked, my kentucky bucket has no such markings!!!!, doesnt seem to appear on the 'fridge pack of bud' either!!!!! thankyou for clearing that one up thou!!

 

Check you're BOG ROLL packaging!

 

There are loads of products made from FSC Certified timber.... most sawn timber is FSC these days, as well as packaging, toilet roll, newspapers, office paper, fuelwood etc

[csservices]

The other thing to remember with reference to above mentioned oil, gas and electric prices is that if you start getting to near to those prices in equivelant terms then people wont buy firewood, its viewed as a cheap renewable alternative, although may not be that cheap soon as I've been qouted £75 a tonne delivered for cord earlier on today

[Big J]

Regarding price of timber per kilowatt - did a few calculations:

 

Taking the average weights of Birch, Beech, Oak and Ash, a solid cubic meter weighs 700kg. A loose load of a cube is about half that, so you can assume that there is about 350kg of timber there.

 

Again, taking the average of the four timbers listed above, there is an approximate kw value of 9.35kw per kilo, resulting in an average total kilowatt value of 3272 a cubic meter. At £100 a cubic meter, and on a stove with 70% efficiency, the customer is paying 4.36 pence a kilowatt.

 

Natural gas comes in at 3.9 pence, oil at 6.3 pence and electricity at 13 pence.

 

4.36 pence seemed damned cheap. Time to start charging more chaps.

[Albedo]

Genius, brilliant post Big j, i have been considering embarking on this type of calculation for a few days now but I was afraid to even begin to try to work out how to go about it.

 

This type of thing is the way to work this thing out for once and for all as much as that is possible in the firewood business.

[bareroots]

Regarding price of timber per kilowatt - did a few calculations:

 

Taking the average weights of Birch, Beech, Oak and Ash, a solid cubic meter weighs 700kg. A loose load of a cube is about half that, so you can assume that there is about 350kg of timber there.

 

Again, taking the average of the four timbers listed above, there is an approximate kw value of 9.35kw per kilo, resulting in an average total kilowatt value of 3272 a cubic meter. At £100 a cubic meter, and on a stove with 70% efficiency, the customer is paying 4.36 pence a kilowatt.

 

Natural gas comes in at 3.9 pence, oil at 6.3 pence and electricity at 13 pence.

 

4.36 pence seemed damned cheap. Time to start charging more chaps.

 

but if you put into your calculations of the efficiency of peoples stoves (or worse, their open fire) then you get a worse figure considering the best stoves usually come in at around 65% whilst modern gas boilers are 95-98% effiecent. (rocket stoves get higher to around 80-90% but they are still a home made niche speciality)

 

Then consider the time of stacking, filling baskets and moving it around you home.

 

I love a wood stove. Nothing like it. But with two stoves and two open fires at home and four stoves and four fires at work, boy am i ****** off with splitting and shifting fire wood.