The coppice stove

[Marko]

Then lots of wordiness about enjoying a day off work to go and cut an acre of willow by hand, many people dream the good life, but after a lifetime in the office, then "THE DAY!!!" sounds like blisters,aches and A&E for the non trained self sufficient wannabe lifestyler. I

 

I'm all for it, the more people who grow and process their own fuel will (eventually) become ambassadors for good quality wood fuel suppliers... they are unlikely to ever become competitors and they will fully understand the costs and hard work involved. They will educate all their friends and associates about just what is involved.

 

I cannot see anyone who has grown, harvested and processed their own wood to knock it out a £50 a cube!

[windfall]

I'm all for it, the more people who grow and process their own fuel will (eventually) become ambassadors for good quality wood fuel suppliers... they are unlikely to ever become competitors and they will fully understand the costs and hard work involved. They will educate all their friends and associates about just what is involved.

 

I cannot see anyone who has grown, harvested and processed their own wood to knock it out a £50 a cube!

 

Good point Marko.

 

The willow i planted got eaten by rabbits, so if they do manage to grow thier own then good on them!

[Marko]

Alder is a good second choice for wet ground with rabbits. They really don't like the taste and let the saplings get established.

[Quickthorn]

Would imagine 'par-char' is part-charred or part-charcoal by the look of it.

 

 

Yes, this is what I think it is. If that's the case, then par-char is simply the product of their failed charcoal burns; no good putting it back for another burn, because it would disappear, so they're knocking it out as a firewood alternative.

 

However, I don't think their reasoning stands up. First, they're comparing the energy content per kg to 30% MC firewood, whereas the standard good firewood supplier are aiming for is 20% - so that's a strawman argument for a start. Looking at that figure, I think they've assumed that their par-char would contain as much energy or more per ton as wood dried to 10% MC. I'd say it would be less, because if it has been through a charcoaling process, a lot of the more volatile hydrocarbons would have been driven off, and those hydrocarbons make up a significant part of the energy content of firewood - if not the bulk.

[doobin]

I know one thing, the bird that brings our sandwiches out to the coppice doesn't have norks like that one in the cartoon....

[doobin]

From the downloadable 'New Woodlanders' PDF:

 

"Grieg’s Rocket - £6000 (inc VAT). Chainsaw Equipment - £1000 (inc VAT).

 

Chainsaw Training - £750 (Inc VAT). Woodland Management Training - £1500 (inc VAT).

 

Packaging supplies: £500 (inc VAT)

"

 

Let's get this straight.... £6k for a few bits of tin welded together (which by their own admission on the cartoon took about four hours), and £2.25k for 'training'. But only £1.5k for a chainsaw and things to do the actual work?

 

Hats off to them if they can get some city to$$er with a 'smallholding' to pay them for it though!

[Aluk]

I was told about this yesterday, so I read the article in September/October 2011 Living Woods Magazine. There are several points: I think "Par-Char" just happens to be a catchy name. The article says the wood is dried without burning, to 10%mc. This takes fuel in another stove called a Greig's Rocket, more investment. As it burns fuel, the efficiency is reduced over what is claimed, since I can't find anywhere that the drying fuel is accounted for. If the wood is dried to 10%, it will be much easier to light. I don't like that. Getting burnt is unpleasant, and increasing the risk of a fire is not something I do deliberately, particularly with a fuel that is usually assumed to be no hazard.

 

I would dry wood in the normal way by stacking and leaving it for a year i the case of ash, and two years i the case of anything else. If I wanted to accelerate the drying, I'd have a polytunnel. Somewhere light and dry to store it and to work in, and not very expensive for a diy version.

 

When TSHTF, if someone can't be bothered to put some effort into getting fuel supplies, all well and good, that may mean I could have some. If they want to throw a switch for instant heat, tough.

 

You need a fire going under the Grieg's rocket for 10 hours, that's going to be a fair amount of fuel to dry some firewood, when buying it in March and stacking it to use in October could have used no fuel. Ok , oak would be a bad choice, but ash is fine. People with modern small plots, would have a problem, they had better get together with neighbours and share a house as well as a bath. There may well be tough choices to make, so they had better be prepared. More clothes too.

 

This exercise is similar to the charcoal attempts in the 1990s. That failed as there was a recession at the time because of spending cuts at the end of the cold war, and we were competing against cheap foreign imports. At the time you didn't need a licence for a chainsaw, just a certificate would do. Now the safety overheads are too great, and firewood is a more efficient product, so someone has found a £6000 overhead in the form of a dryer which isn't needed.

 

I'll have another glass of snake oil if there's any left.........

[TRADITIONAL LOGGERS]

The firm also makes organic Birch beers. I like the idea of the waterheater unit but wood powered systems should be that "use all types of wood based products not one" The price made the wallet go into shock!

 

Be interested to know if produced in the UK at a small firm and not imported like most is these times from China.

[Aluk]

The wood can be cut without the use of a chainsaw, it can be handled without the need for a tractor, and it can be processed into PAR-CHAR without the use of a firewood processor.

 

This implies the wood is small, and/or there is yet another specialised piece of machinery for you to spend money on, though that does conflict with the claim that the system is to encourage the startup of firewood businesses in small woodlands.

 

At a user price of £150/ton, you would need to shift 3 tons per operator per week, minimum. So realistically this would have to be 2 tons per day for woodland working in order to have time to build stocks and to have time for loading and delivery. 2 tons a day cut and dried (at 10 hours a batch for which you also need to provide fuel) and extracted without a tractor is going to be hard.

 

Please tell me if my figures are wrong.

 

Their website is full of marketing speak, short on engineering detail.

The picture of the coppice stove is a drawing, not a picture.

The quoted price for electricity is 15p/kWh.

I use electric, and it costs around 1/3 of that, (night rate) and I have no handling time, no storage requirements, and no annual maintenance charges.

 

Short rotation coppice has been around for 30 years, and yet it is still not a significant wood fuel source AFAIK. One of the reasons is that those who started in the early days bought machines which couldn't cope, wrecked the machines, and that was the end. The machines that could cope were too expensive to afford.

[WFWales]

more info here

Black Mountain Woodfuels