Sustainability of Wood as a fuel??

[luftwaffe]

Why do people install log burners if the price of wood is on a par with oil or gas? no advantage surely.....unless you have already got one.

[likeitorlumpit]

Why do people install log burners if the price of wood is on a par with oil or gas? no advantage surely.....unless you have already got one.

 

you can't beat the flickering flame.....

[Crazy Cutter]

Why the hell do we have to keep re-inventing the wheel?

We had this great system called coppice with standards everyone was happy then someone went abroad saw the dollar signs and came back with modern day forestry. It works for 20 years, everyone forgets how much it cost to plant and keep the trees alive, the market drops and everyone scratches their heads for 10 years wondering what to do with the wonder tree, then a new grant funded market develops, we flood that the rubbish that should be better used elsewhere till the price drops, then we scratch our heads again.

 

The firewood price has gone too high already some people are already choosing between food and fuel!

[Joy Yeomans]

if we burned all the wood that was available and forgot the snobby "hardwood" is the only good wood, we would be sufficient and sustainable.

 

all timber as long as it is not treated, and has been dryed enough, forget the word seasoned as this can cause confusion over different time periods, some wood "dries" quicker than others, take larch or spruce if run through a nokka processor or harvestor the rollers puncture the stems and the timber dries in next to no time.

 

there is alot of myth put about by people who keep instilling into customers minds that only hardwood is best, only 3 year seasoned is best, rubbish - if you had some birch sat their for 2 years it would be mush.

 

all wood will burn, if priced accordingly to how quick it burns then wood can compete against many fuels (i.e. we sell arb logs, mixed up tree surgery wood for as little as £45 cubic metre, larch sells for £60 cubic metre) all acceptable woods.

[fonzy]

As said softwood is where sustainability is. The hardwood thing seems to be south of the border?

[Pete Hart]

I keep getting some rude responses when trying to educate my customers new and old..... surely people need to open there eyes and see sense, this glutt for hardwood is going to have to change or else there wont be enough left to go round!

[Treecreeper1961]

In April, we are going to plant 2 acres/2000 eucalyptus trees for firewood. In some trials in Kent, they were big enough to thin for firewood after 4 years. if all goes well we will then look at planting about another 15-20 acres of them. Quick growing, hardwood and lovely smelling firewood. Looking forward to it already:thumbup:

Woodworm,

I read you post last night and it sounds like a plan. It occurred to me today that there is obviously a reason that you are due to plant in April, later than you would ideal plant many species. Eucalyptus are sensitive to frost and I guess this is the reason. My concern is that April has been the driest and warmest month here for a couple of years and this may require attention. How much watering do you envisage doing?

[windfall]

I planted my Eucalyptus trees in May 2007 and they are doing very well, I feel that i could probably have planted them deeper than 2 foot though as the height they achieve in a short period of time is quite amazing! Thankfully i did at least put a 5 foot fence post in with them so i have been able to tie them up while the root system strengthed grew.

[StephF]

if we burned all the wood that was available and forgot the snobby "hardwood" is the only good wood, we would be sufficient and sustainable.

 

all timber as long as it is not treated, and has been dryed enough, forget the word seasoned as this can cause confusion over different time periods, some wood "dries" quicker than others, take larch or spruce if run through a nokka processor or harvestor the rollers puncture the stems and the timber dries in next to no time.

 

there is alot of myth put about by people who keep instilling into customers minds that only hardwood is best, only 3 year seasoned is best, rubbish - if you had some birch sat their for 2 years it would be mush.

 

all wood will burn, if priced accordingly to how quick it burns then wood can compete against many fuels (i.e. we sell arb logs, mixed up tree surgery wood for as little as £45 cubic metre, larch sells for £60 cubic metre) all acceptable woods.

Quite agree, have done a hard sell on the S/W now for 3 yrs, people just need educating, and they are happy with what they buy. I get sick of H/W is better, NO it just burns slightly longer and is more expensive, and NOT sustainable.

PS found this link in local NE paper last night Stop Burning Our Trees

which is anti our timber being used as bio mass for electricity, not firewood, interesting site. If anyone has the journal its my husband on the opposite page with the chainsaw!

[renewablejohn]

Unfortunately wood is not sustainable due to the elephant in the room which has just been mentioned.

 

UK biomass plants

 

As you can see from the above map the dash for biomass has already started. If the plants were using the most efficient technology it would not be so bad but unfortunately that is not the case.