If you weren't in the log business, would you burn logs or use coal?

[skyhuck]

& imo we should be getting it out not importing it ,british jobs mining british coal ,i could be wrong

 

We are getting it out, I burn Welsh anthracite on my Aga.

[Tom D]

I worked out that to buy the logs we burn at the price I sell them would cost as much as the LPG that we used before the stove and rayburn were fitted. So Maybe we'd burn gas instead, although I like a real fire and I like cooking on the Rayburn.

[Johny Walker]

We are getting it out, I burn Welsh anthracite on my Aga.

 

good man for buying

british coal:thumbup1: , we import too much ,we should be pushing uk coal more ,like u said we have more than enough of the stuff

[Jesse]

As the price of coal increases more and more of it becomes viable, we have millions of tonnes under this island.

 

mining for coal is not sustainable in the long term frackink is , controversial yes, big time, who knows what will happen, subsidence issues? i think so. the need for fuel is massive in the UK and will only increase.

[skyhuck]

North sea gas was going to last forever too.

[BobG]

What can produce more sustainable energy in the UK, wood or windpower?

[pgkevet]

What can produce more sustainable energy in the UK, wood or windpower?

 

I suspect the answer is neither. I'd like to see some deep math on all these ideas: where it's properly factored in for the costs of surveys, environmental arguments, maintenance, import of parts, decommisioning costs, loss of land from food production against importing food costs and the like.

 

Timber sounds good and sounds easy to push/convince the public but is likely more being used as a 'theoretical' carbon sequestration to help hit 'targets' than terribly practical on a small island. How many acres per head required to grow energy biomass? I'm guessing around 4 or 5 if we add in other fuel related people uses let alone the costs of harvest etc? If you do that sum then for a population of 65 million the british isles isn't big enough!

 

On wind power: it's variable, unreliable and works on a narrow wind speed, best off shore but then expensive to build and maintain..mostly with imported materials..

 

Tidal power actually sounds most reliable but the best sites appear to be the one's environmentalists want to preserve.

 

Photovoltaic really gets me on costs of manufacture and then later getting rid of old panels..as i understand it the components lead to toxic waste in manufacture and disposal until more effcicent technologes come alone - and whatever you do the rest of the third world won't cooperate with anyway...nor will the US.

 

the bigger waste and pollution is from manufacture rather than basic human needs..clamouring for an even bigger, wider screen telly every year to watch the same repeated dross. Or wanting a new shiney car with the latest gizmos so you can sit in the same traffic jam looking even cooler than last year. Along with the nonsense of thousands of cargo ships running at a gallon a foot around the globe sellong tat from nation to nation...

 

I'd better stop here..

[Jesse]

What can produce more sustainable energy in the UK, wood or windpower?

 

this threads worth keeping going, which is more viable and or sustainable? it depends upon our appetite, a combination of the 2 plus frackin, plus nuclear, plus the sun and the earth, soil that is, and tidal, energy, the needs of our country are great and growing all the time. i wish we were back in time, with out all the mod cons of today, sat in front of a stove watching the flames.

[TRADITIONAL LOGGERS]

Compressed sawdust and horse poo burns a long time and leaves little ash. In Africa dried cow poo is often burned in fires. I would have a wooden zero heat home if possible in the future like the one built in Scotland we looked at in summertime.

[Marko]

Compressed sawdust and horse poo burns a long time and leaves little ash. In Africa dried cow poo is often burned in fires. I would have a wooden zero heat home if possible in the future like the one built in Scotland we looked at in summertime.

 

And me. The new build super insulated homes are a stark wake up call as to how you can really reduce your bills.