Is anyone burning wood they planted themselves?

[sandspider]

I'd like to be burning wood I planted myself. Hopefully, one day I will be. I'm still fairly young, and looking at getting a house with land at the moment.

 

A while back I did some very rough calculations, and worked out that about 5 acres of wood would provide enough sustainable wood for heat, cooking, all my needs. I didn't know about SRC in those days, so could probably manage with less. Having said that, I wouldn't want to have to rely totally on wood for everything.

[coppiceer]

I know the theory, just wondered who is actually doing it in practice, rather than harvesting wood planted by someone else? My hazel is only a year old but the chestnut I'm putting in is already older. I'm hoping along with the alder we should get a bit of firewood in years to come, although I haven't got enough space to be truly self sufficient

 

How big is your site? I planted at 1-metre spacing within each row, with a 2 metre inter-row gap every third row for maintenance access. The hazel gets pretty dense at these spacings but you are going to clear cut so that isn't a problem. If my Ash die I will simply replant with hazel and coppice them on a 10-year cycle instead. Don't plant too far apart or your stems will be crooked and so harder to process.

[spandit]

Funnily enough, I've had others tell me I've planted too close but I am aiming for a natural woodland rather than high density coppice. The hazel is about 1.5m spaced but most of the trees are about 3m apart.

 

We've got about 10 acres but don't want it blanketed with trees (at least, the rest of the family don't - personally, I'd cover the lot!)

[Martin Jenkins]

Alder and ash should be about the same for drying/ seasoning are the as logs bigger by any chance?

 

The billets are the same size pretty much, all about 14 to 16 inches long in triangles maybe 4 or 5 inches on the thick end.

 

Going through wood cut at the same time about 14 months ago, max of ash and alder, the ash nearly always needs to be skipped over until next year - heavy and when burnt, hisses, whereas the alder is dry and light. Really clear difference.

 

All stacked for seasoning together, pallets on the ground, open sides with sheep netting, polythene sheeting on the roof to reduce rain impact. Stacked three log deep, with big gaps between the layers.

[Peasgood]

I'd like to be burning wood I planted myself. Hopefully, one day I will be. I'm still fairly young, and looking at getting a house with land at the moment.

 

A while back I did some very rough calculations, and worked out that about 5 acres of wood would provide enough sustainable wood for heat, cooking, all my needs. I didn't know about SRC in those days, so could probably manage with less. Having said that, I wouldn't want to have to rely totally on wood for everything.

 

That's what I do. Apart from light, I do have electricity for that.

All heating, cooking, hot water is wood fires. Apart from having to deal with the ash and putting up with sawdust trailed through (hardly any) it is fine.

[sandspider]

Impressive! But it is nice to be able to come home to a warm house when the central heating has kicked in when we've both been out at work or whatever...

 

Unless you've got some sort of biomass boiler that either keeps a heat store hot, or can be set to come on by time switch?

[Martin Jenkins]

Impressive indeed. For me, I have the 5 acres just about, and have, for seven years, been coppicing, and whole house is heated by wood - although cooking is electric.

 

When my wife got sick with cancer - winter of 2012 - 2013, probably the worst winter I have seen - that was a real struggle, and it really showed how much effort is required.

 

I do plan on going to wood pellet stove this year... however others that I know with wood pellet have had their stoves fail, with igniters needing replacement (at £50 + per time, and these things come from Italy, and there was a strike, and it took 4 weeks, no heating for him) - so I am thinking about moving my boiler stove into a different room, and using that as a backup, feeding a same buffer tank, and have the pellet baby bypass the buffer and go straight to thermal stove and rads.

[Peasgood]

Mine has to be lit so no coming home to a warm house. That is the luxury of oil that I miss, but not enough for me to want to put an oil boiler back in.

When I had oil I just couldn't afford the fuel so the house wasn't warm then either, it is much warmer now i am on wood only.

I tell the missus she can have the heating on flat out as much as she wants. Not many can say that is there.

[sandspider]

Impressive indeed. For me, I have the 5 acres just about, and have, for seven years, been coppicing, and whole house is heated by wood - although cooking is electric.

 

When my wife got sick with cancer - winter of 2012 - 2013, probably the worst winter I have seen - that was a real struggle, and it really showed how much effort is required.

 

I do plan on going to wood pellet stove this year... however others that I know with wood pellet have had their stoves fail, with igniters needing replacement (at £50 + per time, and these things come from Italy, and there was a strike, and it took 4 weeks, no heating for him) - so I am thinking about moving my boiler stove into a different room, and using that as a backup, feeding a same buffer tank, and have the pellet baby bypass the buffer and go straight to thermal stove and rads.

 

That's interesting Martin, thanks. Roughly how much wood do you get through a year? How much time do you spend coppicing, splitting, seasoning etc. to get the necessary volume of wood? I process my own firewood, but as I'm only feeding one woodburner for non continual use it's not too hard.

 

It's a balance - I love the look and processing / lighting ritual of a log burner, but also like the option of heat on a timer, and hot water on demand. I guess a pellet boiler could work on a timer, and would do hot water on demand - but it's not as simple and basic as a couple of log burners, and a lot more complex / expensive to install. Also, you can't sit around it and stare into the flames in the same way!

[Martin Jenkins]

That's interesting Martin, thanks. Roughly how much wood do you get through a year? How much time do you spend coppicing, splitting, seasoning etc. to get the necessary volume of wood? I process my own firewood, but as I'm only feeding one woodburner for non continual use it's not too hard.

 

It's a balance - I love the look and processing / lighting ritual of a log burner, but also like the option of heat on a timer, and hot water on demand. I guess a pellet boiler could work on a timer, and would do hot water on demand - but it's not as simple and basic as a couple of log burners, and a lot more complex / expensive to install. Also, you can't sit around it and stare into the flames in the same way!

 

I get through about 4 wood bays full in a year with a fairly conservative use of wood; each wood bay is 1.2m deep, 2.4m wide, and about 2m high. Three rows of logs, with lots of space in between.

 

When my wife was sick, I was running 24 hours a day, near as; got through double the amount of wood then, AND had a heater in the bedroom.

 

A pellet boiler will indeed run on a timer, and my friend who has one gets paid £2500 per year in RHI, regardless of how much he uses it. So he buys all his pellets and uses it as minimally as possible! It is fairly attractive looking, and there are flames that you can see. The biggest disadvantage is that it has broken down a couple of times as I stated - but each time as far as I can see, I myself would be able to sort it out, given the bits.

 

As for how long spent coppicing etc. - I reckon for me, probably 2 or 3 days per wood bay. I have to have somebody to help me, as now I am on my own since my wife died, if I had an accident I would be stuffed! So this weekend for instance I have a load of friends coming over, so while I fell and log up, they will be carting back to base, splitting, stacking. Or that is the idea anyway!