Kiln dried Firewood - The future ?

[Logsnstuff]

As a farming family its not hard, battered dirty Defender with dogs hanging out of it, battered coat with baling string evident in the pockets, holey jeans, and of course suitably muddy wellies. Never been clocked yet.

 

A

 

you saying you don't dress like that everyday anyway

[Alycidon]

you saying you don't dress like that everyday anyway

 

Only most days when not in the showroom !!.

 

A

[Chalgravesteve]

I got into it purely from a business viewpoint. My main business is a golf club. I have 5 greenkeepers already paid for who have relatively little to do in winter. I had loads of arbwaste coming in, as a by product of the woodchip we also took for pathways. I spent £55K on a kiln, 195kW boiler with accumulator and a new firewood processor as that was the only bit of kit I didn't have, plus the rest of the bits and bobs needed.

 

We are BSL approved as a producer/trader, we get tier one RHI at 7.6p and will manage to get the full tier one payment before the end of our first year by some margin.

 

So my incoming material costs nothing, my staff costs are nothing, I will get paid RHI which will cover the investment in 2.5 years and will receive it for 20. The product we produce is clean kiln dried logs which we sell locally at prices that are competitive with seasoned. If I sell a bag for £40 my costs are about £3 for the bag and the rest is profit.

 

From a business perspective, it was a complete no brainer. It has also secured the employment of my staff through the winters now.

[R5log]

I got into it purely from a business viewpoint. My main business is a golf club. I have 5 greenkeepers already paid for who have relatively little to do in winter. I had loads of arbwaste coming in, as a by product of the woodchip we also took for pathways. I spent £55K on a kiln, 195kW boiler with accumulator and a new firewood processor as that was the only bit of kit I didn't have, plus the rest of the bits and bobs needed.

 

We are BSL approved as a producer/trader, we get tier one RHI at 7.6p and will manage to get the full tier one payment before the end of our first year by some margin.

 

So my incoming material costs nothing, my staff costs are nothing, I will get paid RHI which will cover the investment in 2.5 years and will receive it for 20. The product we produce is clean kiln dried logs which we sell locally at prices that are competitive with seasoned. If I sell a bag for £40 my costs are about £3 for the bag and the rest is profit.

 

From a business perspective, it was a complete no brainer. It has also secured the employment of my staff through the winters now.

 

 

Complete sense, same rate rhi as me get to tier 1 easily

Why do kiln dried need to be to much more money over seasoned price??

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

unsustainable practice, we should be looking at more sustainable approaches, and once the customers understand WHY it is a crap thing to do, i mean think about it! threy will avoid kiln dried

[ash_smith123]

Why is it unsustainable? All my waste I burn in my boiler would only be burnt anyway, or I would have to pay for it to go to landfill? I also have a few transit loads a week of rubbish wood from local tree surgeons that they can't do anything with that they said they would probably end up burning in their yard if I didn't have it. Got around 60 ton of leylandii coming in a few weeks foc that the guy can't shift. It's just all crap that would just end up in a pile somewhere rotting! We don't all go around putting premium grade timber in the boilers to dry more premium grade timber. That's something I think some of you guys are struggling to understand

[Chalgravesteve]

unsustainable practice, we should be looking at more sustainable approaches, and once the customers understand WHY it is a crap thing to do, i mean think about it! threy will avoid kiln dried

 

Rubbish. The majority don't give 2 hoots about sustainability when they find out it will cost them more to achieve it. The UK and half the world are pissing into the wind trying to be more sustainable whilst China and the US spew our annual savings into the atmosphere on a daily basis.

 

But lets stay with kiln dried. I use the unsplittable and waste bits as fuel where possible. The wood I produce is well under 18% MC after 7 days. My customer burns dry wood, getting a high calorific value from a piece of timber that has travelled less than 30 miles in its entire life. It didn't need to be stored for 18 months. So I have a locally produced product that is locally used. If that's not sustainable I don't know what is

[Johny Walker]

Why is it unsustainable? All my waste I burn in my boiler would only be burnt anyway, or I would have to pay for it to go to landfill? I also have a few transit loads a week of rubbish wood from local tree surgeons that they can't do anything with that they said they would probably end up burning in their yard if I didn't have it. Got around 60 ton of leylandii coming in a few weeks foc that the guy can't shift. It's just all crap that would just end up in a pile somewhere rotting! We don't all go around putting premium grade timber in the boilers to dry more premium grade timber. That's something I think some of you guys are struggling to understand

 

just to quote you

 

timber dosant go to landfill & hasnt done for yrs

[R5log]

unsustainable practice, we should be looking at more sustainable approaches, and once the customers understand WHY it is a crap thing to do, i mean think about it! threy will avoid kiln dried

 

 

Will then go back to air dried, I take it you don't kiln dry?

[sandspider]

As a firewood user, I wouldn't buy kiln dried, personally. My local supplier offers kiln dried ash or air dried birch. The birch is cheaper, better for the environment and burns beautifully.

 

Plus if I sit my lovely kiln dried logs outside (even under cover) for a few weeks over winter, will they not fairly swiftly re-absorb atmospheric water until they're the same MC as air dried logs in the same situation?