Alycidon

The problem we as stove sellers get is stoves not performing due to wet wood, we tell them both verbally and in writing, but sometimes they dont listen. Had one last week, been in 4 months, smokes when the door is opened but works fine otherwise. All that has been burnt in it according to the husband was a free net of KD birch that I supplied with the stove. Ceilings were black so something not right. We installed a rotary cowl and checked the flue draft, this was double what the stove had been tested at, yet it still did it. We then swept the chimney, bear in mind this has been in only a matter of weeks, liner was almost clogged with soot, his wife then told us that far from just burning the KD birch the husband had got hold of a load of fresh cut conifer and put most of it into the stove !!. So we know that if customers use KD that should be OK but I have had instances where KD product is not dry internally so does not burn through. Again as the stove seller we are called in to investigate as 'there is a problem with the stove ', it all takes time and money. There are some good supplies of seasoned wood out there yes, anything under 15% is fine for hardwood and about 18% for softwood, but many are trying to sell product at 30% plus. last week a major DIY chain was selling softwood as ready to burn, it was 45% !!. A

My 560XP seized using red Stihl after only a few weeks. I now only use the Husky synthetic stuff, saw works well with standard unleaded. A

As others have said condensation is a major issue in uninsulated containers. Insulated ones are not so bad though. A

That is the only site I am aware of the offers side by side comparisons of cost per KW and CO emissions per kw right across the market. Its my usual site of reference if a potential customer asks me for running cost comparisons. A

Andy Harrison of Kettering but not sure if its kilned. Andy Harrison - What sort of Timber and what it will cost A

Nick Channor who used to post here used to sell and delivery 24 ton bulk loads. He is somewhere around High Wycombe from memory. If nothing else comes up closer to ypu pm me for his number. A

I would agree prices in the market do need to rise but there are many busy idiots out there giving the product away, usually supported by timber they grow themselves or have acquired through Arb work. I am £25 a cube dearer than anyone around here, cant do it for less. Recently when talking to a competitor he was crying about being busy as hell but not making any money, I advised him to increase his price to my levels of he wants a reasonable return. Remember it costs £1.50 a mile to run a landrover with delivery trailer, plus your time. A delivery 10 miles away is a 90 minute job, I can only get three stacked crates onto my IFW. With Ash die back out of control over the next few years every farmers son with a saw will ( or is already) be trying to be a firewood merchant for beer money. I had a guy in my showroom today, he has been paying £60 for what he thinks is a cube of hardwood, ( I suspect its an 800/800/900 builders bag so about .7 cube), he was very angry that his supplier had the gall to increase the price to £70. When I put to him the amount of work involved in creating teh logs he simply said 'I dont care'. People need to be prepared to loose market share if necessary. A

I spec max 5% internal MC on 95% of the logs, this summer over several containers I only found a couple of logs at 15% internal, the rest were as requested. The are costly compared to some but quality and log diameters are excellent, 5 - 7 days in your yard from the day you pay usually. You wont get dumpy bags in a container, its always stacked crates, with my guy 54 per 40 foot container. If you want dumpys buy the bigger crates and fill your own. A

Kiln dried products should be disease free. Its the exchange rate that will control how much we import not the EU, there is at least half a dozen countries busting to get product to us, not all are in the EU.. For a stove retailer like me its just another product to buy and sell, I do enjoy processing as I think most of us do but I only have a little machine, 6 or 8 cube a day single handed. To upgrade means laying out 40k or so for machinery and a larger used tractor to power it, somewhat less buying a used processor and rack. With cord at £60 a ton delivered and logs being sold at £85 a cube delivered and including VAT at 5% I cant see any return, especially when you take into account the amount of storage and the rent and rates on that space needed to store perhaps 1000 cube to justify the capital lay out. Until the price of cord comes down to a realistic level then I will mostly buy in, I can store 3 containers worth, and have them replenished within 7 days from the Baltic, so smaller store, less outlay in drying timber, no major capital costs with equipment. But with RHI i cant see the costs coming down. A

Might take a week or two to get there !!. A

Like the meter, any details ?, A

WoodLots 50 cube in each butt they must be massive. A

Unprocessed dry wood, unless its dropped its bark it wont be dry enough to sell and burn now. If you are that short importing a container of kiln dried from the Baltic is the way to go, delivery is about 7 days after you have paid, door to door, you have 2 hours (3?) to unload 54 crates usually so a pump truck, forklift or tele porter and a fit helper is needed. I have a good supplier if you need one, not cheap but quality is excellent. 54 crates would equate to about 75 cu m if loose. A

Stoves with secondary burns are fitted with terciery air systems, this puts a third layer of air into the firebox to ensure that there is always enough oxygen available to ensure a clean burn. Terciery air systems on most current model stoves are not controllable normally and are fully open all the time. terciery is the green arrows here, What is a Primary Flow, Secondary Flow and a Tertiary Flow? - Green Homes Online Arada Farringdon and some new model Charnwoods MAY have controllable terciery, they have all their air controls on one lever. A

25% is just not good enough IMHO yet according to Hetas its fine !!. Logs at 15% would generate about 40% more heat, have a look here: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/eng-woodfuel-woodasfuelguide.pdf/$FILE/eng-woodfuel-woodasfuelguide.pdf If you cant naturally get the internal MC down that far then KD is the way to go, either yourself maybe with RHI or buying in ready KD logs from the Baltic. Under an open dutch barn in vented bags I can get air dried logs down to about 10% external in September having processed in April. Cord is usually a couple of years felled. I am in the midlands so have no sea fogs which I assume is an issue for you. Bear in mind that wood is hydroscopic so will draw moisture in from the atmosphere once out of the kiln. I have a customer driving 40 miles every week to buy 10 packs of my kiln dried Birch in small nets as he has no storage space for a large crate, in an Audi A5 !!. Another does a longer run in a Porsch 4x4. A

Yep and buying cheap stoves, some with fake CE markings and then doing self installs. I cannot ever see any form of legislation coming forward on firewood quality, the Hetas scheme is a non runner in my book as it allows moisture contents of up to 25%. I have spoken to Helen about that and getting it reduced but to no avail, A

Agreed, ask any stove manufacturer, all want a maximum moisture level of 16%, Morso is 15%. The drier the wood the more heat is generated as less energy is used to evaporate the water remaining in the log. These also burn far cleaner and put less soot and tars into a chimney or flue. In practise softwood can go a bit wetter ( up to about 20%) and get similar results. All stoves sold in the UK have to be CE marked and emissions compliant. The last lot of emissions regs was put into place in 2014, there is a further tightening planned from 1 Jan 2022 when all solid fuel space heaters must conform to Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/1185 requirements for efficiency and emissions. This will be known as Ecodesign. Stoves that are 2022 ready are already in the market, some five years early, all are dedicated wood burners ( solid fuel is to dirty to be allowed) these stoves emissions are 90% less than an open fire and 84% less than a stove design of ten years ago. Ecodesign stoves are measurably better for the environment, but at present they carry a price premium over an older and dirtier design. The Aarrow Farringdon is one such stove. https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/c6ccf626-2f6d-11e5-9f85-01aa75ed71a1/language-en This regulation will not mean that older designs of stove cannot still be used and sold, but new designs coming forward will need to be Ecodesign compliant. It then comes down to people like me to sell the clean credentials to prospective purchasers. Morso have not done any development work on multifuel stoves since 2013, every new model is dedicated wood burner. A

Cant see why you would want or need to. Dont know anyone who does black, most are white but Bag Supplies have a green which tends to blend better in the countryside. I have noticed no difference at all between logs dried in white or green bags, cant think that black would be better, just more costly due to lower volumes. A

Council building control office should know exactly what model has been installed as it will be on file as a result of the sign off. Maybe its a clerical issue at that end, you would have thought they would have done their homework before writing. Certainly if it is a Defra approved model then burning wood logs is perfectly legal within a smoke control area. I suggest you get a copy of your invoice from your supplier and a statement from them if it is Defra approved. If its the non approved version you will need to look at fitting a conversion kit if available to reduce the travel of the air supply controls. If that is not available then legally you are unable to burn logs on your stove within a SC area. A

American or Canadian stove, 65,000 BTU per hour out put is about 18kw, you would want a room of around 250 cubic meters in volume given average insulation for it to be comfortable. At that output it would use a cubic meter a week. New product, no UK distribution, not CE tested that I can see so unable to be legally installed. If you like the idea there are a couple of Scandanavian stoves with a similar facility but a more sensible heat output available in the UK. A

Kindlet from Fuelwood will sort rings, think Posch now have a copy of it Kindlet 200 A

They are the same thing !!, some people filter out their fines, others dont. VAT on fuel is 5%, on animal bedding 20%. A

Lovely. A