Marko

I know NFU do cover forestry within a normal Ag policy if it is your forest. Would that be the difference with the previous owner? (or perhaps what he told them?)

Happened to be at the first delivery of chip to a new install this morning. It was for heating glasshouses for bedding plants - oil out - biomass in. Payback 5 years. The arrangement on this install is that Stobarts are paid off the RHI meter for actual heat produced rather than the load delivered. Hopefully the install will be finished and the boiler fired next week.

Definitely real. The Echo did a little write up Giant Ormskirk pumpkin helps Londoner smash world record - Liverpool Echo and the Guardian did a short video piece on Pumpkin boat man's record-breaking voyage to Isle of Wight - video | World news | The Guardian should anyone be that interested in using fruit for open water transport. There will be one available this year if anyone wants to try for Ireland!

Last year my pumpkins sailed from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight! Another whopper this year but nothing special planned for it just yet. The 'ordinary' pumpkins have had a good season and are ready for sale with already quite a bit of interest from the big advertising and PR companies getting their event promo stuff together.

Only from a point of being an RHI approved biomass supplier and also from being involved to a greater or lesser extent in a number of enquiries (including my own). For what it is worth the domestic RHI didn't stack up for our own home. The morso in the middle of the house, solar thermal and solar PV keep the gas and leccy bills to a minimum. Installing a log boiler would just about break even over the seven years BUT we would have had to get rid of the old cast iron gas boiler which, whilst seldom used, it is a great safety net. On the commercial tarrif, for our big shed it worked out at a £25k investment to produce an income of £8k a year less of course the cost of fuel, labour and maintenance costs. I took the view that it is better to sell the wood it would consume and put a jumper on. However, for a variety of good reasons it all added up for my brother and he (after sifting through many nonsense proposals of £20k-£30k got the job properly sorted for under £10k and is hopefully on the last lap of getting the (commercial) RHI tariff. We have a lot of local horticultural businesses in the area and the numbers really do add up for heating greenhouses. No question about it. Perhaps it is all about scale.

It isn't that confusing if you look at what the scheme actually is rather than comparing it with all the iterations of what was promised over the preceding years. Rather than confuse yourself over what might have been, what applies to domestic and what is commercial, start here https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/increasing-the-use-of-low-carbon-technologies/supporting-pages/renewable-heat-incentive-rhi and see if it stacks up for you. The one thing I would fully agree with is the amount of charlatans involved already. I don't know what they were doing this time last year but I suspect double glazing / hearing aid / hot tub / next big thing salesmen rather than plumbers. Some of the stuff I have seen on quotes is grossly misleading (to the point of being worthy of Trading Standards involvement) - from the over specification of required kit to the price of fuel used in their savings calcs. One seen very recently used the 'estimated' per tonne price standing timber as the cost of biomass. In their world timber cuts, processes, transports, stacks and seasons itself at no additional cost. An oversight? I think not - in the last 10 proposals I have seen only one had used a realistic costing for fuel. Buyer beware - challenge everything they claim and make the effort to talk to a selection of their previous install customers.

In light of the latest round of price cuts to the milk price, perhaps the real threat to meadows will be the collapse of traditional dairy farming. Intensive units might scrape through with economies of scale, efficiency and high yields but the very farming mechanisms that created and maintained the meadows are unlikely to survive.

I saw this on youtube, watched a few more similar ones and then had a go. It worked very well apart from the "water stains".

The acetone has left water marks on the mdf. I haven't tried immersing it all to see if i can get a uniform 'stain' all over the piece.

Title of thread is "IBC Cages". I am sure anyone would be interested in cheaper alternatives so it is good that you mention them. I find the best thing about IBC's is that they stack safely with a positive interlock (metal/plastic pallets only) and that they are built to take the weight.

I gave it a go last week; quite a co-incidence. I tried it to some mdf shapes and got a very high definition transfer but quite a lot of staining.

Same here but based in West Lancs if that helps anyone.

As it happens it has just done it now on http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/77232-yes-no-who-pays-56.html

I have had the same (on Chrome) - random pages hang just loading and loading and loading. Rather than press the back arrow, if you stop the page loading it displays instantly. I guess the earlier example is the same - the page was there all the time hence the quick flash of it when the back arrow is pressed. There does not seem to be any predictability to it at all which I know is little help... but yes it is happening to others

Phill is at Banks nr Southport is often out at events doing demo's so maybe it would be worth getting in touch to see if he is booked at an event that you could manage get to. Phill Gregson - Wheelwrighting

It does and it is. Not a difficult process at all to get certification - it is very straightforward if you meet the criteria. To me it seems preferable to burn chunks and sell the logs that would have otherwise have been used.

Yes - in as much as the bag sizes in the picture; the ones burnt to date were predominantly a mix of cherry and willow rather than the hawthorne in the picture. The bag weights when seasoned vary quite a bit so I am sure that a far bigger sample is needed to get more certainty on the average RHI value per bag. It is early days with the meter and we may well have not got it right - I suppose the proof of the pudding will be when the first cheque lands.

They are fully dried before going into the IBC. They definitely mould if put in unseasoned (tried it earlier this year). I doubt a 1 cube bag would work either unless you were forcing air through it.

A 1000ltr IBC full of mixed wood chunks. It is a very easy way to store them when dry as I can stack them four high. They just shovel out like coal.

The 110 (to the best of my knowledge). For what it is worth we chose the the 70 because we were already logging anything bigger as saleable firewood. I do know others have regretted not getting the bigger version but the 70 is just fine for us.

Delta in labour is handling the bags ie in the example in the above photo we were just seeing how it was with hawthorne hedge cuttings (6yr growth). As horrible a job as it gets but that doesn't change whether you are throwing it through the chipper or the chunker. Bags are about 30p each. For the boiler we have also trialled dropping it straight into 60ltr dustbins and putting them in a polytunnel to dry. This gets tipped straight into the boiler without bags being involved. Over the last few months that has worked a treat but the real test would be in winter; will it dry fast enough or start to go mouldy. Harder work than logs.... possibly. Certainly with hedge cuttings. But when we tried ash and hazel coppice it was a real joy and 100 bags took no time at all. Far easier than logging up with a saw.

If it is going into a net then there is no need to remove leaves and small twigs as the whole lot can go into the boiler. The nets do season quickly as long as the wind can get at it. Just like logs, the nets of wood chunks don't fare very well if just put in a big heap (even inside) they really do need wind through them. It is early days with the newly installed meter and a bit early in the season for some serious burns but initial trials suggest an RHI payment of around £3-£4 is generated by each well seasoned bag of wood chunks plus that leaves the conventional logs that otherwise would have been burnt available for sale. Double bubble. Now has that got your attention! Top loading boilers like the Viessmann would be ideal but front loading boilers are ok to load (especially the first load). If it proves to be as worthwhile as trials indicate I am sure a hopper on wheels invention will be worth building for reloading when hot. In my mind I can picture it now but you will have to wait for a prototype or two... If you do strip of the fine twigs and leaves the wood chunks are great for fueling wood ovens, chimeneas, patio fires and even BBQs if you can wait for the flames to subside. But unless you can get a big markup over and above the RHI payment why would you bother? Tell me again, what Eddie is paying for a tonne of chip?

We have one tractor mounted. No problems at all and makes great fuel for wood boilers. Quite a bit of info was on the thread http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/firewood-forum/69234-i-would-like-see-what-inside.html

Static doesn't work in an economy built on debt - can't get off the treadmill; must keep growing.

A quick look found.... Front page 'firewood' button resolves to 'services' page. Top menu firewood link works fine. <title>Homepage - Tree Surgery and Seasoned Fire Wood</title> The prime google real estate is populated by 'Homepage' which is adding little value. Delete this and adding a geographic location to meet the needs of your target clientèle. I like the minimalist design very much.