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Local cash and carry would probably be your easiest bet - Bookers or somewhere like that. Best firelighters I ever had were ones I imported from the States - called Super Cedars - top product, but heavy and the shipping would have killed it unless you bought a container load - shame no-one here does something similar. Andy

I used to sell these years back - got them from a garden stuff wholesaler - and they came from Latvia I think. They were made from standing dead softwood according to the bumph on the labelling - no bark. They each had a small chunk of firelighter (the Coghlans firestick type - not bog standard parrafin/wax jobs) inside the log - kept in place with a little round cardboard label stapled to the open end. Nice little product - RRP was around £3 - £4 as I recall. Didn't move a lot to be honest and ended up selling them off at £2.50 each - though quite a few people who had them at that money have asked for them again - but the company no longer deal with them, and have no record of where they came from apparently! Andy

I'm a chimney sweep mate - that's exactly what I advised him. I advised him the same thing when I swept his chimney last year and saw the state of it, and what he was burning! Andy

Also sent a PM yesterday - hope to hear from you soon mate! Andy

Unfortunately a lot of those people will have no hesitation in spending 2 grand on having a stove installed - but they also have the idea when putting it in that it will be cheap to run, as wood "grows all over the place" - so they then scrat about for the cheapest stuff they can find to stick on it. I've lost count of how many customers log piles I've been over with the moisture meter - but I could count the number of piles that have been 25% or under on my fingers! There were also several piles that the customer insisted were "good logs these" - though I'd only asked to have a look at them because of the state of their stove and chimney. The "good logs" were exactly what I expected them to be - well over 35% - but there's no telling some people. Funnily enough - one of these customers phoned me just yesterday as there was staining appearing on his bedroom wall, along with a tarry smell, and he wanted to know what caused it! Andy

Alycidon - you go for it mate if it's what you want to do. I stand by my comments though - decent firewood sellers don't need it, and rubbish firewood sellers won't have itt. I'd also guess that the majority of firewood customers are going to pay little attention to it. The only people who think it would be really great if you joined up are HETAS.... Andy

Fair point Alycidon - but I'd question if it will mean anything to the customer. Sure - there will be a few who will treat the scheme as a "must have" - but my guess would be that the majority will find a few local suppliers and see who does the best quality or the best price - and blow the HETAS registration. The registration process will surely only give a snapshot of the business on a particular day - unless they park a bloke with a hat and a clipboard at your yard gate and you have to pull up to be inspected on your way out with each load. At the end of the day, most of these schemes are little more than a paper exercise that costs money. There are several expensive assurance schemes for chimney sweeps - and I go to jobs all the time where some sweep on such a list has done a bad job or given poor advice. The customer can see himself that I've done a better job or saved him a load of unnecessary work - and I can see no benefit to my business in paying to join in the registration shindig - I've never been asked by a customer once about membership of any trade bodies either it has to be said. From the other side of the argument though - it's a great idea to set yourself up as a regulatory body and then to try and insist on everyone paying to put your badge on things! Each to their own anyway! Andy

This has been discussed on here before I think mate. Generally speaking, the opinion seemed to be that it was basically another instance of office types finding another way to take a bit of money off the people actually doing the graft. Firewood dealers who supply a good product generally have no problem shifting their whole stock before winter is out - they have enough - or more than enough customers on their books already. Those customers stick with them because they know they're getting a good product - they don't have any requirement for an official body telling them what they already know. Also, given that I believe it costs a fair bit to regsiter in the first place, and then more again for every tonne sold through the scheme, the supplier is either going to be losing money or putting his prices up to cover the HETAS costs - which his customers will love. The fly by night operators if I can call them that have little interest in the product - they just want to turn a quick profit and get rid - and unfortunately there are enough people buying firewood on price alone to ensure that they can usually shift their stuff as well. They may not use the supplier again, but that doesn't matter to him as he knows that someone else will. So they won't be interested in paying for the scheme - and their logs may become even more attractive if the registered guys are having to increase their prices. This is only my take on it, and others may have different opinions. For what it's worth, I do think that maybe there's a place for some sort of scheme - as it really narks me to see logs you could hang up and drip dry being sold as firewood. However, anything HETAS gets it's grasping fingers into seems to turn out very expensive for the decent guys who already knew they were selling a good product, and are now being asked for another load of money to stick another outfits badge on their truck! The fact that garages/DIY chains shift so much rubbish suggests to me that many customers just don't care - and they couldn't give a toss if it has a HETAS badge on it or not. And they'll continue to buy the stuff that has no chance of complying anyway - so what's the point in you paying to join the scheme? Andy

Regarding the "technique" for overnighting - considering that the stove will be the warmest bit of the system - if even that's covered in condensed crap, what on earth does he think is happening in the further, colder reaches of the chimney, or does he imagine that once the stove is closed down that nothing goes up the chimney?! He sounds like the sort of chap who probably thinks having your chimney swept is unnecessary as well - and if he was one of my customers his bill would be a lot bigger than someone who knew what they were doing with their stove!! I think I'll stick with my briquettes and not closing the stove down thank you! Andy

We only burn briquettes at home in our Squirrel - and never shut it down for overnight burning - it just gets left on whatever setting it was operating at during the evening. Nine times out of ten there will be enough left in the way of embers to relight the fire in the morning - we sell to quite a few narrowboat owners who love this as a feature as it's often their only source of heating, and they struggle to keep logs in all night unless they close the stove right down. They don't have much in the way of chimney problems of course having only six feet or so out of the stove! Andy

It's perfectly possible mate, and there are quite a few possible reasons for it. Burning wet wood, running a stove in an unlined chimney, keeping the stove in overnight or leaving it slumbering for long periods - all these things will lead to a bigger build up of deposits. People often think that the stove installer who insists on fitting a liner is just trying to make more out of the job - but many of them are just covering their backs against unhappy customers a year or two down the line. An open fire and a modern stove are totally different animals, and this shows in the chimney. Even lined chimneys can end up with problems, often if they're long ones and the installer has not insulated the liner - the upper reaches of the chimney run much cooler with a stove, and with way less draught than an open fire - this is why smoke from stove chimneys often looks "lazy". That lazy smoke in a cold chimney has plenty of opportunity to condense on the walls. Wet wood is probably the biggest culprit though - and I go to so many customers who reckon their wood is great, then you ask to test it and find it lives in a mouldy heap in a closed garage, and is off the scale on the moisture meter! As a chimney sweep, you'll have a pretty good idea about what they're burning and how they're doing it from the condition of the chimney, without even seeing the fuel store. Have a look at this thread on the new Chimney Sweeps forum for some real beauties! wall of shame pics - UK Chimney Sweeps Cheers, Andy

It varies a fair bit around the country mate - just as with firewood prices. I generally charge around £35 per chimney for local jobs within a mile or two, and more for those with more travelling. Nest clearances etc are charged extra on top as are chimneys that have been neglected and require a lot more time to clear. I usually give a bit of discount on second and third chimneys in the same property - but quite a few don't. I've heard of some people paying £80 per chimney in some areas! There are also quite a few "busy fools" to coin a phrase who are sweeping for £15 or less - they are not doing themselves or the industry any favours at that price, and you have to ask how much care and effort they're going to put into the job at that price. Quite a number of good sweeps don't belong to any of the trade bodies - myself included - and I know of a number of long established guys who have had differences of opinion with sweeps organisations and have left them. I'm still undecided about joining up with one of them myself. First off - it's expensive to join as you have to undertake their own training course before joining. These courses often cost in excess of a grand for two or three days training - in contrast to a mate of mine who went to a "DIY School" to do a professional handyman course - he got 26 full days training for under £2k! Then there's the annual cost of keeping up your membership which can be several hundred quid. Lastly - I've never ever been asked by a customer if I'm a member of any particular organisation - and so I've ended up just wondering if joining one is just lining someone elses pocket at no benefit to me. Also - using a guy registered with a trade body does not necessarily mean you'll get a good job done. I've followed one fairly big "registered company" onto three jobs locally recently, where they've been and recommended expensive and unnecessary work to be done, or not swept the chimney properly. I guess sweeps are as different as tree guys - I've never been sharp with a customer - and have picked up several jobs because their previous sweep was grumpy and they didn't want them back in the house! I reckon if you're being paid to go into someones home, the least you can do is be nice to them - and it seems to work for me - though I often tend to get carried away chatting about wood and so on and take longer than I really should! I reckon if you can build up a good rapport with the customer, do them a good job at a reasonable price and be honest with them rather than trying to pull their pants down with unnecessary work, then they'll think of you first next time they want a sweep. As for your area, you could try asking on UK Chimney Sweeps This is a new forum and has only been running for a couple of months - but seems to be growing quite nicely at the moment. Cheers bud, Andy

Not entirely sure that the guys who have invested a fair bit of time and money into their businesses would take too kindly to that remark mate. Of course there are a few cowboys around - just like in this business - but there are a lot of very knowledgeable and professional sweeps as well, with an awful lot of experience that they can pass on to the customer. There are probably posts on the sweeps forum about the problems they encounter due to so many "firewood merchants" supplying garbage that bungs up the chimney with tar and creosote! A proper sweep will feel a big sense of responsibility to the customer, as if they don't do their job properly, they could be looking at a chimney fire or even possible gassing of the houses inhabitants! Proper training and membership of one of the trade associations is quite pricey - over a grand usually but varies a little depending on which body you train with. Equipment can set you back a few grand too - you won't get by with a DIY set from B&Q - and my vacuum alone was over £700. Personally - if you're not doing logs and chimneys yourself - I would think it would be a good idea to be mates with the other guy - the sweep recommends the log guy to his customers as a supplier of decent wood, and the log guy tells his customer about the importance of having their chimney swept on a regular basis, and recommends the sweep. Andy

Have PM'd you Chris. Andy

Have you seen the new UK Chimney sweeps forum landy? Just started up a few weeks back. UK Chimney Sweeps Maybe see you there! Andy

I've said it a few times here and elsewhere, but there are briquettes and briquettes, and comparing different types can be akin to comparing ash to willow. I've trialled quite a lot of those currently on the market, and have customers who have tried other types again. Some are good, and some I wouldn't use again. The ones I sell are what I've found to be the best, and the number of repeat customers we have - many who have moved from coal, would suggest that they're pretty pleased with them too. Ours aren't the cheapest - you'll always be able to find cheaper briquettes that are either imported from the far side of Europe or even further afield, or small, soft briquettes that burn way too quickly to make them viable as an alternative to logs. Ours are made in the UK from hardwood rather than softwood waste, and judging by all the tests we and the factory have done - admittedly not 100% scientifically done, they outlast and outperform just about everything else on the market. Not everyone has the room to store a winters worth of logs - but most of our customers find that a single pallet will last them the whole winter. They also appreciate that they know in advance exactly what they're getting - I hear the story about "we had a couple of good loads of logs from this guy, but the last lot he bought were rubbish" so many times. The briquettes are always going to offer top performance and be exactly the same as the last load, and the next one. Obviously log prices vary around the country, but here, we certainly spend less on briquettes than we would on bought in logs over the same period - and we don't burn anything else these days. So they score points over logs on just about any aspect you could mention - apart from looks of course - I'm never going to try and say they look as nice by the fire! Andy

I think you may be right as far as pellets go in the UK at the moment mate - the market is still a bit specialist and it's not gone mainstream yet - but it's still fairly new as far as domestic use goes, and I think it will probably improve over the next few years. As far as briquette production goes, I think that's a different matter. There are quite a few comanies who've been in the game for a good few years now, and I know that the company whose briquettes I deal with has increased their sales year on year by over 100%. My personal view is that the smaller manufacturers who are doing briquettes as a sideline using adapted machinery will probably come and go. Although I'm all in favour of them using up their waste and doing something useful with it, in many cases their briquettes are too small and too soft - and don't last long enough in use - so customers tend to give them a go and then move on to another type. This is pretty much what I've done - tried a lot of different types and now just deal with the best ones I've found. That's not to say that all the others are rubbish - just that I get better performance from these. Andy

I dunno mate - there's a fair old bit of gear there. That V12 1000hp genny must be worth a bob or two alone! Guessing the shipping would be a bit of a price as well! Andy

Well done Tommer! Seven years apparently, in various locations, caves, underwater off the Bahamas, and in the Dolomites amongst other places! Had an email from a guy this afternoon who lived just a few miles from Michael Kohler, (the director) years back. He in turn had an email last year from a Danish student who met Kohler and exchanged a few emails. The student had walked in on the film part way through a showing at a Uni film club - and thought he'd dropped in on some kind of cult meeting! Never been released for general consumption as far as I know, and only ever shown on Channel 4 the one time, but I live in hope a copy will surface one day! Andy

Dead Man's Shoes is a quality piece of work - much of it filmed around Matlock where I spent a lot of time backpacking as a young lad. Old favourites include The Shining, Razorback and The Omen trilogy. I'd also love to see a film called The Experiencer again - shown on Channel 4 in the middle of the night years and years ago- weirdest film I ever saw. Guy at a specialist film website knew of it, but couldn't find any published details at all. Andy

One of the things that struck me was how orderly the people seem to be in the face of all this. Although food shops are running very low on stocks, there seemed to be no panic - quiet and well mannered queues of people just waiting their turn. Over here we have more hassle than that when the bloody sales open, never mind following a disaster of this scale. Hat's off to 'em. Andy

Hi mate, No personal experience, but there's quite a lot of stuff online regarding a biomass project carried out just around the corner from me. If you google "Capernwray biomass" you'll get a load of links. I seem to remember reading about the feasibility study they did once upon a time - it's probably there somewhere. Not sure if it will be any help to your project, but it's a start! Cheers, Andy

Hello mate, A public spirited guy on another forum I use was giving plans away for free if you want to drop him a line. Scrap that - he ended up posting the plans as a download. PM me your email addy and I'll send you the plans. Cheers, Andy

and even more respect for my lovely wife!! Quite fancied the look of these for a while and just asked her what she thought of them... "looks like a V8 stove" she says:thumbup1: Obvious why I married her! Andy