grahamc

Hi,  I went to a dispersal sale from a well known local nursery on Saturday. In buying the stock I wanted, I have ended up with surplus stock. Enclosed is a list of all trees bought. We are currently lifting them this week and root balling them. If there is anything that takes your fancy, drop me a text on 07768 791084. Mobile reception is poor, so text best.  Keen prices on a lot of it. Discount for quantity, and if you are local to Cullompton, Devon, you are welcome to lift your own. An idea on pricing would be about 40 to 50 % of normal price if root balled. Cracking trees, photos on request

Thanks for the replies. After talking to a few people including m large, I have decided to order the 18 ton super magic. M large have said that it is such a competent splitter, which is far and away the more popular of there large vertical splitters, that very few of there customers feel the need to spend more money on a bigger splitter that has extra capacity that is rarely needed. My local dealer has a couple of 18 ton splitters in the yard, and will deliver a new one into me for a days use on demo. If, after that, i still wish for a bigger machine, they will take the 18 tonner back and sell me the bigger machine. You cant get fairer than that.

I am considering buying a Thor diavolik 30 ton splitter with the electric stop / go feature which allows for easy holding of wood before the full splitting pressure is applied. Reasons for this are mainly good local dealer, looks well made, and the power requirement is quite low ( 50 hp ), which suits me as I run all my kit off of a 45 horse power compact tractor, which should be just about man enough to handle the Thor. It also can split 1.23 metre, which will allow half of an 8 foot length of cord to be split, whereas some of the other makes of splitter only allow 1.15 metres. Does anybody have experience of this splitter, especially with the stop / go feature, which adds about £ 500 to the cost of the machine. Cost of splitter is about £ 4500 plus vat. I am keen to go vertical, because it suits the way I work ie I have a decent counter balance forklift and the yard is all concrete, therefore loading with a hiab / grab onto a horizontal splitter doesn't really fit in with the kit I have. I have looked at other makes  ie balfor, Rabaud etc, but they all seem to need more hp at the 25 / 30 ton end of the range. Any advice / comments would be appreciated. On the back of this, I have a very tidy BGU 13 ton vertical splitter which will be for sale in the next few weeks at around £ 1450 plus vat, and will be put on arb trader with photos soon.

Hi Chris, Mike Jarvis just down the road at Plymtree could be your man. Has done some for me before and his rates are reasonable. He has a BGU processor and can cut up to around the 15 inch mark. Anything bigger you can billet and put on your heap. Looking at your yard now you are starting to look like a professional log merchant ! Catch up sometime, Graham

No, Cullompton. Didn't mean to seem as if I was having a pop at you, was just surprised after seeing such a strong response to your post that the wood was still in your yard. Am still happy to take wood, or if you have it sorted elsewhere no problem. Graham 07768 791084

Why is it still available ? I messaged you within an hour of the post being up, am keen and able to move it at a time to suit you as written in my reply but haven't heard from you. Several others also replied. Did any of us get contacted. Seems a bit like a phantom pile of wood to me . .

I'll take it. Call me on 07768 791084 and will talk when best to suit you. I'm not far up the road at cullompton. Many thanks, Graham Cligg

Hi Cornish wood burner. Thanks for the input. The reason I mentioned that the fan is working hard all day is to get across that the burner is loaded many times a day, and is gasifying all the time. We have a large heat load, and if left without burning, the accumulator tank soon gets dragged down. We sell a lot of firewood ourselves, and the fuel we use is all the softwood and poor quality hardwood that I don't wish to sell. However, it is very dry, having been dried in poly tunnels beforehand, and is always below 20%. Because of what I burn, I accept that I am loading more often than burning hard wood, but will still expect more kW / day. Regarding siting of heat meter, the boiler room is about 75 m from the house. I actually have an 80 kW and a 100 kW sited together, both running into the same tank. The 100kw is currently rarely used, but was installed to make use of the tariffs when they were better. I hope to install a kiln in the near future using the 100kw for the heat source. Because the 2 boilers are on different tariffs, they each have there own meter which records there output into the tank, and the 2 demands on the tank, ie our house and the workshop / office, each have another meter, so we have reasonably good records of what heat comes from each boiler and where it goes. We do suffer heat loss from the heat main, but only a small amount, no more than you would expect. The low readings stem from the meter sited only a couple meters from the boiler, before it goes into the tank.

Thanks for the reply. I understand how you might never achieve what you think you might in peak performance, ie 80 kW in one hour from a 80 kW boiler, but the cumulative figures given are over a 24 hour period ie from the examples given above © 301 kW a day from a 100 kW boiler is averaging only 12.5 kW an hour, which seems incredibly poor. If an assumption is made that they are on 6p a kW, the return / day in the winter would be about £18, not a lot I feel, unless I am missing something.

We have an 80 kW vigas log boiler linked up to a 5000 litre akvaterm accumulator tank. The system heats a large farmhouse, workshop and office, and runs 24 / 7 in the winter months. It rarely shuts down, with the fan usually running at 100 %. We are dissapointed with the reading of the heat meter though, and feel that we should be clocking more kilowatts / day. We have spoken with the installer about this on many occasions, and in our last conversation with them we asked what kind of readings other customers of theirs might be generating. Below is an extract from their email, detailing what some of their customers are recording ;

a. 120 Kw (2 x 60Kw) boilers-2400 litre tank - 352Kw/day winter quarter. 287Kw/day autumn quarter.

Heats 4 x 'flats' within one large house and all hot water plus 60 Kw blower to dry timber in shed.

b. 40Kw boiler- 2500 litre tank. 92 Kw/day winter quarter. Heats two houses.

c. 100Kw boiler-5000 litre tank. 301 Kw/day winter quarter. 96 Kw/day summer quarter.

Heats farmhouse, workshop plus three cottages permanent lets.

d. 80Kw boiler - 5000 litre tank. 370 Kw day winter quarter.

Heats farmhouse plus 45Kw blower heating barn for classic car storage.

e. 40 Kw boiler-2000 litre tank. 75Kw/day winter quarter. 38Kw day autumn/summer quarter.

My question is, for those of you out there who run similar systems, ie manually fed log boiler and accumulator tank, do these readings sound about what you are achieving. These systems are running vigas boilers, but I imagine similar boilers will not be that much difference. Thanks for your time.

Just picked my daughter up from college and pulled into Budgens at Wellington and found a nice pair of chainsaw boots in a lay by. It looked as if someone had maybe got out of the works van with his kit and drove off in his car forgetting to put the boots in. I have picked them up knowing they wouldn't have stayed there long. If they are yours, drop me a text on 07768 791084 and you can have them back. You will need to tell me the make and size just to check they really are yours. Thought a post on here would be probably the easiest way to reunite them with their owner.

Had a look at the ranger also and found that a decent truck. Liked the rear / side camera set up on the teknik which is standard as opposed to an option on the ranger limited, and like the idea of a 5 year warranty with the Nissan, as opposed to the 3 year ford warranty. I don't think there is a lot to split the 2 to be honest, and like you say, you buy the 1 you feel you like the most.

There seems to be a lot written about the range of new pick up trucks out there. Does anyone actually own the new Navara 300, and what do they think of it. It seems well specked, and with a 5 year warranty, has it turned the corner with regard reliability and some of the gremlins. Test drove one last week and was impressed. Any comments, good or bad from owners / people who have driven them would be much appreciated.

Chris, What you doing having a sneaky look at arbtalk when you should be working ? Might have to have a chat with Rick !

Hi Chris, Didnt see to be honest. I live about 50 metres off of the road, so they drove down the track but couldnt see which way they went from then. Will let you know if I see anything again.

Just a bit of warning. Had 2 chaps call in the yard around 3 pm in a white renault panel van trying to sell the usual generators and chainsaws. Registration number 131 D 4990 on irish plates. Yard on the outskirts of Cullompton. Might pay to be the extra bit vigilant if local to the area.

Just continuing the debate from previous postings

Hi ash smith. My own set up is that I have an 80 kw vigas log boiler on the commercial rhi to heat my workshop and office, with any spare heat going into the home. What appeals to me in installing extra capacity now is that I will have spare tier 1 tarriff available in the future should i need any extra heat due to any changes in circumstances. I dry my firewood down in polytunnels, and not the log fired kiln route. I would consider the kiln route, but I am wary about where the wood will come from with the huge demand currently out there for timber for the biomass chip market.

Since my last post I have made a few phone calls and found out more on it. The written guidance I read was from RHI Volume 2, page 49. Section 10.21 covers the exact point. Also spoke to an advisor from ofgem, and the person who submitted my non domestic rhi application. It does seem to be correct, that a second install within 12 months of the first does allow you to lock into the original tarriff, but where the confusion may lie is that if the combined capacity of the 2 systems exceeds 200 kw, you drop down in the pence / kw to what you would have received at the time of the first instal, therefore possibly answering the previous post. Hoping that this might be of use to someone.

Carl, Interested in reading your comment regarding being able to receive the same tariff on a second instal if carried out within 12 months of the first one. Do you have a link to explain this.? Its not something I have heard before.

Paid 50 p a bale for small hay baling a couple of years ago. I think still about the same. Contractor turned up with new baler and did 600 bales in just under 2 hours, so i think rate is fair to all at that money.

Has anyone had any success from using the pto pump and hydraulic tank etc from an old tractor flail hedge trimmer, ie using one with the arm and flail head removed. With it already being 3 point linkage mountable, it would seem to be well on the way to being usable as a good source of hydraulic power.

Josh, Western saw and tool sharpening I use and really recommend. Have just moved to feniton, telephone 01404 851380. They charge just over a tenner for a pair of timberwolf 150 blades. They have a collection and delivery round, pick up one week and drop off sharp the following, but prices are higher.

Hi if TCD doesnt take all, am keen on some / all of it. Pm me to discuss, thanks graham

Whereabouts in west somerset is the timber ?