Big J

Minus 7 overnight. Warmed to minus 4 now and snowing. A couple more inches in total so far this morning

I mean that MEP is a bit of alright, if we're being fair. If you were a Qatari sheik with stacks of cash lying about, wouldn't you throw her a bit too? 😆 A Merry Christmas to you and yours in the land of Eternal Rain

You do live in just about the mildest place in the entirety of the UK. To judge the merits of a winter suitable tyre on the basis of where you're located isn't logical. I would say that for anywhere outside the lower ground of the west country or the south coast, a strong case can be made for all seasons.

They wear slightly quicker if driven year round. A little bit less grip in summer (but it's fractional). In my mind, all seasons are maybe 5-10% worse in summer when driven at the limit, and who does that? In winter, they are so, so much better when conditions get tough that they are the difference between you being able to move and not. And in normal UK winter conditions, they will perform better too.

You are wrong there. We had a C4 Grand Picasso years ago. Came with summer tyres. I ordered cheap all seasons in December from Germany. Before they came, we had 2 inches of snow. Our drive to the house at that time was gently to moderately uphill, with a sharp corner you wouldn't be able to carry any speed through. It took me a solid 5 minutes to get up on summer tyres. It was 150m. The abs system had a panic attack at the top, the whole dash lit up and had to be recovered to Citroen. In the meantime, the tyres arrived. They were changed whilst at the garage. Two weeks later, another 2 inches of snow and it drove up like it wasn't there. Not only that, but we had more snow a few weeks later. I was climbing a steep hill out of a village called Ecclesmachen when I encountered a transit reversing down. He leaned out the window so I stopped. He said I'd never get up there (6 inches of slushy snow). I reassured him that I'd be fine and pulled away effortlessly. That is the difference between summer and all season tyres in British snow.

My original post was suggesting all season tyres, which offer the best of both worlds. The climate in the UK is obviously very different to Scandinavia, but equally, the Scandinavians get through winter with a lot less drama. Scenes of cars sliding sideways down minor hills are ridiculous. Totally avoidable

I'll get on my soap box and dig up this thread again! This video from Gloucestershire is a day or so old, but it really does illustrate how comically awful summer tyres are in winter conditions. We've had conditions like this here in Sweden repeatedly over the last month with no issues whatsoever. Drivers crash in Gloucestershire heavy snow WWW.BBC.CO.UK Video footage shows cars piling up and a bus crashing as a cold snap in the UK brings icy and snowy weather.

Minus ten and falling fast here 😊

Nice. The winters in Strathspey are the best in the UK, IMO

It's just started snowing again, albeit gently. This was from the drive to Vetlanda this morning, just before the snow started. No problems at all, even with the 5m box trailer I have on the back. VID_20221212_091756.3gp

The Beast from the East in 2018 would be the last time there was snow like this for most of the UK. Still, it all seems faintly comical to folk here when the UK grinds to a halt on 2 inches of the white stuff. Nothing really changes here much except that the Swedes spend more time outside when it's snowy. There is a real sense of excitement about the ski slope opening, and I haven't met a single person here that prefers a plus degrees winter.

I feel that this is a good point at which to bring up my old pet campaign for all season tyres. They're the difference between not being able to move or control your car and being able to go about your daily life, albeit a touch more slowly. All season tyres for the win 😁

Bargain!

Per roadside tonne. Not per dried tonne. But then, that does depend a bit on species. My understanding is that conifer is 10% higher in calories per dry tonne, on account of the resin content.

Eucalyptus has a similar calorie content to oak, if it's over 7yrs old (trees younger than that are mainly sapwood, which is less calorific). Conifer does have fewer calories, but the difference (species dependent) isn't massive. To buy it in isn't very much cheaper than hardwood (on the whole) but the processing and drying time is so much less that I'd always try to steer customers that way. Sawlog prices are still depressed in the UK (though I'm a bit out of touch now) so it's possible to find sawlog at a similar or even lower price than hardwood. I'd be on the lookout for sawlog that's been left roadside for too long (especially pine, which has a very limited shelf life at roadside). It might be possible to pick it up cheaper. On our processor set up that we had in Scotland, you could process 30cm larch at about 4 times the speed of similar sized hardwood. The hardwood quality up there isn't great, which was part of it, but I really can't see too many advantages to hardwood. At £120 a cube, hardwood is about £0.10/kwh, not accounting for efficiency losses. It's a bit more expensive than gas and oil with none of the convenience.

Crazy prices throughout. A sign of the times though. It was only about 5 years ago really that I was charging £55-65/cubic metre (plus delivery charge) for soft and hardwood out of the sawmill. You raise a good point. Broadleaves are not an efficient method of producing firewood. You are far better off with conifer or eucalyptus. Much shorter production cycles and mechanical harvesting vastly reduce production to roadside costs. Then, the actual firewood processing is much faster too (straight logs). These savings can then be passed on to the eventual customer whilst maintaining the same profit margin for all in the production line. Prices for firewood here in Sweden have risen a bit too, but you can still pick up very cheap firewood. Mixed or purely spruce is around about £40-50 a cube (collected) and pure birch about 50% more.

5 inches of lovely fluffy snow has fallen today on 3 inches of very frozen snow. It's bordering on an impractical amount. Certainly made cycling a little challenging. The kids are greatly enjoying their new intra-village transport solution though

There is something about snow and frost that sends dogs into an excited frenzy.

Interesting thread. I can't say much about the gas, as we're not had mains gas for almost 15 years and now live in a country where it doesn't seem to exist. I agree though that the way it's charged for is unnecessarily complicated. We're principally electric heating. A ground source heat pump that does the central heating. An air/air source heat pump, which does the main living space. And a stove for the kitchen/dining and upstairs. We're trying to be super economical with the electricity as the price has shot right back up again here. I think it's averaging about £0.40 per KWH this month, up from about £0.21 a month ago. So geothermal is set to 15c, stove is on continuously and the air source in the living room is set to 16c, but temperature is actually about 18.5c. Kitchen is warmer. It's cooler than I'd like, but until I start working in January, we have to watch the pennies. We have a lot of wood that hasn't cost anything. We're using on average 23-26 KWH a day, so it's costing £9-10 a day to heat and power our house. But for context, the high temperature outside today was minus 5c and it was minus 11c at 09:00 this morning.

Only a minute really. It's just to maintain that cold water tolerance. You do get a bit of a buzz from it when combined with sauna. Did 35km on the bike in minus 10 this morning. It was really very pretty. Some beard ice issues though!

It does. I took my younger daughter to nursery by bike, and whilst it felt like my beard froze in about 20 seconds, it was beautiful. The Swedes hate plus temperatures in winter. They just want snow.

First double digit minus temp since moving here ☺️

Light snow and minus 1 overnight. Made for a nice bike ride