teepeeat

Hi Jesse as mentioned earlier - Navitron forum and Green Building forum are the places to be for this sort of subject. Not to knock this forum, but these issues are what they specialise in.

careful thought required if sharing heating system as regards location to 3 properties as you want to keep distribution runs short for efficiency and cost reasons.

mini district heating system then

running this sort of system - high efficiency 8 kw stove/boiler feeding an 800 ltr accumulator which also has solar thermal feeding in. We do have mains gas but havnt connected it to the system as not needed. Runs hot water and underfloor heating. First 3 years solar ran everything from mid march to mid october - this year we are still having to light a fire occasionally - damn Slight problem we have is that due to high insulation levels, the 8 kw stove overheats the open plan living area (approx 100m2) even though it is designed to put 70% of energy into the boiler and 30% to the room. Need to run the stove in winter for the heating and hot water, so burn approx 2 to 3 smallish tubs of wood a day if no solar assistance in the winter. Could be solved with a gas boiler, but looking at other options rather than capital expenditure, maintenance and running costs of a gas boiler. Regarding cost of solar, it seems there have been a few cowboys around the market and you need to shop around for value for money. These systems do cost a bit more up front, but careful shopping around and a willingness to do some of the installation work can pay dividends. One important question is how complicated you want to go - ie keep it simple and DIY at the cost of efficiency or go technical with super efficiency but at an increased capital cost and reliance on lecky to drive expensive controllers and lots of pumps ??? Before all that though, if new building, put more thought into designing out as much energy demand as possible. It is quite feasible to have zero heating system these days with maybe a small stove for the few really cold nights, leaving just hot water demand. Dean - would recommend the Navitron and Green Building forums for good information covering the questions you are asking, including the log cabin questions.

chainsaw noise??? perfect lullaby surely - might as well start em off right

In exactly the same position as Kay9 and came up with the same two choices - 261 or 346. 550 sounds good, but when chatting at a dealers recently, they did say if anything needed tweeking you had to take it in? Dont fancy having to go back and forth to dealers more than is necessary as they are not very local to us.

Ventilation is the key. Insulation will just hide the damp issues for a while. We installed 4 louvred vents which improved things dramatically.

Yep - agree with bigJ, watch out for the eco-bling. Also, very valid point re reducing demand for heating with insulation & airtightness - this will pay off long term. We are heating approx 200m2 with a high-efficiency stove, total 8kw - 70% to boiler which feeds a thermal store for hot water and heating and 30% to the open-plan upstairs. During the last few winters it has been way to hot upstairs necesitating opening a window to bring it down to a habitable temp Our efforts worked better than expected. most UK builders have no clue about airtightness - we did it ourselves although there does seem to be a growing awareness, but not much interest in doing it properly. Regarding damp - the general principle with any building is to give it a good pair of boots and a good hat. Other comments re log cabins - our neighbours imported one from the states and self errected - very impressive system, but not sure of manufacturer. They dont have any issues with cold getting in, but they are hardy folk mind. In their case the joints were buttered with some sort of mastic to seal it. Everything arrived on two artics and was packed such that the first bits needed were on top. They were sent full instructions well in advance, but did have somebody in for a couple of days who had imported and built a few before. They build under and agricultural tie - the cabin qualifies as a temporary structure Re planners - dont underestimate their abilities to defy reason !!!! I would generally regard myself as a pacifist, but could happily shoot our planning department - b........ds Anyway, late now so go go go - will be worth it. PS research & plan well before jumping in!!!!!!!

yea - why can we order some axe sizes , but not the X27 and the sharpener?? I am also getting the 'cannot deliver to your address' message for the two items?? Doesn't even get to the pay options to see what cards they take.

how much wood will you be getting through?? Currently splitting our annual domestic requirements - heating & hot water - with a good axe. Keeps the old body going and quite like the challenge of figuring out how best to split the knotty/gnarly bits. The ones that are too much of a challenge go to the barbecue. Find it quite therapeutic after a hard day and very satisfying when feeding the stove OK so I am a bit round the bend PS - not totally silly as the hot water is done by the sun mid March to mid October on average and heating required Nov to Feb.

Spot on again Spud. When I said little though I meant it as pictured is the 6 cylinder, but they go up to 14 cylinder. Got some statistics on it, but the numbers are just ridiculous.

Just wanted to say a big thanks to all contributors to this thread - been very interesting and informative for a newby amateur like me Just by way of a little diversion that may be of interest to the engineering types here, heres a little something I was sent a while ago from a collegue.......... and no, this is definitely not on my bench

ta very much Jonesie

Wayhey - thanks for the info folks - size 14 wanted so will chase up the leads given. On another note, any recommendations for suppliers of extra long chainsaw trousers (class C) - luckily the gods found the matching legs to go with the feet, but they forgot to put trouser suppliers in the user manual. Edit - inside leg 35-36" Cant complain though, as dont have to do the clown impression but have to accept that I look like I am always waiting for the tide to come in - unless someone can come up with a good lead