Woody Wood Pecker

I've wondered this too. A normal wood burning stove burns at a certain temperature. However, a wood gasification boiler burns at up to 1200 degrees centigrade (I believe) - this is the same temperature that a commercial incinerator burns at which gets rid of all pollutants (or at least deposits it over Rotherham if the reports in the Sheffield newspapers are true). Now, I'm not sure what the firebox temperature is in a gasification boiler and whether that would allow the odd offcut of stuff like decking to be mixed with wood from tree surgery. Having just finished my decking in my garden, I have a few kilos of offcuts to get rid of - so long as they won't cause more damage to the environment throwing in a gasification boiler rather than burying in a landfill site, I may as well produce a little hot water with them. G

What are you cutting your logs with? I was cutting my logs with a 24" bow saw - was taking ages - like 5 minutes for a 3" thick log. Replaced the blade with this [ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bahco-23-24-Raker-Tooth-Bowsaw/dp/B0001IX71K/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=diy&qid=1303559273&sr=1-5]Bahco 23-24 Raker Tooth Hp Bowsaw Blade 24In: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools[/ame] now goes through an unseasoned log in seconds - about 15 seconds for a 3" log - about a minute for a 10" one - and that includes rotating it as the log is too big for the saw. The blades are specially designed for the amount of moisture in the wood so if you're sawing seasoned wood, you may need a different blade - hopefully someone will be able to advise. Oh, a shorter log will season quicker too. G

Any Idea on how much wood would be used annually? Also, how often you need to load it up with logs? According to my house size and the tables on the eco angus website, I would need an 18kw boiler. However, as we are thinking of extending the house, it was recommended that we put in a 25kw boiler. The fuel usage was said to be 6 tonnes of seasoned hardwood per year - not sure if this is for the extended house (about 160m2) or pre extended (90m2). I'm hoping to reduce the wood usage as much as possible by insulating the house as much as possible - we had cavity wall insulation a couple of years ago and it made a massive difference. I'm hoping that insulating under the floor and in the loft will reduce the heat loss further. Somewhere on the Eco Angus website it gives graphs showing house size in square metres verses boiler size and insulation. I can't find it now though. Here's a case study though which is roughly what I was advised re loading. Eco Angus Wood Burning Boilers - Case Study I've been advised by other means that a wood run on a coppice system would produce about 9 tonnes of wood per year for three hectares. Hope that helps. All my information is through research rather than experience. If we do go ahead, we intend to get the system next summer. G

I'm looking at an Eco Angus boiler myself - for a domestic property. It works in conjunction with a heat store - you heat that up and then get hot water through a heat exchanger and heating water direct off the store. For your situation you'd need a large thermal store - I'm looking at 1,500 litres for a 3 bed (the house is to be extended though). The price of my system is £5,500 & installation, flue and vat. I reckon about £8k (at least). What's your budget? Is yours a domestic or non-domestic property? If non-domestic the RHI paper is now out and tells you the payment amount plus the length of payment (20 years). If you've got free wood then the RHI incentive would pay for the boiler and you're not paying for oil/gas. G

^^ It's called Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). I'm assuming that you're in a non smokeless zone. G

If I were closer then I would. I've added you to my contacts though as, is I'm passing I may come along with a saw and get a boot load. I think that they're usually pine - just got to watch as sometimes they have preservative on. Cheers G

How much were you going to charge for the job? How much would someone buy the wood in for roadside? I'd tell him that you'll do the job for your normal price but will leave the wood on site in rings. He can then eBay it and should get over £20 a tonne. If I were close by, I'd buy some off him. In fact, where's the job - If it's local (to Sheffield), give me a PM. G

Where about in the country are you? Nah, I believe that the chemical poisoning is quite quick acting.

Quick question but do you know a supplier in Lancashire who delivers for £52 a tonne? I may have found a regular supply now but if that doesn't work out, I could do with a similar priced supply myself - unfortunately I'm the other side of the Pennines. G

How much homework have you put into this idea? How do you get charged for a container - is it by weight or size? Where would you ship to - from what I can gather on here, firewood is more expensive in northern England than in the south. Would you be shipping cordwood or processed and seasoned wood? You may get your answer to that if you get charged by weight for shipping rather than volume. From what I can gather, seasoned and chopped logs are about £80 per m3. Just looked on Wikipedia (so it must be true ) and an ISO container comes in a variety of sizes. Most are 8ft wide by 8ft high - so 2.4m by 2.4m. Assuming you went for the longest, that would be 16.2 metres long - you'd get 64 bags in but would have a fair bit of space at the sides and top. The actual volume of the container is 93 metres though so the potential is there to get more in if you didn't use cube bags. Let's, for ease of calculations, say that you could get 80 bags in. That would give a street value (sounds like illegal substances) of £6,400. Someone's going to have to buy, store and sell these - not sure of how much they'd want per bag but you may get someone who will do that for £15 - you may not (so they make £1,200). Would £5,200 cover your shipping, haulage, purchase of wood and bags, export and/or import duty and give you a return on your labour? G

Just looked at the advert on eBay and I think that there may be some confusion now with the VAT bit. I realise that you can't change the actual description now that there is a bid but, when I've had a situation like this, I've got someone to ask a question (I may have asked the question myself) and then posted the answer so that everyone can see. Hope that makes sense. It just may clarify whether there is or isn't VAT. With regards to the actual load of wood, I wish deals like this came up in or around Sheffield. G

If there's anyone ever on the West side of Sheffield (Crosspool) who can't be bothered taking Poplar (not that you see much Poplar in Sheffield) or any other wood back to their yard and wants to dump it on my drive in exchange for a few beer tokens, drop me a PM. If you need my number in advance (on the off chance), let me know. I feel dead cheeky posting the above but hopefully something will come of it. Cheers Gordon

I saw some in Sheffield the other day. They were in one of the older industrial parts of Sheffield - I would assume that there may be similar in Donny. No idea how much they were to lease or buy (both were available). I think that driving around and looking for empty yards is maybe more fruitful than looking in papers. I would have thought that Sheffield was too far but, if it isn't, let me know. G

Many thanks for the answers and advice. Much appreciated. G

Hi everyone Question from a non-arborist. I have a Horse Chestnut at the bottom of our garden that I need to get rid of. I'm going to chop the wood, season and use it for our log boiler. When is the best time to cut down the tree so that I'm not going to be making work for myself seasoning wise? I read that you shouldn't cut Horse Chestnut in the winter as they will bleed excessively. This doesn't really bother me as it's going anyhow but is there a 'best' time for getting rid? Thanks in advance G

Not sure if I should be advising you of this as if more people get wind then it will push up the price of wood - good for suppliers - bad news for wood users like me. In 2012 the Government intends to offer "Green Loans". These are for things like PV panels, turbines and biomass systems including, if I've read it correctly, log boilers. Google "green loans" but, basically, the Government lends you the money and you pay it back out of any incentive received back over the next 25 years as well as the savings on fuel. So, for a £7k log burner system with a Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) payment of £1k for 15 years, you'd easily pay off the cost of the boiler, flue and installation and VAT - which I'm hoping is 5% - or have I got that wrong. I should have the finances available myself in 2012 for my system but, if the government's going to give (lend) me the money to pay for it, I'll snap their hand off. Anyhow, hopefully I'll get more details in a month's time. I'm visiting the Eco Build exhibition in London so hopefully there'll be a bit of info there. Cheers G

Thanks for all the answers and advice. I was thinking of having my wood store in the garden to store the wood during the year and keeping a couple of cubic metres in the garage before using it - the garage is where the boiler is going to be so hopefully the warmer environment will dry the wood further still. Cheers G

Hi all Quick wood question. I am looking at getting a wood gasification boiler - seeing the agent that sells them in a couple of months but not looking at getting it installed until 2012. This is the boiler I'm looking at Eco Angus Wood Burning Boilers - The Boilers - the 'Angus Super'. One thing that is currently putting me off is whether I can acquire, either free or purchased, the approx 5 tonnes (seasoned weight) of wood that I'll need a year. I think that I may have found a supply of conifer wood for quite a cheap rate. My 'supply' is off a friend of a friend so not confirmed yet. Here's my question - would one of these types of boiler be OK to run on softwood only, a mixture of softwood and hardwood or are they hardwood only? The above website states 'all types of wood'. I'll ask the agent when I see him in March but I was hoping someone on here would be able to advise too. My worry is that burning just softwood may 'gum' up the twinwall flue. Thanks in advance Gordon PS I'll have my wood storage area finished after March this year. I'll be looking for unprocessed wood after this point. If any arborists in the Sheffield area (S10) need to get rid of some wood, PM me and we'll discuss payment.

It's free delivery within Reason. If you live outside Reason, the delivery charges are extortionate! G Now where's me coat?

^^ Many thanks for the answer. I'll keep an eye on the Firewood Forum for sellers of wood in Sheffield. I'm not planning on getting my boiler until summer 2012 so will likely wait for the winter rush to finish before I look at getting my first load. At the prices that you mentioned, I'll certainly be saving massively on our fuel bills - so long as I don't charge myself for my own labour. Obviously I'll have to buy the relevant equipment plus safety equipment to chop the wood - and learn how to use it! Cheers G

Thanks again for the replies This may be a stupid question but, where do you get cordwood from? Second (stupid) question, I keep reading posts on the firewood section about roadside wood per tonne. Does that mean that someone delivers some wood to a destination for that price and then you process it yourself? If that is the case, would someone deliver to a house rather than a yard - we have a long drive that can accept a delivery? Access isn't too bad but you wouldn't get an artic up to and then off our street. I can post pictures to show you what I mean if need be. The builder's merchants lorries with small cranes manage, come to think of it, we had this lorry manage last year to get around the crescent The supplier of the boiler that I'm thinking of buying reckons that for my size of house I'd need about 5 tonnes of seasoned wood a year - not sure what this works out as green but I'm assuming that it's at least 10 tonnes. I have loads of space to store and season the wood so if I did have to go down the buying in of unprocessed wood then I may as well buy in a lot. Sorry for all the novice type questions and I realise now that really this thread should probably be in the Firewood Forum but, the offer is still there that if someone wants a labourer for a day (I have plenty of spare time) in return for unprocessed wood then let me know. Cheers Gordon

^^ Nice one, thanks for the reply. I did see that the council have a parks and countryside department and was going to give them a bell - will get on with that tomorrow. Cheers G

Good morning all, my first post on here so I hope that you're gentle with me. Bit of background first, I am not an arborist or even thinking of moving into that field. For my sins, I do computer programming - or rather, computer program troubleshooting. Also do a bit of web design in my spare time. Anyhow, you may be wondering what I'm doing on here offering my time. As part of my drive to reduce my carbon footprint a little as well as trying to reduce the amount of money that I supply to those Russians for gas, I am looking at fitting a wood gasification boiler in 2012. The only problem that I have is that I do not have a ready supply of wood. So, does anyone need someone to assist them doing whatever and, in return, I could be 'paid' in wood. It doesn't need to be seasoned (I can do that) or chopped (other than into discs) but I do need to know that I am able to get a supply before I commit myself to going ahead with my plans for the new boiler and what not. Anyhow, I am hard working and quite strong (used to throw a few weights around as a youth). Age wise I'm just the wrong side of forty but still very fit. Anyhow, if anyone out there needs a hand doing some of the donkey work, let me know. I get rest days off work every six weeks (as I work shifts) and am available some weekends. Prefer to help out in Sheffield but would consider a small journey. Any questions, just ask. If you want me to contact you, PM me a contact number and I'll give you a bell. Cheers Gordon