ThrustSSC

Your 'condensation' issue is much more likely to be rain as Alycidon says, IMHO. Now you're presumably cowled on top that will no longer be a problem. And once the chimney has dried out, the tar and creosote will stay put and stop spreading. The problem it sounds like you have is tar/creosote coming through the chimney brick and mortar, and staining your walls in the living spaces. Your new flue will have dealt with the issue of combustion products getting through, now you need to deal with the legacy. You need to seal that brickwork with an oil-based paint. And that's real oil-based paint, not the modern water-based glosses or eggshells. Seal it well back from the chimney itself, or you may find the problem simply migrates through the plaster and around the sealing coats. And once it's all dried out it'll stop migrating. Hope that helps...

I really, REALLY hope you're right. But I'm not confident - especially not with the move to shale gas recently announced.

Last week, if I've got it right - at least in terms of public info. The position now is "domestic RHI is rolled-in to Green Deal" and "Green Deal is about [high-interest-rate] loans to enable improvements to be made and paid for out of the savings". While we're on the Green Deal, is it just me who would be put off by a property subject to a levy due to 'improvements'? Given it would be far cheaper to self-finance the improvements, there's no way I'd look at this scheme!

I believe log burners/stoves and open fires were always excluded "because they're inefficient and people burn rubbish in them, and we can't measure how much you use them" which translates as "because no-one is contributing to our political party funds like the big pellet/chip suppliers are, and we can't be bothered to think of a way of incentivising them". I remember being on the inside of a high-profile project one, and so I could put what I read in the papers in perspective, and form a judgement on their reporting based on facts. I think this domestic RHI thing is looking similar - seeing the biomass industry from the inside I can judge the government's position for what it is: designed to reward big business and make it hard for the small guys, even though they're prepared to put the effort in to produce a good product.

Might have to look into that, as my plan was an external boilerhouse...

That page is the only one I can find that seems to think RHI is still going ahead for domestic. They've said for months that it'll come under the Green Deal when it is implemented. Problem is EVERY other one - and especially all the Green Deal sites - say there is no subsidy, just the extortionate loans repaid through the electricity bill. I'd love you to prove me wrong. But there is absolutely no mention in GD stuff released this week of subsidies, so you can be sure they're now dead on the domestic side, I fear :-(

RHI for commercial is all there. RHI for domestic is now part of the Green Deal i.e. you borrow the money to do it a exorbitant interest rates then pay it back through your electricity bill.

Having hung on with bated breath for months to hear what the Government was FINALLY going to do with the Renewable Heat Incentive for domestic properties - which was to include subsidies to change your oil-guzzling old boiler for a new log-gasification/woodchip-burning/pellet-burning one - it appears the answer is a big, round zero :-( What a waste of time that was. And the commercial property owners raking in their subsidies must be laughing their heads off. What incentive is there for Johnny and Jayne in their big country house to take inconvenient chip/pellet/logs instead of oil? Oil costs a similar amount. It's far more convenient. The boiler are more proven, smaller and likely more reliable until fuel quality is a sorted-out factor. I think the answer is 'none' and I'm gobsmacked. What a lost opportunity to cut carbon emissions in this country :-( Of course, the reason is they've overspent the green budget... And by the way, if you're daft enough to take up their 'amazing' Green Deal offer and fit a new chip-burning boiler, the interest rate you'll pay will be likely be north of 9%! Best instead to just add it to the mortgage next time you renew it, then... What a crying shame. I was looking forward to building a biomass business to meet the demand. No point now... :-(

It certainly is. I keep a customer database with notes on who came back to me to say they liked them, and it's a flatteringly large number! As for them going elsewhere, I'm rapidly forming the view that I get far more of them "locked in" to my supply as a result of getting crap at this time in the season from someone else, than decide to go with someone else as a result of a good experience (e.g. cheaper for same quality). I guess the important bit is I sell all that I produce. So I'm clearly either doing something right, or not producing enough! But I'm in a niche market and doing nothing like your volume.

Flat out here delivering. 8 cubes left unspoken-for, then that's it until the summer. Thank goodness for the cold spell and the Defender! Got a lot of new, very happy, customers - one of whom is completely new to wood burning having only just got his stove fitted (a nice Clearview) and who had had "2m3 of dry logs just delivered, but I heard yours were really good so I'd like to order some to compare". When I got there yesterday he had barely a cube of tiny, dripping-wet stuff. I got an email this morning raving about the stuff I took - which was 70% of the price he paid for the others... There are some rip-off merchants out there!

Superb work, Woodworks. And fascinating. Especially to see the effect that bark left on has on slowing down water loss, and the benefit of lengthwise grain vs. end grain. I can see that graph being referred to again and again in these fora!

Ha! Signed: Defender Driver :-)

I have to commend your diligence. REALLY looking forward to seeing the results!

I'm afraid that when a critical scientific eye is cast over that experiment, all it proves is that seasoning through the bark is very, very slow! Yes, it does dry through the ends. But it dries most through the split sides. I do sometimes wonder if this is why the HETAS spec used to specify no branchwood (although I can't see that in the spec any more)? Was it written by someone in the trade who uses kilning and therefore had a competitive incentive to drive down the value of the wood he couldn't use effectively?

Sadly not, as the air in the garage isn't getting changed as fast as the air outside. As damp that creeps in through the walls/floor/roof/windows/door etc. evaporates the RH goes up. As the logs dry the RH goes up. Outside that air is changed for fresh. Inside, it just slows the seasoning right down. Hence it's usually ok to put well-seasoned wood in the garage (as many do) as long as it's not there too long. But it's an awful place to season wood!

Yep, as they say, it's not getting warmth and fresh air. If the air around is at 80% RH it's not going to dry very quick. Your garage may be having the same affect on it as a tarpaulin outside - which is why wood stores are so ventilated. I tell people to think in terms of drying laundry - a pile of wet laundry goes mouldy, laundry on a rack in the bathroom takes ages, laundry on the line on a breezy summer's day dries in no time...

Cheers, all. Just done my last drop (of logs) now until the New Year. Starting my first drop (of the warming wet stuff) next ;-)

And may 2013 bring you dry weather to season your logs, cold weather to bring you custom, sensible customers to ease your working life, and a just reward for your labours. In the meantime, enjoy the cizer! Especially you, Jon ;-)

You, too, mate :-)

20 cubes left, then that's us done for another year...

It appears to be one of those supplier-aggregation sites that aim to make their money from 'value-add' services to suppliers of logs, stoves, etc., and to attract their customers in with free advice. Problem is the limited advice I could see on there looked largely like a re-hash of information available elsewhere on t'interweb, and when I saw that Alder is now a softwood and useless at that, I kind of switched off...

£240 for 960kg is £250 for the full tonne. And pellets are made from wood that's around 15% m/c as I understand it. My logs at 15% m/c and £110/m3 weight 1/3 of a tonne/m3. So £330 for them as logs, or £250 if I turn them into pellets. Clearly the difference comes when using offcuts, brash, waste, sawdust, undesirable woods, etc. But one would have to be a big operation to do that. Maybe I'll look at it when I finally mechanise and can catch the sawdust from a processor in a clean form!

I'm going to stand up a little bit for the customers here - skyhuck is right in the first half of his post, but my experience of customers with new stoves and no legacy of learning from Granny/Grandpa/Mum/Dad is that they want to learn, want to understand how to tell good wood from bad, want to understand the difference between softwood and hardwood. Yes, there are a few who tell you authoritatively that "Only manufactured heatlogs are any good", or "kiln dried is the only answer", but they are very few and far between. Or am I just lucky?

Slightly blunt is fine with a maul, but the X27 uses speed rather than mass. It likes a good edge. Two comments on that: they're very, very good but the steel is a bit mediocre - so they lose their edge easily. And the sharpeners are pants. Off to Seattle in a few weeks. Think I'll get myself one of their new mauls while I'm out there.

Damned good on a 20" bar, too :-) Love mine...