ash_smith123

I'm getting about 55 per 26 ton load of ash at the moment

We have the same thing in our area. A big funded community woodland with loads of volunteers. We are lucky that they only have softwood available so we can easily be different and supply quality hardwood. Competition is healthy, do something different and if you can't compete on price then don't. Not everyone wants cheaper, Offer something better

The last time I looked a few years ago I was shocked at the price of the wire fencing. From memory it worked out at £5-6 per crate. Where do you guys get it from?

I've got the Izettle card reader too. Starts at 2.5% on all cards and goes down to 1.5% I think depending how much goes through it a year. It works really well and the app is good too. I did have the PayPal one but it was rubbish! I went through 3 machines and the battery's never used to charge properly. Sent it back in the end

I'm looking for another processor and just wondering if anyone has a Duun VM420 or has any first hand experiences of it? From the videos it looks a great machine for the money but was wondering what people who have one think of it! Cheers Ash

I know what you mean Steph! I'm 26 and my bodies struggling [emoji30]

I can dry roughly 3000 cubic metres a year.

Ofgem agreed because the point was bought up in a RHI meeting I went to a few weeks ago! Im a self supplier on the BSL and I had stated on that I use kiln dried logs to fuel the boiler. Yes it means I can buy in, produce and sell my wood in around 2 weeks. Normally I would be waiting over a year to produce and dry the wood naturally so It makes complete business sense. I've said it before a kiln isn't for everyone. If I only wanted to sell 100 cube a year on the side I wouldn't buy a kiln.

Completely untrue. A lot of people talk a lot of rubbish about the RHI scheme mainly taken from renewable energy companies who don't have a clue what they are on about. Chinese whispers sort of thing

Yes we dry our "burning logs" in the kiln. Like any stove they work so much better with the correct moisture content fuel. Our kiln dried is £120 and seasoned £95 a cubic metre

Pm'd you!

Ours 2 kilns dry 66 cubic metres in 5 days (30 in one and 36 in the other) and it takes 5-6 cubic metres to dry the 66 cube. We only use tree surgeon stuff that's no good for resale.

Hi, I'm looking to split a load of huge poplar trunks with a screw splitter to them put through our processor. We have access to a 3t excavator so I'm just wondering if anyone knows where I can rent one from? Would only need it for a day or 2! Cheers Ash

I can only vouch for Dans stuff, he's the only company I've ever dealt with and he's the only one I ever will. Spot on every time with customer service, delivery and quality of product. I have 2 kiln systems but we still have to import it to keep up in the winter months. Delivered in at your door under 20% ash works out at around £60+vat per cubic metre. I sell it at £120 a cubic metre so it's pretty good to keep things topped up. The last load of ash cord I bought in was £65+vat a ton and that's not getting any cheaper. I understand a lot of you say you can get air dried down under 20% but it's the whole thing around kiln dried wood companies like certainly wood have almost made it it's own brand of firewood that can be no different to other air dried wood just marketed differently. In my eyes it's genius what they have done. Taken a product that can be massively variant in quality, marketed it to be a quality dry product guaranteed and sell it for more money. It's upto the customer to decide what they want to buy and unfortunately all stove manufactures recommend kiln dried firewood which has opened up a huge market over the last few years. There will always be a customer base that will want seasoned wood, there will always be a customer base that wants cheap wood but the customer base that wants guaranteed quality kiln dried firewood is growing rapidly!

I wasn't trying to sound patronising, just trying to explain why kiln drying works for me. It's a no brainier. Yes I could just peg the clothes on the line but that isn't suitable for me. Yeah think we are travelling in very different roads, I'm not in business for the fun of it, I want to make money. Surely most business owners are of the same mentality or what's the point of owning a business? How else am I going to expand if I don't cut, split and dry more firewood to sell?

You have got to think about this as a business, if you are someone who sells a bit of firewood on the side a kiln probably isn't for you. Farmers have been taking grants, start up businesses get grants, in the last few years in Wales they did the WEBS grant that gave firewood merchants grants for processing and drying equipment so money is thrown about to every industry and for any reason. You just have to be one of the clever ones to jump on it when you can. Why is it so hard for you to get your head around having a grant for producing energy? What if I used a diesel generator and radiators as a kiln previously? As a business I sell firewood, I need to sell the maximum amount of firewood to pay myself a wage and for my business to be profitable. For me to sell the maximum amount of wood possible I don't have either the space or time to produce all the firewood I need for it to sit and season in 8 months to a year. so it makes complete sense for me to buy a piece of equipment that will dry a large amount of firewood in less than 2 weeks and get payments for doing it. The more I can cut, split, dry and sell the bigger my business will get and the more money I can make, it's very very simple stuff

The argument that kiln dried firewood burns too quick is completely bonkers. I dry all mine to 18-22% in the middle of the log, Which is the same as some of you are stating you get your air dried down to..... So how can it burn any quicker?! The only difference is I can dry 64 cubic metres in 10 days (2kilns) and yours takes a year? And I can get £120 a cubic metre for it. We burn a lot of our waste in the burners that would normally either go to landfill or be burnt somewhere else.

Yes you would have better results blowing on every individual log until it's dry than trying to dry wood in an Uninsulated container

Not the best of pictures but a local steel building company made this for us. A processor is half the machine without a deck!

I have a kiln, and a second kiln going in the next few months and I sometimes buy imported kiln dried because firewood is my sole business and if I turn people away, I may have lost that customers forever. Maybe I don't agree with the sustainability and 'eco-ness' of it but unfortunately without it we wouldn't have the customer base we have now for me to go full time and push the business on. Importing timber isn't new, the uk imports thousands of tons of round wood/timber products so why should firewood be any different? When it comes in cut, split and dry at £60+vat a cubic metre and I have been having core prices at £70+vat a ton delivered as a business it's hard to turn away. I do make more money of buy it in cord, process and kiln dry it but if I can't keep up I have to find another way. Due to the massive amount of new stove customers the market is changing massively. Our kiln dried to seasoned percentage has gone from 90-10 in seasoned favour to this year 50-50

Are you on RHI with your system or not?

Thanks for that. Do you have them going from the boiler to a header then into the buffer?

Hi Grant, We have a 95kw attack boiler heating a 40ft container as a kiln. We don't really use it as a 40ft container as we have found it just doesn't heat the whole container up enough to dry the wood so it just takes too long. I would go for a 20ft container and insulate it! Insulation in key! We are just in the process of fitting a second system, a 130kw eco Angus as we have heard good things about it. They seem like a good company to deal with as well. I can let you know how it runs when it's all installed! I know duffryn on here has a few 50kw heat exchangers on eBay at a really low price of £600 if you need them. I

I haven't used Ekomalka but I couldn't recommend Premium Wood more! Great to deal with and brilliant quality product.

We use them and they are great. East to fill, easy to move around and stack with a forklift. We stack them 4 high but thats about max that feels safe: We can tip them into the back of the truck no issues, takes a bit of time to get the technique right but its ok. A 360 rotator would be the one!