hardtop110

You need to work to see if you can get the majority of your inventory onto a standard pallet size. That is going to give you the most competitive pricing. For oversize stuff, have a look here - Big Parcels - masterslogistics

Depends on the makeup of your team. If you are working alone, I would suggest using that extra time to increase the sales of your preferred premium (more valuable for you) product - milling etc. If you have other folk, who may not be able to work on the business development side, then it may offer a short term answer to keep them busy. I'm a softwood fan, but you may have to explain its benefits to existing customers. These can include quicker to get the stove hot, lower levels of ash, lighter to carry, cleaner to store (?) etc. Good luck, whatever you decide.

Its also worth looking at the flat rate schemes - HM Revenue & Customs: Flat Rate Scheme for VAT

Impressive stuff. 2 * 5000l thermal stores 8-0

This ^^^ The time to worry is if they start to cut their prices.

TheLaird - that sounds brilliant. Any pictures?

If you process straight into the fully vented bags, then it's probably worth doing and paying the extra. If you are still going to handle from barn to bag then I can't see the point on using anything other than unvented bags - unless you want to use it from a marketing angle.

Whether or not you keep the top open, where you store them and how you stack them is probably more important tbh, but if the difference is only a pound, it's probably worth paying it.

Nice that treequip * wanders off to look up welding courses........

You've got to be brave to turn sales away on the basis that you *think* you can shift the same stuff later in the season for more money. Surely the answer is to increase capacity, and plan longer term rather than gamble with the stock you have.

Sounds like a wood gasification setup. Should run on softwood, but you'd be feeding it more frequently.

Depends alot on what they are using it for. If it's necessary to run their ch or heat their water and they don't have other options, then you can play the waiting game. If they are buying it for atmosphere or as supplementary heat then with the harder times biting, folk will stop buying or burn less. The customer is also more educated now - even with rising fuel costs £100 per cube is more expensive than burning mains gas, without the hassle. All we need is a bit of wind in November and a milder winter than last year, and there will be some folk put out of business. Don't rely on it all getting busy in December.

Very old tech there. Can you imagine how much would you would go through! Wood gasification boilers is where it's at IMHO.

muldonach talks sense!

I filled 4 m/3 bags in under an hour tonight So £80 + VAT per hour or £640 + vat per day. Nice work if you can get it

Duty calculation for it is here - Import tax calculation result It comes to £75 ish plus whatever the courier adds, usually £15 - £20 to collect the duty. So add £95 to the price and see if you can get a similar deal here It looks like you can get the same saw from here - Echo CS-600 Commercial Chainsaw - £647.50 - ECHO - Chain Saws for £647.50 So the eBay option gives a saving of £180 - it would be worth asking how the warranty worked. If its a worldwide warranty and there is an established distributor in the UK who would deal with any queries, you should be fine.

Nice looking stove that. I like big windows on 'em. :-)

A 5kw may be ok for that room, depending on ceiling height and insulation. I had a hunter hawk in a similar sized room. It was a little underpowered in multi fuel mode, but I removed the grate to increase the size of the firebox, which if you are only going to burn wood is better, and it was fine. Were now on our 3rd stove - just installed a Stratford Eco boiler 20kw to run the ch and hw. Our previous Franco belge was fantastic too. Check out the morso models. Expensive, but very nice. I hope you've got a decent stack of wood seasoned

I've got the bib and brace version and they are excellent. I've had mine 3 months and they are wearing and washing well.

And surely the cost of running the Kiln could be recouped in the sale price of the logs? It has to be. How about a pallet fueled kiln?

These are the latest figures: I had not seen these and they reflect the price increases in logs this year. From those figures it looks as though they are costing a cube of seasoned hardwood e.g. loosely packed in a builders bag (400kg) would be just over £70. I'd say that was a bit on the cheap side, looking at some of the prices on here.

People buying stoves are buying for two reasons: The most common is for a secondary heating + emergency cooking source the fuel for which is not supplied by a national company who give the impression of competing but in reality do not. The second less common reason is to do their bit reducing their carbon footprint. Esse currently sell more wood fired range cookers than all the other types put together. or 3, they have a free / cheap source of firewood available to them. I've just replaced one stove with another that will also service the rads and hw. It's bloody lovely. I've got about 20 cube split and stored ready for when it gets cold. My main reason is energy security / independence. I've made friends with a local arable farmer and I give him 'what I think it's worth' to him for wind blown limbs etc. In return, I tidy it up for him. I wouldn't do it if I had to pay some of the prices mentioned on here. Oh and I did some calcs on the numbers - http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/firewood-forum/33748-comparing-cost-firewood-other-fuels.html

Im just trying to work out what i should be charging per cubic meter. That's got to be based on what your costs are and what the local market will stand. Where abouts are you?

Sorry, what I meant was that paying someone £20 per hour to produce firewood, is not a bad wage. It'd be interesting to see how it compared with what the tree surgeons charge - with all the risks associated with that. Of course the smart money is getting someone in at £8 per hour to do the production.

£20 for an hours labour if you are lucky. Not a bad rate for unskilled labour really.