Chalgravesteve

Contact Judith Barker @ Grants4Growth If it is not her area she will know who can help you. Judith helped me get a grant for a processor but it is basically any equipment or capital investment, and I think polytunnels more crates to expand the business/secure jobs would be acceptable.

Strictly speaking it depends where your sourced the metal from.....if you bought the metal yourself to do a job, make some shelves etc etc and then sold the surplus at the end to the scrappie, then no its not "income". If you trawl the lanes looking for scrap metal, buy it off other people and then take it to the scrappie, the PROFIT on what you make is what you would pay tax on. You can also claim back the cost of your vehicle, fuel, road tax, etc etc as an expense to offset the profit. No different to any other business. Same with ebay. If you sell odds and sods, its not a business. If you sell stuff, every day, every week, it is. There are always grey areas as where a personal disposal becomes a business transaction.

Glad to hear it and that was exactly my point. There will always be competition and people trying to make a fast buck with cheap and inferior stuff. Over time the well established efficient business will win out.

But you are offering a processor and operator so they can DIY their own logs instead of buying from you (or anyone else) and presumably save themselves a few quid......so how is that any different??.....so its all just business and competition!!

Start with land registry and get a defined copy of where the actual boundary is. The position of the hedge itself could be irrelevent. You need to get precise measurements from the deeds (which are to scale) from a fixed point that shows on the deeds and is still there....ie the exterior wall of a house etc. Wooden fences fall over, hedges grow, self seed and get thicker and change shape, especially over 20 years or more. I have a boundary line for my business with one of my neighbours. They thought the boundary was the outer edge of the canopy of the trees that "surround" their garden. I pointed out that trees grown and the canopy gets widere over the years so their garden doesnt get bigger as the trees grow!! So I brought the deeds up to show them, which shows their house and, to scale, the distance from the boundary to the western wall of their property. So we measured the distance on the deeds and then went outside with a long tape measure. We only got 2/3rds of the way across his garden before we reached the distance shown on the deeds!! Boundary disputes can be stupidly expensive over a tiny piece of land and the lawyers know that neither of you will give way easily, so they will bicker over it endlessly and send you the bill. I agree that you should go for adverse possession, but I don't think you will get anywhere on this either defending your position or trying to win it outright without spending a few quid.

Builders bags in my area, from builders merchants, all vary in size slightly. the smallest are 0.7x0.7x0.7 = 0.35m3 the best I found as "dumpy bags" were 0.9x0.9x0.9 = 0.73m3 if they are filled to the top...which they are not! the 0.9 bag would have to be lifted by a hi-ab, it would need 3 people to drag it across solid ground (concrete etc) and probably 4 to drag it across soft ground. The point is that, as has been mentioned on here in various threads on manay occasions, that the bag size is so variable as to be irrelevent as a guide to accurate sizing of sales. The only thing you can guarantee is that they DO NOT hold 1.M3 and they do not weigh a tonne. Despite this, the customer still believes it to be true! I make it clear on my website exactly what size the bags are. We datacapture and communicate regularly via email with our customers and use that opportunity to make points like this and a conversational way. Hopefully, over time, this will have the effect of educating the customer on the pitfalls and vagaries of the various styles of selling logs.

There is no such thing as a 1m3 "dumpy bag. I have got 1m3 bags and they are huge. 3 times the size of a builders bag. If you fill a 1n3 bag with split logs it will take 3 people to move it!!!

You want stuff for trucks, Commercial Body Fittings. http://issuu.com/netro42/docs/electricalworklamps891?mode=embed&layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml&showFlipBtn=true Bottom left front page 3200 lumen!! I used their stuff when I converted an Iveco 75E15 7,5 tonner into a horsebox. No complaints from me on the quality of their products.

Something like this, works, you just need to create enough space in the kiln to facilitate the movement. Seeing as you are moving 6 or 9 at a time, then that is not too difficult to achieve. Now, if I could get the whole thing chain driven on rails, so that they move all of the time rather like a disney queuing system, it would be spot on!!

Yes, or at least I'm pretty sure I have. I was looking at steel stillages but they will have the same problem as the potato boxes etc, but I also came across some 4 sided pallet mesh cages same as used by Tescos etc to reload shelves overnight. They can have 3 fixed sides and a "stable door" side with two doors. They are about 1.8m high, so virtually the same or just higher than 2 x stacked potato boxes I'm currently using. They are about 1m x 75 cm ish on the base, but what makes them perfect for this is that they are on wheels. I reckon I can get 33 in my container in one go. Fire up the kiln and let it run for a few days, so the ones near the fans are drying very nicely, and then after removing a few to make some space, I can then rotate the stock in the kiln, moving those that are closest to the fans down towards the doors and the rest gradually getting closer. All you need is a motion plan so that say you move 6 or 9 places at a time (the first two or three rows by the fans - you just need clip on numbers on the cages), then you know which ones started by the fans and are ready first. Once you have got cages 1 - 6 to the doors, they can be bagged and sold, and you replenish the kiln immediately so that once you have got the first cycle through, you will have a regular supply of kiln dried ready to sell arriving at the door end. All this depends upon how much and how fast you sell the product. If you can't dry it fast enough to cope with demand, then just cycle the whole lot until its all done then unload and relaod with another batch. You will still dry the whole batch better, more consistently and probably quicker by rotating the stock. I'm not at the point yet where I can't dry it quickly enough to meet demand as this is completely new to us and we have to establish a customer base from scratch. I'm convinced from the demand in the first few weeks we will get there though! At the moment an ongoing conveyor belt of product is attractive as I don't have to pointlessly bag stuff up and then store it somewhere else. If it stays in the kiln for longer then its even dryer!! I am borrowing half a dozen of these next week to try it out and they are available 2nd hand for about £55 each + vat, so enough - say 40 - to load the kiln plus some spares to drop processed timber into so I have cages ready to go in on the converyor cycle are going to cost me about £2,200 so I want to know that it works first!! The cages hold just over 1m3.

A lot of variables in there, depends how the kiln works, what temperature it reaches and where the airflow is located? If you have a shipping container kiln, the fans and heated air is at one end and the exit vents at the other. The Logs at the far end away from the fans get significantly less airflow in boxes, let alone vented bags (which we use for storage/delivery) The bags may be vented but I don't think they are vented anywhere near enough to allow proper drying to occur unless they are right up the end near the fans, and I don't have a great deal of confidence that that will work anyway. If you bag them before they go in the kiln, then you are guessing that they are dry. How are you going to test a log at the bottom of a bag? Empty it? That defeats the object of trying not to double or triple handle. In my opinion, if you are going to produce a quality, premium product, then you have to have absolute confidence that what you are selling is exactly that. Also in my opinion, premium products involve a bit of work, not trying to shortcut. Like any business, your customer is the most important person. If you deliver them good stuff they MIGHT remember you next time and buy from you again. If you deliver them bad stuff, they WILL remember you and WON'T buy from you again and are more likely to tell their mates as well that your stuff is rubbish!! LOL

Frame to hold 4 bags. Large hopper and a oct conveyor belt. Empty boxes Into hopper feed onto conveyor job done.

Nice Plan. Im on it now.... https://www.facebook.com/pages/Logscocom/325942237593525?ref=bookmarks I'm going to nick Jimbob87 "housewarming" present concept as well.....what a great play on words...its a housewarming housewarming present!!

if its commercial biomass, with the projected continual dregressions of RHI then there is a very small window of opportunity really. If you are not taking the RHI yourself, then to let someone else have it or most of it, you have to supply the fuel to dry 600 tonnes, you have a substantial overhead to cover. That "fuel" could have been chipped or processed and sold as seasoned logs, so it does cost you. Don't get me wrong, I can see it works for people, inc me! I have just installed my own, but you need to properly make a business decision, not just see the £xxxxx for 20 years!!

sent you the stillage details earlier as part of a message check your newly empty in box!!

Company near Kettering. I will let you have the website tomorrow once I get to work.

If you are anywhere near Bedfordshire I could well be interested in 50 myself if that helps to boost an oder and get a good deal. I am just off J12 M1 Let me know if there is any possibilities. I am otherwise looking at bigger metal stillages 1m x 1m x 2m These are £48 a pop, much more robust than an IBC. I did try PM'ing you arboriculturist but your message box is full!! You need to do a bit of housekeeping!! lol

The reductions to tariffs apply to new accreditations. Once you have been accredited and your start point tarrif is determined, it cannot be reduced. The more people/companies take up the scheme, the more the start point tarrif will drop.

Halleluyah.....quite correct RJ When you have a USP you keep it!! And you don't leak how how you got there so others can do the same and dissipate your advantage.

and as a second and extremely valid point, RHI is the Renewable Heat Incentive and is a payment received for the creation and valid (for RHI) use of HEAT generated by Biomass, whereas Solar Panels gain the FIT or Feed In Tarrif, for the geration of electricity. With FIT you get the electricity you produce from the solar panels free (although there is of course the outlay cost for the solar array and you receive payments (the FIT) based upon the excess power you generate which you "sell" back to the grid. If you are consuming the majority of the power generated by using it to heat the kiln in the summer months, then there will not be that much to sell back to the grid and you wont get paid very much. It also depends where you are in the country on the amount of power generated, so Devon/Cornwall produce more sunlight and therefore more energy than the Midlands or Northern England/Scotland. Meanwhile, a biomass boiler burning wood creates the same level of income through RHI where ever it is in the country, and every bit of heat that you generate AND USE in drying the wood in the kiln is included in the calculation of what you receive through RHI as opposed to what is left after you have used most of it on FIT. Having thought that through as I typed it, I can't see any sensible reason why you would use solar for a wood drying kiln!!

It would seem to me, that kiln drying wood significantly in advance of its proposed use as firewood is defeating the object somewhat? The "advantages" of kiln drying, that you can reduce the moisture content to under 20% in short time, resulting in the ability to sell the end product to someone who can use it immediately are negated when you dry the wood and then put it outside/undercover in the air, as the wood will start to draw moisture back in as it seeks to balance itself with the Equilibrium Moisture Content determined by the relative humidity of the air. Granted, that will take some time, and in the UK when relative humidity is unlikely to peak above 92% for any sustained period, which in turn means that the equilibrium moisture content in wood will be around 20/22% (which is why naturally seasoning gets it to that point over time) but generally it would appear that in creating what is perceived to be a "premium product", ie kiln dried, it would be counter productive to allow that product to regain too much moisture? So, whilst you may be able to generate a big pile of "stock" during those long summer days (oh yeah!!) the short, dark, wet ones are when people want your stock and your kiln doesn't work as there is insufficient solar power output to dry another 300 tonnes at the precise moment that the demand for it exists! Just my opinion, I could be wrong!!

The current tarriff is 7.6p. Ofgem are due to issue a quarterly report to the period of the end of October by the end of November. It will be that report that decides and determines whether there will be a further degression of the existing tariff and the date that it will take effect by. There is nothing at the moment that says a tariff change WILL take place on 1st Jan 2015 as far as I am aware, other than speculation that it might. The degression and change in the tariff is based upon the absorbtion of the budget for RHI payments as new claims/applications are made. Therefore, the greater the number of applications (which is what appears to be happening with Biomass Boilers) the greater the likelihood that a reduction in the tarrif will occur and that it will be implemented sooner rather than later.

I am in that process at the moment. My understanding is that the date of your application for RHI is the point at which the start price will apply, so my submitted application should be at the 7.6p rate. However you cannot make a full application for RHI payments until the system (boiler plus kiln and all the ancillary attachments are fully installed. So if you are trying to arrange purchase supply installation commissioning and application in 4 weeks I think you will find that difficult.

I am looking for additional tree surgeons who want to drop off their logs and woodchip at the end of a day. I am based in Toddington. Beds (J12 of M1). As part of the deal, I will advertise your services for free on my new logs sales website and will offer the opportunity if required for anyone partnering with us, to purchase kiln dried logs at wholesale price for their own resale so they can service their own customers. PM me if you want more info.

You might be able to but you have to use an RHI accredited boiler that meets the criteria provided by Ofgem. There are relatively few of them in the 100 -200 Kw capacity. You can build your own kiln, but you still have to use accredited heat meters and stuff plus any pipework has to be insulated to certain criteria as well. Not a walk in the park, but doable I would think. And yes, so long as we operate the boiler at capacity for the required 1318 hours per annum to achieve tier one payout, the payback time will be around 3 to 4 years for the whole system inc capital and interest.