openspaceman

Difficult question; if the stove is properly designed and run then the exhaust should only be warm enough to carry the combustion products up the chimney without any vapours condensing out, if combustion is perfect there is only water vapour to condense. The main thing is that the flame should be able to burn out completely without impinging on any cold surfaces or meeting any cold draught, the heat exchange then takes place after this. This is why modern stoves are refractory lined. Perceived wisdom is that all the massflow should reach 800C and have a residence time of 1.5 seconds for clean combustion.

I have not filled a boiler this way but the sand also conducts heat away from the fire and thus protects the metal from burning. You could also put a vermiculite sheet between the flames and the boiler. This would keep the firebox temperature up, good for clean burning. The big problem with back boilers is that because they are relatively cold, always sub 100C, they quench he flame and this is a big cause of particulates.

Perceived wisdom is you fill the boiler with dry sand and don't cap the top exit so it can breathe

I was going to stay out of this but I agree, whilst the Husky 550 and the Stihl 261 would be the professional choice for carrying around all day and felling, snedding and cross cutting pole sized trees the 545 is entirely adequate and cheaper plus being less revvy should last a bit better. It's only when you start cutting rounds for firewood over a foot diameter that it's worth having the grunt of a 60cc saw.

This is why I liked the Heizohack for rough commercial work, the blades wer cheap compared with others and having them shatter often meant more serious damage to the rotor was avoided.

😁Yes I suppose so but then I have never tried a home owner Husky and if it weren't for the surplus 262s I would have about an equal number of Husky and Stihl work tools. In the day I preferred the bigger stihl saws and bruscutters and the 60cc and under huskies for forestry work and domestics. Back then the huskies had a bad reputation for hot starting on a hot day.

It's a while since I had to deal with transport and it looks like you intend to go the commercial HGV route complete with having to comply with MOT, Operator's licence and tachograph regulations as well as running on DERV. I do not know the weights and capabilities of a unimog in this regard. Now while it is considered a road haulage job to forward timber from roadside to base it is still considered a forestry operation to forward timber products from the wood to a base (with certain mileage restrictions). The Unimog could then run on red diesel and agricultural tax as long as it is registered as an agricultural machine and the trailer would be limited to a gross weight of 18 tonnes. It is worth bearing in mind that long ago when the chap who used JCB fastracs to haul woodchip into a power station in east anglia was prosecuted and fined a substantial amount , for using red, he found that it was more cost effective to use fully road legal HGVs than when using Fastracs because of the much lower lorry running costs, despite road tax and DERV, because the payload was higher and the wear and tear on tyres less as well as the higher maintenance costs of the fastracs.

After 1991, when I had paid for my assessments and those of my employees, I never heard of refreshers but my employer paid for two five years apart in my last job. Each refresher was with several other employees or labour only contractors. I was on best behaviour and didn't yoyo start a saw once and used the opportunity to add operating chainsaw from a mewp .

Yes that has an outboard clutch which screws on, I had to check the exploded parts diagram though.

I feel some cheap red wine coming on.

I don't play with enough chainsaws to know but it's the husqvarna type with left hand thread to undo the clutch that are at risk, especially if it has been recently replaced, as they tighten with work. The stihl type with E clips holding the clutch are not at risk if the clip is secure.

That's a fundamental question; insurance companies ted to have to pay out 80% of their premiums as claims, the rest is operating costs and profit. You never gain by making a claim because they make sure you have no betterment by reducing the value of the lost equipment in line with wear and tear. So it does not pay you to insure stuff you can afford to replace.

No I am afraid not and as I gave it back I cannot look. I certainly wouldn't want one but the one I rescued originally, which I bought a chain for, and cut s few loads of logs before giving it away, was usable and light and to my mind better than a stihl 171 I tried yesterday.

Yes it's the inertia of the clutch trying to rotate the slowing engine in much the same way the original range rover snapped rear half shafts when a wheel spun in the mud at full revs and the foot suddenly released the throttle.

It looks just like the einhell/spear&jackson one I just repaired https://arbtalk.co.uk/forums/topic/133943-walbro-carb-problem/

Yes but you can fool them by putting an old car battery in parallel

Yes but you can see wound wood is starting to grow at the edge of the lesions which makes me think it is two season old mechanical damage. Whether this has allowed secondary infection by a pathogen is another matter.

tp760.pdf - Google Drive DRIVE.GOOGLE.COM I'll leave it up on drive for a week or so

No worries it's not nosey but if it is going to get protracted we should move it to another thread or forum; about two years ago someone here pointed me to camelot-forum.co.uk which I and a couple of former posters here joined. Because I am in receipt of FIT payments (which have funded my whole original and additional systems) I did not want to compromise my original system, there are ways one is allowed to make additions using a qualified installer but the new plus old system have to be evaluated and approved such that payments are then made pro rata. Far too complicated and I had no roof space left pointing in the same direction. A couple of people on camelot had got around the problem by adding panels only to the DC side of an AC coupled storage (which I had had for a year or so by then) which is completely independent of the FIT system and its generation meter. So autumn 2022 I bought 3 595W panels (which it turns out was not wise for a couple of reasons) and mounted them on a flat roof pointing SE which is 90 degrees from my original SW system. It took me a long time to get them mounted as I needed help from a friend who lives in Spain for lifting stuff two storeys. I bought an expensive victron MPPT charger and spliced in to the positive and negative cables between my AC inverter and battery Jan 2023. It was not without potential problems and most of these turned out not to be real but I did have an unexpected surprise when I connected up which made me stop, it's all on a thread on camelot with my username as here. Not being familiar with DC connections I mistook a spark of inrush current for a fault. It has run flawlessly since but not optimally as power is curtailed in summer. Because it is a non standard method no electricians are willing to help but I would like to change it around to have a new hybrid inverter and bigger battery and add a few more panels and possibly get a used small EV. Time is passing though and it cannot be worth it for me other than wanting to scratch an itch. How come "professional " interest? I see another sparky is also on thread.

Me too but it pays my daughter to use the advantageous off peak rate to charge her car and home batteries in winter, from next month she will go essentially off grid for car and home using only solar PV generated electricity. Inevitably she will export and be paid 15p/kWh for it.

Professionally installed with battery sufficient for storing a winter day's worth of electricity worked out at £2k/kW for her, she is in a particularly good position for Solar PV and produces about 50% more than my similarly sized (4kW original and 1800W DIY addition) in the year. If I were buying again I would have a bigger battery to cover my worst day's demand. I don't see much point going bigger than that because off peak charging covers you for dull days. What is interesting to me is that her Solis hybrid inverter does not allow her to charge to a set % state of charge. The reason this is desirable is that you need to enter the day with enough room in the battery to absorb any solar PV but still have enough to cover the evening demand until the next offpeak slot if it is a dull day. The economics if you have an EV are something like:- Peak rate 31p/kWh Offpeak rate 9p/kWh Battery amortisation say 7p/kWh Charge-discharge loses 20% So using the battery to avoid peak rate costs 9p/.8+7p=18.75p so a saving of 12.25p/kWh by using battery to avoid peak rates. ...and what has this to do with wood burning stoves being banned?

Yes, my Daughter's mcs installed similar system with a Zappi ev charger came in at £12k 11 months ago. Professional installation has the advantage of reclaiming VAT and allows you to get an export tariff.

Well yes it is as it is the slight change in conditions that allows the fires to take off, for whatever way they are started. The world as we knew it was a miracle of circumstances that made it just right.

Bear in mind it was a price for parts to DIY and roof mounting adds to the cost, I bought scaffold poles and mounted on them for my recent 1800W 15 410 Canadian Solar @£78 3 Pylontech 3000c @£975 1 5kWsunsink ecco offgrid/grid inverter @£1,049 =£5144 Personally I would spend a bit extra on 5 MPPT DC chargers and a Victron inverter to avoid chinese stuff phoning home Also look at this graphic that shows the fall in price of PV and the rise in cost of nuclear

Sorry but I was busy replying to other misinformation, we can go into the reasons I do not believe hydrogen production will be viable *in this country* later.