openspaceman

@Rob_the_Sparky has explained why it is best not to rob heat from a wood fired boiler and I never saw it done on the commercial chip stoked boilers, or the smaller batch fed gasifying boilers I dealt with. Also they were never room sealed as they sat in dedicated boiler rooms, so the air was drawn in from the highly vented room and the exhaust was drawn out by fans after the heat exchanger had cooled it to around 115°C. I am not saying it couldn't be done but balanced flues run concentric to the air intake in ss pipes and only for a short distance. The OP says he could take air from the loft into the chimney then down to the boiler, all I am saying is it should not take heat from the flue and a fan would be needed to maintain a depression in the boiler (so any leaks could not allow combustion gases out and to eject the exhaust at some speed to get it away from the building as it would have less buoyancy than a normal wood stove exhaust ( as they tend to be hotter than boilers' exhausts. There may be regulation and practical difficulties as well. What I should have explained is that with a gas boiler the aim is to condense water vapour in the exhaust in order to extract latent heat from it. Gas burns more cleanly and only gives off water, CO2, Nitrogen, some O2 and a little SO2, the condensate is mildly acidic and gets drained via a plastic pipe. Wood is more difficult to burn and gives off a whole rake of acidic compounds, if these condense in the flue they will eat through a stainless steel liner.

Perzactly

Can you elucidate, I don't understand the question? Also how do you define efficient? Is it how close to complete combustion of the fuel different heaters get or how much of the heat ends up in the living space?

Very sensible. I don't have much to do with climbing ropes but should have done the same. I had hoped it would be possible to splice a new novoleen 50m onto the unused end of mine, Youtube videos seem to show the possibility but probably beyond my capability. Also there is noticeable wear on the capstan which is probably from muddy rope.

I have not looked at pictures, am busy for once; I do not know what happened to the Arboricultural Advisory & Information Service at Alice Holt but the Forestry research there have the lab facilities.

I generally agree especially about incoming cold air cooling the flue too much and causing condensation of water in the exhaust. Even if the flue continued a few feet above the inlet air the path would be too torturous for the buoyancy of the hot exhaust to drag the cold air all the way in. In principle (apart from the condensation issue) the concept is the same as on a modern gas boiler, with a balanced flue, but that has a fan to drive the process. So I think it could be made to work with an induced draught fan at the top of the flue, driving the exhaust up away from the intake as well as creating a depression in a room sealed stove to suck the air in, whether it would meet building regs is another matter.

Surely it has the label attached that show the rating? Most ratchet lashings have a label marked in daN (dekaNewton ten Newtons) which is near as dammit the same as a weight in kg. Breaking strain will be about double the figure.

Tradition, most of the bits were made in the woods with hand tools and then assembled in a workshop.

Looks like a chair back; add four beech legs with three stretchers, eight beech back spindles and a cleft oak splat, elm seat and you have a windsor chair.

technically the force should be stated in Newtons but most people understand weights so the force a 2500kg mass hanging on the rope would be 2500*9.81 Newtons. You could hang a 5.3 tonne weight off the Novoleen rope sold for the Eder before it would break if new. In the 6 years I have used mine the rope has shortened mostly from wear of the outer braid, It started at 100m and is now around 50m and I have made soft shackles from the inner braid left overs. It has been by far the biggest cost of running the winch.

Douglas

Yes, the engine , house and bandsaw.

I expect they had to, in view of the complaint. I'm not so sure I would have got away with it if it had gone to court as the drive could well have fallen outside the definition of a garden. My defence would have been because the grassy bits between the trees were mown and maintained. As I said earlier it comes down to what the judge accepts is within the curtilage of a dwelling and I'm not sure where that definition of a garden comes from, I don't think it is in the 1967 forestry act.

It would have depended on what you intend to extract. The thing is I have kept several bits of kit from when I was a contractor 20 years ago because I still enjoy playing with them occasionally. They are pretty tatty and some have been vandalised with the glass having been smashed but they work. They are far too old school for production forestry. It would be nice to have them on an estate a bit nearer home. PM sent

Ah, a bit far. If closer I would have lent you something to try.

No

I doubt that. It is to do with the prescriptive use of the land, if you cease to maintain a garden, plant it with trees and shut the gate, it becomes a woodland and the forestry act applies. I do have little bits of experience of the problems that arise from this. A large house in Haslemere had been sold off as three separate dwellings with right of access over the shared drive which had been retained by my client, the owner of the main house. I was felling some large oak and a douglas bordering the long drive. One of the other owners complained ( my client should have warned them of the work) and when I carried on they summoned the FC who told me to stop (too late as we had felled what we were to). They then proceeded to measure trees and cordwood. I made it clear I was working in a garden and acknowledged the volume was well over 5m3. The FC officer laughed and I left. I heard no more, had the timber collected and got on with life. Next time I met the FC officer in their offices with other private woodland officers present he said to me I had no sense of humour, he was right. The other was nearer here, a large nursery which had been inherited by an acquaintance who had planted it up with Xmas trees. Over time those that had not sold had grown into second thinning size, although a bit too branchy for sawlogs or bars. He asked me if I would fell them for the timber. I agreed and said I would apply for a felling licence, he declined as he, rightly, thought this would mean a restocking condition. He buldozed the lot into a heap with his case 850 and burned them. Someone did complain to the FC but they did nothing.

you beat me

Forestry act 1967 section 9 subsection 2b: (2)Subsection (1) above does not apply— (b)to the felling of fruit trees or trees standing or growing on land comprised in an orchard, garden, churchyard or public open space;

Why not? If it is within the curtilage of a dwelling it is exempt. You may have to debate where a garden becomes a woodland but if it has been maintained for the amenity and enjoyment of a household it is a garden.

Precisely and it has been tarted up for sale. I guess you are nowhere near me?

Following on from my earlier posts I wandered past some of the trees I did formative pruning on 20+ years ago. These oaks were self seeded on the heath and they actually damage that particular habitat and I expected them to be removed but am quite glad they are still there to demonstrate the result. This first one shows how an open grown oak has produced a clean stem that impedes nothing underneath and has a symmetrical well shaped crown. I would say it has a high amenity. The second picture shows the same tree off to the right and its neighbour which I had done some initial pruning on but after a while had decided to let it go because of the fork which has actually grown into a good union.

I do on the one my neighbour planted between us. It is a regular task to prevent the damn thing taking over the front lawn. I had suggested a 4 ft picket fence 😞 and now have this 12 foot monstrosity. Horrible plant for a hedge. Doubly bad because I spend some of my spare time ripping it out of some nature reserves.

I'm not sure what you mean and I don't know exactly where the problem was but the flue rises vertically till the loft then bends right about 45° to the centre of the house then 45° back and then vertically to the chimney pot. I suspect the inflated sausage did not maintain its position concetrically with the old chimney and more concrete ended up on the outside of the bend and when the rod was in tension it jammed the brush to one side but was able to push it out the pot.

I have a 8" chimney, the lining is a concrete which was pumped in round an inflated liner (I do not recommend this I was young and naive), I did manage to get a traditional brush with a wooden boss up it once but it wouldn't come down and had to be unscrewed from the top. I now use a brush which is more like strimmer lines and an electric drill.