MonsterMonster

I saw Sainsburys selling bottled Birch water (as in tree sap) for £2 a bottle or £8/litre. It made me wonder if anyone has thought about passing logs through a giant industrial mangle to mechanically remove the water and then somehow the convert the drier solid mass back to something like a log to burn and sell the water to a I-Saw-You-Coming person. I suppose its a bit like wood pellets\logs. Tastes rubbish by the way. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

Here's a method of stacking wood that allegedly speeds up the front process ... http://www.treehugger.com/lawn-garden/how-build-beehive-shaped-holz-hausen-wood-pile-video.html The shape of the stack lends itself to the chimney effect thereby drying the wood quicker than normal. I think a polytunnel is a good idea though. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

If the wood is from their own estate then their overheads on raw materials is lower so they can sell at £65/cube. If they are using their own staff on an established payroll then it's even cheaper. Two large Estates here do just that with 1,000's of acres of woodland using existing farm hands who swap between agriculture work and firewood/forestry work. They are charging exactly £65/cube delivered as well. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

There's the answer. I remember six or seven years back firewood producers breaking even at £35+ mark. The only firewood producers is see surviving in the next few years are the Estates selling firewood from their own woodland and the smaller suppliers getting cheap/free wood (arb arisings etc.) of which many are popping up selling from their drives. The much larger companies maybe like Certainly Wood might be around too. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

Kiln dried around here, Lincs, sells at £75 per cube TO the public. In fact last year I bought in 30 cubes at £48 discounted from £55. I well understand margins but the problem is that year on year per cube price keeps going up to the point I think the trade will price itself out of the market. But I keep hearing that there's no money in it. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

All of the setups I've seen have been high end installations of wood chip or waste incinerators (Dragon) costing 10's of thousands and they still don't produce decent dried wood. Good luck. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

Sell at £120 per cube! I regularly hear that firewood margins are tight but at those prices who's making the money? Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

That 3 tonnes puts it into perspective nicely. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

Windhager is one of the best log boiler makes about. Austrian I think. The tank will be a buffer but if measurements are in feet it's rather small. If metres then massive thermal store for heating a mansion! Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

I think selling to the store would be a cut throat business. Seeing plenty of these briquettes stacked up at the front door of Tesco and B&Q. Selling direct to public would have better margin but then competing with stores. Brave man to sell all and invest in briquettes. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

The problem is that the intake is a pig to get to: behind screwed in insulated panel upon which the fan is mounted, a lot of dicking about. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

Going by the renewables line, if you have mains gas then use it as that is the cheapest fuel available. Wood is only cheaper if you can get it for free. Hate to say it on this forum but buying in processed dry wood is bloody expensive; it's become a luxury fuel. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

It gets a bit techy in places but it's handy. I also found a free spreadsheet that has all the density and calorific values for hard and softwood, solid, split, stacked and loose. I'll reply with a link tomorrow if I find it. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

To put it into perspective to heat our house with bought in processed dry wood would cost about £1,500 to £2,000. The equivalent oil would have been under £500 if you got your timing right in summer. It's only a matter of time when the result of the wood burner boom of a few years back is that people realise they cost them more money burning wood sorry to say. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

Yep. There are some producers whose living is from the RHI payments rather than the log sales. I went to a firewood fair a few years back and there was a rather nice Lamborghini parked up in the field with a reg to do with large logs. Chatted to another producer and I happened to mention this and he gave me the story of how this person set up several kiln driers all claming RHI. Good luck to him, not that he needs it. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

40kw Eco Angus Orligno 200 connected to 3000l Akvaterm with a Laddomat loading valve. Initially we had a clean burn with just a heat haze. At startup it's puffing billy. However clogged heat exchanger tubes caused reduced combustion leading to smoke and neighbour concerns. Also added low profile rain cap may have reduced draw. At installation the boilers primary and secondary air feeds should be balanced to match the draw of the flue which most installers don't do. Balancing is tricky job requiring expensive kit to do it properly. Boiler is cleaned and new rain cap installed, dry wood but we still get some smoke so aim to burn over night and run off store. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

Sounds right. I remember reading an article somewhere explaining that wood burns best when it is slightly wet at around the 15-20% m/c. I'm certain that kiln dried is sold purely on a marketing gimmick other than a convenient method for producing firewood in a faster time frame compared to naturally air dried. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

I've only done so by adding some to my logs and seemed okay. I remember someone mentioning that you can get a basket for inserting into a lot stove for pellets. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

Just out of interest what is an example of a good kindling machine? Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

You've just got to make sure that the log is upright and placed so that the cone tip is just right of the center line of the log. There's a small splitting wedge below the cone hence why the need for log to be upright. The off centre is so that if the log starts to rotate it'll stop straight away. Don't wear gloves or long sleeves. They can be dangerous but need common sense. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

Bought a second hand Hycrack this year. My 7.5tonne vertical Handy would never have got through the 52cm Scott's pine rings. Very fast as no waiting for return. Bloody dangerous though. Good for knotty wood. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

I did that with 5mx52cm logs cut to 45cm rings to split on my Hycrack. Back breaking. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

I had a load of kiln dried from a supplier who was well chuffed with their new kiln. I took 15 cubes or so and a random sample of 30 logs measured 30% to 50% at the center after splitting yet face was 12%. It had only dried the outer inch or so. I've found similar for air dried that had been laid up 5 years! It's what's inside that counts. Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

Thanks for the replies. At the moment I have no area for delivery but I'm working on that one. I'm in Lincolnshire but I might just have somewhere that can take several artics but I need to confirm availability or I'll look a prize **** with several artics with no place to unload! Ta

I reckon in theory you'd get just over 30 cubes of loose split logs from that load. This assumes the logs are 33cm long. I'm not sure of the assumed width of the split logs (somewhere in the Wood Fuels Manual it says). To get this figure I'm assuming your roundwood logs are straight are loaded neatly and that the load is measured at 18 cubes. I'm going to assume that 30% of that stack is air gaps between the logs so the solid wood is about 0.7x18=12.6 cubes. The solid-to-stacked-split factor is 1.5 so 12.6x1.5=18.9 cubes. The stacked-split-to-loose factor is 1.66, so 18.9x1.66=31.374 cubes. If you really need to know the weight ideally take it to a weigh bridge otherwise take some sample of wood, split and measure the moisture content (wet basis) at the centre not face. Look up on the mass density tables in the manual for that m/c based on the correct volume (split-stacked or split-loose). It's not accurate but gives you an idea of weight. I'm sure the differences on what people are seeing are due to the length of the split wood, the width of split wood (one-way or two way splitter, diameter of roundwood used) and also the accuracy of the measured volume of the container for the loose split end product. Some people assume builders bags are a cube when they are 0.7 typically as an example.