Steven P

Likewise when it comes to kit, Firskars X27. I've tried a maul, didn't like it, and a generic 'big axe', didnt like the either. Saw - don't knock electric, it is the future and battery power will come down in price enogh for the professionals to use them all day soon enough. For what you are doing then I'd be temed to go battery - my go to quick saw for the garden is a qualcast battery saw, and so long as you kee the blade sharpe it is as good as the Stihl for logs - petrol scores if I want to go through several tanks of fuel in an afternoon though. Haven't tried log grenades or splitters, I get on OK with the axe - enough wood for me and in 8 years I think maybe 2 gnarly bits of log defeat me a year, the axe and the saw combined (without sawng it to death) I'll tend to split logs in length and chop them shorter later in the year - sometimes makes it wasier to stack. Stacks... while I am here... no ned for pallets, Like I said mine get raised off the ground on a couple of bricks, with a split log on top lengthways and built from there. Doesn't tke long to learn how to make a sack of logs without needing pallet supports -I even buid them into play houses with windows for the kids, with roof, just from logs that are burnt at the end of the ear. Wheelbarrow of logs a day.. yes, on a cooler day that will be about right - I only heat with the stove though. Always suprsing how much you can actually burn (Imagine a car... about that volume)

Yes, it will dry OK, and as you go you can slowly build up to having 2 years of firewood perhaps. The main key is airflow, if you can stack it where the wind will blow it will dry quicker. for example, my drive gets the wnd so my wood is stacked on that leaving plenty of gaps for airflow. Also if you split some of the longer piece lengthways only and not cut them, raise them up off the ground - a couple of bricks at each and or a split log - and then tack on top of there to keep the logs off the ground.... rain will take a long time to soak into the centre of the log but if it is standing in a puddle it will get wet very quickly. For you, split them as soon as you can, get them stacked up in a windy part of the garden, and off the ground and you'll be OK

... didn't say drying... but you get my point that the cost to process a 'log' is pretty much the same regardless what that log is... granted drying time is a factor, but the unit you are producing is a log, not a kwh, makes sense to sell it by the unit you produce

Would tend to agree with that especially since the processing costs are not by the kWH, or any other complicated calculation. It costs the mostly same to cut, split, and dry a pine log as it does an oak log, makes sense to sell in unit of what you actually create. Market forces dictate that hardwoods are at a premium - supply and demand and all that.

This is true, but most true that it is a pain and a pain costs time and then money. Imagine a busy yard - or maybe not that busy I don't know - has to get 10 loads of wood delivered on a Monday morning, you'd be having to sample several logs from each, record the results and work out the average to get a good representation of what the wood moisture percent actualy is, and 10 times over, and then load up and weigh what is gong out, calculate the energy and then the bill (though a spreadsheet can do the calculation and invoice easy enough) before a truck leaves the yard. Yu'd need to sell by the kWH and educate all the customers that that is how they are paying for it,

Reading this a couple of comments... Weight and m3... 1 'log' from a pine tree weighs less than a 'log' from an oak tree. A hardwood log (say Oak) can weigh more than a hardwood log (say Cherry). A log that has say outside in the sun all summer or in a nice kiln will weigh less than a log from a freshly cut tree in the spring. Similarly a log from a freshly felled tree in winter will weigh less than the same brand of tree felled at Easter. It is very variable. A volume of logs is perhaps easier to quantify but even then it is very variable but you can be more sure of the quantity that you will get. Quality is a different matter, a 'ton' of hardwood could be a ton of polar or a ton of oak and the measured volume can be different between suppliers, here market forces come into play, get a short load of poplar logs and you aren't going to go back there again. Oh, John, Electricians, as far as the regs go you don't need to registered with an organisation to do any work, just need to be competent but what that is I am not sure, you can get one who is registered to certify any works (if they will do that) Now woodsure scheme.. yeah we can talk our way around avoiding the requirements but if they don't like you then no matter what you do they will get you for not stumping up the cash - split loads, paying for delivery of free logs, or paying someone to split them on site (not always possible of course). Enforcement is likely to be along the lines of trading standards that they will act if they get a couple of complaints but not till then and rely on 'random' inspections and a fear factor to ensure compliance... but would that replace the system we have now of market forces - sell someone a wet load of wood and they will think twice about coming back for more. My view of the scheme is that its intentions is OK, we all burn dry wood, but they have taken the easy way out rather then the hard way of making sure the wood is dry when it goes on the fire, now being dry when it is sold (so I can tip it uncovered on the drive in November and burn it at Easter and that is OK). Even better it is those who already are governed by market forces that will pay the money, those that have a business because they do sell good quality and dry firewood. Me who gets the occasional windfall supply, selling a car boot full at a time to whoever turns up for a couple of hundred in a good year will never even consider registering... and it the gumtree and facebook advertisers who are more likely to sell wetter wood. Eventually I think it will expand to try to catch anyone who processes their own firewood but that is on the edge of the 'too hard' pile and might not happen for small households but if you have a large requirement and produce your own for that they might come chasing in a few years

Cheer's £17 from Aldi - the last one in the shop and cheaper than buying the TEG generator from somewhere like RS (though Chinesium from ebay is cheaper.. but unsure of the quality, some is great.... some not so great). Now I have a spare fan assembly to experiment with as I want to later in the year (thinking to add a PC heat sink above the TEG, then the cooling fins and an uprated TEG (5V-ish, lots of Watts), see what it can do (thinking to the water cooling idea..... see if I can drive a small water pump with that first)

If it is for sale from a store then it will be OK to use, but they will know the local area and where the smoke control zones start and stop and so on (frustrating for me, I am in the zone which stops at the centre line of the road in front of the house). For the logs, at the moment you can buy ready to burn logs and in the near future they will all be that (I think), however if you throw them in a river for 6 months (don't) and then tried to burn them you are OK to do that - no regulations that the end user has to keep them dry, or even that the petrol station forecourt has to (a comment from a while ago, you can kiln dry the logs but if the retailer stacks them outside then they will probably need drying again to get to that magic 20% moisture). If you collect your own firewood again, you are OK to do that, and dry it as you like. As for how dry a log has to be... the stove manufacturers say about 20% moisture content is good however nothing to say what you can and can't burn. The wetter it is the less useful heat you get since some will be used to heat and dry the next logs, and the chimney will need sweeping more often. More logs - if you make your own - means more chopping If the stove is marked as Defra exempt then it is OK to use in a smoke control zone. So.... I would get a Defra exempt stove if you live near civilisation, and you can burn what you like within reason. The dryer the better though.

Bit slow to reply here.... Yes, the high power system , a US website, and that's what they claim. Practicality for me would be to put a sump under the floor which rarely gets above 8 deg C in the winter, however another practicality is I need to save £1k to buy the thing and justify 6 months of hot water of the stove when like everything there could be better things to do with the cash.... another layer of insulation might save the hot water electricity by buying less fuel. Anyway, here it is The Aldi fan, I am sure our Lidl had one over Christmas but not at the weekend - they do have chainsaws, and hedge trimmers to distract me at the moment though. Noticing this week how much difference not having the fan makes to the living room, tempted to put the other fire on to draw some air about the house and some heat away from right in front of the fire WWW.TEGMART.COM

Good morning, I think I have burnt out my stove fan, too hot and it breaks the "TEG" (electrical thing), it looks a simple fix, unscrew it all, bung in a new one and put it all back together. Has anyone done this before and any recommendations as to power output and so on? Looking at the online things, there is all sorts out there, different volts and power outputs, I think I know which one to get but just in case I had missed something As a side comment, while I was looking there was a 100W module, water cooled, which you could fasten to the side of the stove, 2 of them and I think in the winter that would nearly do the hot water without any plumbing (12 hours heating, 2.4kwh, I think I use 3 for hot water), just a couple of wires and a new heater in the water tank. Going to think where to put a cold water sump now.

I am living in Scotland which might explain my answer conforming to stereotypes. "The free stuff".. though even the English, Welsh or Irish on here are not adverse to that type either It will all burn, I like pallet wood simply because it splits down thin very easily, and offcuts tend to be very dry . Softwoods are better than hardwoods and anything with a straight grain. Anything gnarly isn't so good. My favoured at the moment is the rare pine I have in my log pile (I got gifted a lot of hard wood over the summer... dry pine is rare in the garage this season). Likewise would go with anything that was sappy as well, sticky to split but burns well. Anything nice and dry of course My other favoured source are the splinters that come off when I am chopping my main logs, mostly they are perfect kindling with no effort at all. That all goes into a box behind my splitting area and dries slowly to be good for the winter. Anything left from that in the summer is perfect BBQ wood too.

which kind of makes sense, an established firm working in their area would have arrangements to get rid of their waste I guess (which might be a piece of land with a big pile on that they are happy to give away if you ask).

Does not compute.. you mean you spoke to someone like face to face or on the phone or something and got it sorted. The internet will be very angry with you. Having said that most of my log supplies and access to them are from talking face to face to people, all sorts of people, just need to talk to them.

I thought woodsure scheme covered wood sales and not the actual burning of wood... so you can buy it all certified and nice in September, leave it outside till March and you are OK even if you can wring the moisture out of it. If you are not buying it then it is not relevant? Might be something in it in the future if you buy unseasoned logs but for now your OK

Why are you posting 2 very similar adverts right after each other again by the way?

of course, depends where you site the pallet a wooden one - often available for free - can last several years. My raised beds were not treated and the internal wood from pallets lasted about 8 years buried in soil (I had partitioned them to stop the mint spreading to much). If you are going to potentially gong to move the log store by the way? If you would move it by hand then it won't matter much what is under it, and at the end of the winter when it is empty you can replace any rotted and free wood pallets easy enough, but if you have a machine to help then try the plastic pallets.

I would have thought that a corded hedge trimmer would be lighter, no battery to carry, however is it an issue of strength or ability to grip the hedge trimmer? Certainly anything that can take the weight off your hands will help though. As for the other part of the discussion, I am assuming you have maintained this hedge yourself or years and have a level of competence doing so to achieve a standard you are happy with. Granted a team of professionals will be quicker, but there is nothing to say that they would be better at a job you have done for so long.

So being similarly tight... based on what I use, 80m3 is going to last a while so well worth making the most of it. It would be a different answer if you said 20m3, or 3 or 4 years worth,. Fire in the morning and then fire in the evening - morning fire to help out the other heating systems - my view that a smaller temperature variation is the best in the house, whether it is is between 19 and 22 deg C or 10 to 15 deg C, however you like it... but letting the temperature drop while you are out is the most efficient and cheapest though you suffer an hour or so of cool when you get in again. Stove.... go bigger if you have space and the regulation air supply (air supply plumbed direct to the stove is a good option). Stove top fan to get some air circulation, maybe 2 if you want to be flash. The next step I would go for is insulation and some insulation... the powers that be will insist on a minimum but while you are doing it be worth while getting the best you can afford, or the thickest layer of the cheapest that your space allows for. If the floorboards are up... ideal time to do under them too (else you will end up crawling under the floor to upgrade later if you want to and cutting holes in your floor to do so). You probably know that. And windows, again, for the costs of any new windows you put in, the step up to extra insulated might be worth it. Then a couple of cans of expanding foam or silicone sealer to seal all the gaps too (at a £5 each?) Then look at the what to put in for the rest of the heating. In the next few years gas boilers are going to be going out, in 10 years whatever fancy systems are installed just now will be replaced with electric boilers. Would it be worthwhile putting in an emersion heater for hot water (or maybe an instant hot water for the kitchen and bathroom sinks, plus a tank for a bath) and do away with a boiler all together? Electric under floor heating. Just to throw in an curved ball here too, one I might look into in the next few years is an air source heat pump.... but pumping out warm air and not hot water. Simpler and cheaper. Air source pump outside the house somewhere, and a duct into the house for the hot air to a simple wall unit? It might be that by ditching the LPG boiler (what £4k?) you might be able to install 2kW of solar panels? daytime heating if the sun comes out and a summer earner Just a couple of thoughts anyway... big stove, insulation and consider electric heating + solar panels

are these regs retrospective by the way? If they are and the installed stove doesn't meet the then you'll need to sort it - probably before the house is next sold and the home buyers report picks it up, if it isn't then all it has to do is comply to what they were when the stove was installed. By way of an example, the wiring regs changed the cable colours, blue and brown from red and black but you didn't need to rewire every property in the UK when they changed, just comply afterwards. I don't know if the same applies to stoves. I would be sure things like having a working CO meter is retrospective since it is an easy fix but not so sure about the actual hardware - stove, flue, and so on

Or.. take out the oak mantle and put in a concrete oak effect one? Cheaper than a stove

If it is that offensive (I am OK with mine)_ perhaps an option would be to call Victas who make a castable refractory ( a cement) and see if it would be suitable to put in a cement colouring, far cheaper and longer lasting than I think paint would be. Noting that in my stove I am replacing the fire bricks every couple of years.. casting then out of refractory is a bit more work than cutting them but it is the cheapest option and seams to last me a little longer than buying them. You'll need to measure what you use just now and make a suitable sized mould, and the right shape and then away you go. Noting to do this in the summer in case you don't get it right and have to make another set. -Edit- Thinking about it, I might try this!! Green or blue I think just because I can! No, sorry, 2 tone like landscape - hmm going to experiment

Just wondering if you need to post the same message in the same forum next to each other? Save yourself some time, post it once and use the time saved to grab a mince pie?

You might look to industrial suppliers rather than 'stove paint'. It's not cheap, this one is a bit over £100 a litre but sold in a 5 litre tub... or the cost of a stove as an example for you, but suitable for 1000 deg C Jotatemp 1000 Ceramic - New Guard Coatings NEWGUARDCOATINGS.COM Two component titanium catalyzed inorganic ceramic copolymer. It complies to the generic type Multi Polymeric...

I'd also go with the logs being a mix of hardwoods, wrinkly barks could be something like oak or willow - as mentioned above and the smooth something like ash or beech. As for moisture content, without preaching to the converted, did you split a log to try the frashly split face inside or just as it was given to you? If they have been in the rain then a dry log will still be dry inside with a wet outside, a few days can dry it if you get some win over the logs too - all depends where the log store is situated. From the pictures I woudl say that they have been recently cut to length and split.. whether they were dry at the time I cannot tell - some people will process logs depending on demand, I would feel more confident if I was buying a seasoned log that looke a bit more aged though. A second check you might want to do is pick them up and from exerience do they feel 'heavy' - not a scientific measure of course but if the feel heavy chances are they are wet, and a second not scientific test, knock 2 of them together, if they make a dull clunk that is wetter than a dryer soundng clink- just rough tests to give you an indication

My 2 pennies in all of this, I have an open fire in the main bedroom upstairs and a stove in the living room, with storage heaters that are never used. If I have cold house, I light the upstairs fire and it draws air from all the drafts.. which are mainly through the downstairs floorboards and pulls warm air upstairs. Heats it up a lot quicker. As for heat output... not very much effect in actually warming up the house on its own though. Efficiency.. my 5kw stove has a 6" flue, the 12" fire upstairs has 12" square flue... working this out about 5 times the area upstairs and then 5 times the amount of warm air can go up the small fire chimney? Hot air rises and if that fire is out overnight warm air from the house is still going up and no heat at all from no fire. I put a board over it when not in use. Efficiency is good and takes into account that a lot of 'room' warm air isn't also sucked up the chimney with the combustion gasses. Stove design helps for a more complete burn, more volatile gasses go up the chimney from an open fire, more get burned in a stove. Both chimneys go through the main bedroom and even with a steel liner you can feel the heat from the downstairs stove. Comment earlier about a couple or 4" drains by the fire for air flow. I have exactly the same, a 5" pipe directly under the stove leading to the crawl space under the floor. Put your hand over it and you can feel the air being drawn up it when the fire is on.