Steven P

Sounds about right for cost per heat output, If you have only electicity then solid fuel is good. If you can get them for free and ignoring the time you put in yourself then logs are good. f I had to pay for solid fuel I would buy coal and never wood - cheaper for the heat output, takes up less space, fire stays in longer, no arguments about smoke - it is all smokelss that I get (well, mostly...). For many of us adding anything other than a stove is going to be big money (OK I am a special case, gas main to the house was going to be 10's of thousands apparently), central heating boiler at £1k installed? radiators and pipes - another £1k? Gas tank - the same again? Gas conection if the pipe is utside the door £1k? which is another factor to take into account. that is quite a lot of kwh worth of wood to make it a saving (hoever, it makes the house worth more when you cme to sell it). It's a tricky thing to work out what actually is the best value if you look outside the raw fuel costs. Things are gong to get easier - and mre exensive - when the government turn off the domestic gas supplies, electric only The nowegian wood book is worth a read here.

I reckon to get through 2m3.. but also a ton of coal.. (the free space in the garage for dry wod is only so big), 5kw stove, 3 bed house near Glasgow - next year I have to burnore wood as there is loads sitting outside slowly getting wetter and wetter as the wnter goes on

Reminded me of a couple of stories. A while ago a pensioner had school kids sitting on his wall to eat chips - he was OK with that apart frm them dropping the litter, so he had a word, and gave them a bin, litter problem solved because it was easy for them (kids still ate chips there). Point here, people will use a bin if it is easy for them, carry rubbish for 50m and they will ditch it. Second thing, the council has team to prosecute fly tippers and they do look in bags for receipts and so on, I guess there is some truth in that story. However they normally reserve that level of investigation for serious fly tippers. A couple of things annoy me - the take away bag thrown ut of the car wndow because that is just pure arrogance for the countryside and lazyness, and also (living 1 mil from th ecouncil recycling point) is 'proper' fly tipping - drive the car, empty the boot and drive off again.. when 2 minuteslater yuo could be putting it for recycling. I can accept howver the we al drop rubbish witohut knowig it (you thikn its gone in the pocket but you missed - particually happens this time of year whn yuo have gloves on). I will also take a carrier bag up the lane every now and then and fill it with rubbisjh - just because someone else dropped it doesn't mean I should leave it there to look at every morning

I'd also worry about the cutains, not you perhaps but the next owner of the house who might not realise. At first thought your quote sounds high but what are yuo being quoted for? There doesn't look like a lot of wall space so you might need something more compact which could limit the choces the nstaler has.. and of course the more secialised stove is, the more the manufacturer thinks they cancharge. I'd get a breakdown of the quote if you can to see what is in it

A full days fuel in that? We'll burn that before breakfast! nce idea though and I like the bag thing

I tend to stck them up on the hearth or in the coal bucket. Normaly I need to fetch more logs in in the morning so I keep my kindling uderneath the saw horse and brng that in at the same time. My problem is I have a fire gueard still to keep the boys safer, so I can't really put in a basket or similar.. however I like the log store and I might have a thnk about that (got some decent boards in the garage I can use, plane them down, stain them and varnich and that cold be OK)

Not sure when I last had the storage heaters on.... I took one off the wal about 18 mbths ago (it was getting in the way). We do exist in the UK heating our houses with the stove. In the US though, houses are larger and I suspect they have more room for decent covered log stores

Generally pretty safe. They are outdoor transformers, low voltage (compared to some of the really big ones), and made pretty robust. If there was any danger then the fence or wall around it would be a lot more secure - for example secure enough to stop a child climbing over to rescue a stray football (the power companies hate headlines that might produce). The cabinet next to it also contains electrical stuff and should be treated with the same respect and caution as the transformer. Obviusly though you are dealing with electrical equipment and the enclosure is the owners private land, fenced off for a reason - if you need to get in there (or I guess work over it) then you should really get in touch with them and let them know and grant access.

I guess with a steel plate you can have a shorter stove (slightly) or tsller fire box though. How thick would the vermiccile sheet tend to be?

No reason except my one is steel - if it was a flat sheet that would be OK, mine also has a bend in it so just going on what I know really. As far as I can tel it is there to make a longer path for the flames before they go up the chimney, and the longer path means they mix with more air and can butn all the volotile gasses more completely. So anything that will do the job should work

As above, if you cannot source a manufactures one, it might owrk out as cheap to get oe made up. 5mm? Steel sheet and maybe bent in the middle plus whatever cut outs are needed. If it is a simple flat sheet an hour or so with a hack saw should get something that works. If you want a template to get something made up i would be tempted to cut it out of some card - an old Amazon box? Easy to cut and fold as required, about the right thickness and you'see if it works. Just another point... just check the wood you have besides the burner doesn't get too hot and self ignite

I guess I am like many people, but not all of my wood is easy to split ash or similar with a nice round shape and small enough to fit in a tyre.. but I've seen videos and this trick works well. Bits of wood flying off what I am splitting at a speed enough to damage stuff is rare though

we burn a 50-50 mix of both (logs only at the weekend when I am at home...) Heating only with solid fuel you either hve a cold house or are tied to the stove, with coal you can get an hour r nore beten fueling. Sulphuric acid - as far as I know this will form if you get sulpher from the coal and water / steam but will only become a problem if it settles on the chimney liner - in other wrds if the chimney is too cold - otherwse it goes up the chimney. The drier the wood the better of course

Appoligies Stubby - that's me not wording things as well as I could. You're right of course - wod needs air from above, coal needs it from below (in simple terms without going all science on the subject). What I was meaning is that if you ly all the logs in one direction the top logs are blocking air getting to the lower logs, there are fewer air gaps. Lay layers at right angles and more air gaps for the air to circulate and the fire isn't stiffled by its fuel.

I've never assumed that splitting wood with an axe is safe, ever since I dented the car with a pieve of wood. So far.. lots of shin bruises and cuts, bruised foot a few tmes when logs fall off the chopping block onto it, black eye once (log caught me on tne bridge of my nose), couple of cuts on my hands at the moment where I rubbed them along the edge of the axe blade. No scars yet and the golies are still safe.

Reading this a thought ocured to me, but I am no expert here. As a new start your costs are ging to be lower so perhaps you can afford to spend more time on a job but charge the same. For example, a second hand van and trailer for start up, but upgrading later as you get better finances - but buying or leasing a new van is going to cost more than buying a second hand van (as an example). Similarly the amount of kit you own will be less.. you have less invested in the business and it owes you less to make a profit. Buy a chipper and suddenly you will need to thnk about replacing it and putting money aside for another and probably better model, you now need to save for a new van, new trailer, new chipper, new saws and so on. New start just needs to save for van and saws.

I'm alway of the opinion to split it as soon as you can. it will start drying now rather than in 6 months time, get the job done and out the way. If you get bits that are tricky to slit you can always put them aside and have another go in 6 months (but you can't go in revese, and split tricky bits 6 months ago when green)

Logs all going in 1 direction - I leanrt this years ago (in the Scouts I think) - put each layer at right angles to each other to let the ar through. The secondary school physics of the fire triangle where yuo need heat, air and fuel, bt if the bed of embers won't let the air to the fuel it's not going to go. Similarly if I mss adding fuel and the fire nearly dies, smaller pieves in a pyramid over the embers is often the best way to get it back to life again (for my stove).. alltips you will pick up as you go. Just to note, I don't have the option at the moment of what type of wood to use except the free stuff, so it all goes on and just got to learn heavy and dry = hard wod, light and dry = softwood and each produces a different type of fire. Heavy and wet.. it goes outside again to dry off for next winter

Did anyone see Singapores new year 'fireworks' - all done by drones. Still got to work out if it is a true thing or not, some internet sites say not

OK so it's new year and you're probably not going to get an answer til next week but it might be worth getting in touch with the manufacturer and asking them. Might be that there are the manual online or somewhere to that might give you a clue. Its a very even hole - meant to be there at some point and for some reason just got to work out why. I would consider the washer and bolt and see what happens (would the baflfle plate go back again if there is a bolt in it?)

This might be a very very long shot (and if it isn't would have been suggested a lot earlier)... but give your household insurace a quick call - you never know, you might get lucky

The finances of a wood burning stove don't really add up to the promises you might hear. It is probably not cheaper than gas, or coal (If you have a multi-fuel stove), but it is cheaper than electric heating to buy in seasoned logs ready to go. Like everything you can rduce your costs by doing more yourself. Buy green split logs (ie a tree that was cut down this week, split and dumped on your drive) - this is cheaer than kiln dried logs since there is less work, and storage sace required by your suplier. Get a full unprocessed tree dumped on the drive - cut and split yourself and that is cheaer again (how cheao depends on the tree surgeon).. but you ned tosoend few hundred ££ on saws and axes. Scavage wood and you are likel to get it free but you are adding time and effort to your fuel (plus Christas beers if you scavange from the same land owners all year). Like time and effort you are going to see differences in costs depending on the wood type, everyone wants well seasoned kiln dried oak - and that is a premium. Get air dried leylandi and your cost is massivly reduced (even considering the heat output of each) And somewhere in all of this is where we are happy to be - paying cash to get the wood and the offeort we are adding to process and dry it. Personaly I quite enjoy splitting logs so am hapy to get the cheaest - scavanged logs colected through the year in the back if a Fiesta - takes time but it keps me out f trouble

Tie up with the local coal man - they are used tomaking multiple deliveries and might be happy to diversify, are likely to pass by you once a week. Mine started doing logs last year,

It suprises me you need heating with som eof these amounts - by the time you are up and down feeding the stove, then in and out to bring more fuel in I'd be knackered but also roasting. My 5kw stove, 100sq m 2 storey 1940s semi d I tihnk I will use3 cubic m of sftwood this year, but also about 1000kg of smokeless coal (I woud us moe coal but it is getting wet again, only so much covered storage for it)

Noisy saw.. the neighbour gets her log store filed up so doesn't complain too much.