Steven P

Back of my mind says that some smokeless coal is an anthracite dusk and brown coal is made from house coal dust. I used to get PET coke (my coalman can't get that now) which is petroleum and has a feint smell of oil if you sniff it (it also eats through fire bricks but does burn quite hot). Might be the cheaper stuff is oil based, but looking at the ash I suspect it is mixed with a lot of sand too. Cheaper living is kind of enforced with an open fire which says that don't run the heating when you are asleep and out the house - can't with a wood burner, it goes out. The theory is that heat loss isn't a linear thing, that 20 degrees above the outside temperature loses more than double the heat energy as a 10 degree difference would lose. Ice on the windows? Yup, been there. Had my desk by the chimney breast in my room so I could keep my feet warm in the evenings too. I agree with the above posts, insulate and insulate again, checking every ones favourite warehouse DIY shop just now the prices are about what they have been for the last few years, loft insulation is a simple job to top up just lay it on top and roll it out for 'wool' insulation (the common ones), go above the recommended minimum if you can (think it is 270mm now?). I think about about 360mm though the return on your outlay reduces, like the heat loss thicker and thicker insulation doesn't correspond to the same saving (so 200mm will save '1' lot of heat loss, 400mm will not save '2' heat losses, more like '1.5' heat losses). Better to spend the money somewhere else. Next simplest job I did was a pain in the butt, under the suspended floor, using the holes cut when the house was rewired I can access the whole under floor without lifting floorboards, got some of that orange barrier plastic you see on building sites, held up the insulation with one hand, the barrier with another hand, the torch with my spare hand and stapled it to the joists.. but it also worked... and pain but possible. (100mm, the depth of the joist, there just now, going to work out how to go to 200mm). There are still offers out there to get insulation done and for free. Final thought on energy saving, your biggest costs are anything that makes heat - so tumble drier is going off soon to use the line outside, kettle only has enough for what I need to use (Mrs Steven doesn't, boils a full 3 litres for a half cup), shower a minute quicker (it costs me about 4p a minute to shower at 30p a kWH and 9kw shower) (or more, internet reckons on 5 minute showers), baths... yeah they eat up the heat.. little changes. One I haven't done is switch to 30deg C laundry, I have a feeling in the back of my mind that the energy savings for that will be eaten up by more expensive detergent. Similarly lighting doesn't worry me - all LEDs now - for any savings made against the stress of running round the house chasing The Boys. Me? Not a Yorkshire man (by nearly a mile), but just as tight at times.

Cables are generally either 70 deg C or 90, the first result I saw, and then quoted suggested twin and earth (house wires) are 70deg C... which is the maximum operating temperature including the effects of current heating things up from the inside. After that the insulation can begin to break down quicker. Noting that if a cable is regularly run hot then its insulation will break down quicker with a shorter life. You might also note that despite the intention to only run an energy efficient TV from the power cables in the chimney got to account for people doing otherwise. For example, might be that you get a decorator in (you're not doing the work) who wants to strip back the oak beam, with an electric heat gun... handy TV power supply so uses that while the fire is on.... cable over heats..... Like I said though if you can ensure that the cables don't get too hot, like Rob the Sparky suggests and run the chimney outside then not a problem (however my chimney gets hot all the way up, you'll be loosing that heat to outside if you do)

Not wanting to get too technical on you... but if you are installing cables around the chimney better make sure that they are suitable for the temperature. The worlds best DIY shop (just a very quick google search) suggests that twin and earth is rated for up to 70deg C. Now the plaster on my chimney is a comfortable 40-ish just now without the fire running too hot, the brickwork behind it will be maybe another 10? (maybe I should check this out one day).. could be 50 deg C which is quite close to the max for a cable.... Then there might be an effect on the TV with regular heat and cool cycles - check the operating temperatures for the TV also? So... nice idea, I wouldn't do it but it would make our TV more of a centre piece. I would also consider the route of the flue and if you can put insulation between there and the wiring and gadgets. If you can insulate it all from the heat of the flue then why not? The heat isn't so much coming upwards in mine as coming through the brickwork from behind. As for cables to the TV and gadgets, yup you can put them all in a conduit in the wall or you might just mount a couple of double sockets in wall be the TV mounts, have the cables buried in the wall like all the others are. Conduits so you can take out the cables, but most people get their houses rewired every 25, 40, never years, it is not going to be a problem and you'd need to fix up all the other walls in 25 years time when you get that far. Coms cables? Run them in when you are dong the power if you want them. I got a wall plate from our favourite DIY shop with removeable panels, small hole drilled in that and the telephone extension cable was hidden in the wall, popping out at the wall box at router and BT socket (since changed that so that BT is terminated right next to the router)

For my stove I have over time replaced all the internal parts, a phone call to the manufacturer and the spare comes my way (apart from fire bricks, I make my own now). Might be you just take a chance, do the same, and order the multifuel grate as a spare part and see if it fits? Fire Bricks: The only differences I can think of that would be specific for wood or for multifuel would be thickness, my multifuel stove are 25mm thick, and height to suit the firebox. The materials are the same generally, vermiculite. So if yours are about that thick I would leave them as they are for now. Baffle plate... not sure why there would be a difference here either really, and again leave it as it is till you see if the grate works. The only important thing is the grate and having enough air flow through it to keep it cool and you don't burn it out, and a little also so that the coal burns. If the manufacturer can't supply then Stovax are a big brand and there should be a lot of after market spares out there which you wouldn't get with a smaller brand. So.. if you can spare the cash, get one, try it and see. If it all fails, one of the members here, Bowland stoves I think he is, is a supplier... guess what his business is called, and if he sees this can probably advise you better - he appears to do spares for this

So.. he's a good lad, you can work with him and he works hard enough, done the sums and you can pay him for 3 days work (factoring in the supervision he needs for a while till you know he is safe) and done the sums to pay for courses once a month. Sounds like the finances are there to pay for him, also sounds like you need a hand 3 days a week (else you wouldn't be considering him at all). Should also have added up the relevant PPE, kit and insurances etc. If you have an accountant I would run the figures past them and and let them tell you what you have missed (pensions, holidays and so on). For a first employee you are going to have to take a bit of a hit to set it up with some proper advice, contracts and so on, but... over time if he is as good as you think, gets the tickets you need then that will pay off. Do accountants also do employment contract advice (I don't know these things). Finally write into his employment contract a 3, 6 and 12 month review and continued employment should he be performing satisfactorily then and passing the relevant courses. After 12 months he should be pulling his weight and making a decent profit too. Sadly I don't think you can add in a clause for continued employment so long as the business is running well. So plus points - hard worker, you need a hand, he should make you a profit after a year and training, might be cheaper than contractors, you'll be all set up as an employer should you need to take on more staff later too,0 Minus points, it's an expense to set up being an employer (I think), staff are more expensive than you think, if the business takes a down turn you have to make him redundant with a pay off, might need to put some cash to one side just in case.

also depends where you put them to dry, along the side of my house for example birch felled and split a year ago is roaring away just now, but that gets the wind right down the long edge of the stack, similar quantity of soft woods at the end of the drive - wind hits that but doesn't pass it - and it isn't quite ready just now. Instead of a tarp I will often just put bark on top like roof tiles - naturally waterproof, falls off the logs when they split and what else would I do with it?

Russian gas? Noted that the US were quite quick off the mark offering to tanker it to us instead. Green is very subjective... take fire wood, burn it and we are giving off CO2, let it rot and it gives off methane - which is worse for the ozone layer and global warming, however burn it and we send out fine particles into the air, yet in a power station these particles are miles from houses, but still there I think (but fewer of them due to the tall chimneys). Why should the west bother with it all when the Chinese are (reportedly) doing nothing (yet they are involved with the new nuclear power station), but if we don't show leadership, no matter how effective our actions, then how will the world follow, but we get priced out the market with our expensive production costs... so we buy cheap from China.. and support their coal plants... All depends how you want to look at something. tricky isn't it.

my rule of thumb is t split it as soon as I can and then it gets the best chance to dry. Speed all depends on the environment it is dried in, a good hot summer and stacked where the wind catches it and it will be good, a long wet summer and stacked between the shed and garage where no wind gets, then no chance.

Might be seen that the firewood is a reward for clearing the trees out the way.

All you can do is ask, and if you don't ask you won't get.

Not just you I am disagreeing with slightly... but the OP says the fire is running cool at the moment, no amount of tech or where it is placed will stop my other half prodding me in the side and telling me the house is cold, I reckon we can all tell if the fire isn't putting out the same heat as usual. So look to the fuel, damper logs might be the cause, depends where they are stored - my outside logs are wet but it has been raining since winter started (it is always raining in winter in Scotland... if the logs aren't in by October, they are next years). If they are in an outside log store, similarly they might be wet, could be they getting lower down the pile and that is where the rain gets blown - near the top they are protected by the roof (and we just had a couple of storms too). Could be a different species of wood too, different ones take different times to dry, if you are anything like me I'll get one type this week and split it, the next type I pick up will be different and in the wood pile these are in layers as they are split (currently Scots Pine layer). Then look to the stove itself, wood burners don't need emptying as often as burning coal but might need a clean, also take the baffle plate out and dust that down... and while you are there feel around the chimney see how much soot is there, if you think it is a lot time to get the chimney swept (though shouldn't make a huge difference, that is more a precaution against chimney fires). Also a quick check on the rope seal - shouldn't be much affect but while you are doing a mini service, why not. I will assume you are doing nothing different with how you fire the stove, logs on when it looks the same, same settings with the vents (silly check by the way that no nuts have fallen off and they the vents are opening and closing as they should).

It all belongs to someone, so if you can find the landowner ask and often you are OK. Mostly if you are picking up a stick on a path - such as a dog or child might do no problem but turn up with chainsaw and a trailer then the landowner will have words and send you on your way,,, and then load up the logs you cut for their own use. if a right of way is blocked I think you can clear a way through.. but again can't remove anything from site

I wonder if the sums above also take into account maintenance costs? An electric heater doesn't need much, but you can add in another £100 - £!50 a year for a chimney sweep, I tend to wear out firebricks every 3 years (at say £35 to £60 a set), in 10 years also 1 new window (not my fault!), a new grate, baffle, and rope seal (about £200 for all of that), and I guess you can also spend a coupe of hundred on a covered waterproof outdoor store for your nice kiln dried logs, and £20 every few years to treat it's wood (and I guess this week, a new roof for it).... Stoves are cheaper than electricity I think but long term when things needing to be replaced and maintained they are a bit ore than the article might suggest. Free logs... apart from the £100 in axes, £400 chainsaw, annual maintenance of that and sharpening (plus a couple of chains I knackered while I was learning not to saw rocks), and hours to collect and split, dry and store the wood.. depends on the value of your time. Collect free wood paid for itself in about 2 years using wood as my main heating, more if you only use the stove a couple of hours a day

Always surprises me how people sit about filming the mundane, because if they were filming knowing that the tree was about to fail and be dangerous, 1 or 2 seconds later and it crushes the truck, if people were filming knowing a dangerous situation was occurring and didn't act to make things safer then surely that makes then slightly liable if a preventable accident happens? Can't say for sure in this case, they might have phoned the council or police to warn them and to get help, they might not have done.

Watched it on you tube, bought a chainsaw from Lidl and just took out that tree....

I watched it and was suprised at the end - without wanting to give away thr end of the episode - he's spent a day or so with a gypsy family and I guess had explained what he was doing. trying to portray them in a fair way, time to move on and found out his caravan had been broken into, a dump on his transit windscreen. dented roof and front bodywork trashed... For a Gypsy PR exercise they didn't come out of it very well.

Stuck outside for a week and it is 'seasoned', but not dry, same as sprinkling it with salt and pepper.....

However you can't blame the OP for asking, and no need to be rude (we're not being rude but sometimes threads go that way). OP wants the trees removed, and then sees people selling wood for hundreds, B&Q doesn't help here either, 2m 20mm square piece of oak for £10? must be able to get hundreds out of a tree.... without realising the expenses and waste produced to get that nice piece of timber. Might be that someone should make a sticky thread just listing all he things that have to happen to get that nice valuable tree out of the back garden and into a saw mill, all the pitfalls and all the reasons why the wood looses value or is rejected straight to the maybe firewood pile. Might be the second post in that thread can do the same why that tree in the back garden isn't going to be worth £100 a ton as firewood as it stands. but till then home owners will see that tree in the garden and think "That needs to go, bet there is value in the wood, maybe enough to pay for a 3 or 4 person team to carefully dismantle it, and get it to the roadside ready for collection"

Whenever I go to friends houses now, I just declare in the living room "Alexa, play Baby Shark", do it on entering when I leave and if the hosts ever leave the room. Just for giggles and to mess with their play lists.

Being nosey with your postcode, I see a line of overhead cables, BT and power along the road which would need more thought felling any trees along there, which takes time and adds cost and that the back gardens are huge... so if your trees are right at the back of the house, it will take an extra effort to extract a decent trunk.... which also costs. I would be asking for recommendations for local tree surgeons to fell the trees and advice what could have value, then post photos of what they identify to see in the milling forum see if you get any takers. Unlikely based on previous questions to have trees that will pay for them to be felled, stumps ground and removed from the value of the unprocessed wood

how old are the kids? Got to learn sometime and if you can supervise while they learn and teach them how to hold a log safely and to use an axe safely then that will pay off in the long term. Might be that they get used to splitting kindling using one of these, then at what 12 or so have a go with a proper axe "We've split loads of kindling".... so don't want the supervision and that's when they pick up bad habits. My boys have been having on and off goes with the hatchet since they were about 3 or 4 just to get used to it and the safety.

That would all be OK if it wasn't going to cost money to do what they want, fire alarms make sense, but at about £200 a house, maybe £150 a flat for wirelessly conected, it is a lot of money fo a lot of people.. especially with energy prices rising, taxes rising, NI rising, and wages... not rising. Fire alarms, another mini-rant, that there is no standard for interconnection, they 'should' talk to another brand but might not.. you are tied to a single brand for them all and as such increased prices because there is no competition (some companies do cheaper heat alarms, exensive smoke alarms, some do cheap smoke, expensive heat alarms, he full system, about the same from all companies). You can hard wire them all together.. but that will mean taking apart the ceilings or floors to install cablng.. or get an electrician in... and for all of this we only started getting adverts to tell us this change about a month ago, straight after Christmas and not 2 years ago when the ligislation was passed quietly. Not best pleased with this one. Then EPC... the only way I am gong to find out what my house is is to pay to get someone in to do a check, no government advice on what I can do if I wanted to rent the house out. there are online EPC places so I assume al the data can be input int a spreadsheet if it is online and doesn't need a physical surveyor.. and if it can be done by spreadsheet then I reckon that should be available online for free. Averge UK rating is D.

I spoke to a blacksmith friend years ago who'd just fabricated a 5mm steel frame to go round the front of a filing cabinet, make it more secure from casual opening, with secure padlock, and much better than the standard barrel lock you get. All good till he said "This will just need a tin opener and you can take the back right off".. your security is only as good as it's weakest link. Buy a massive chain and lock for a gate, they'll take it off its hinges, thick concrete walls, they will go through the roof, only thing you can do is make it an uncomfortable place for them to be I think. Our house garage came with 'Blaster' and other security.. but the roller shutter door held closed with spark plugs, I have been in buildings where work had to insist on ear defenders on entry because the alarms were too loud. I'd go with alarms, and have them internal not external - can't disable them till you're in, 2 alarm sounder too, big lights if you can.. which will help at night with any cameras. If you really want to go for it, a shell and inside your more secure enclosure... and internal cameras too If you want go for 2 systems, a quiet one to capture evidence, then a minute or so later hit them with the lights and sound

Similar point, what type of wood and how much do you want? For example, 3m long 3' diameter trunks off loaded with a crane be any good. I would put your name on the tip site, might work, might not, but be clear what you can accept. The more versatile you are the more you are likely to get, the easier access you have the better (I can get a van right down the drive for them to tip, for example, and am set up to deal with most logs that can be lifted onto a tipper truck, drive in, tip, drive out) Similarly, regular tree surgeons in your area will know where to get rid of their waste, a tip site, friendly locals, so you are more likely to get contacted by those working outside their area who don't want a long dive home with logs to their usual sites.

It never will, got to open the log up and split it from the side inwards