Steven P

For ust the stove, I would go up to a couple of thousand - it will be a replacement stove so I could up a ptice brakcet (no work to do, fingers crossed I can use the flue liner again). If I was getting new i think my total budget would be £2500 depending if the fireplace was OK to take it (or DIY) Apart from the stove, the budget needs to inclue fitting, flue liners, any brickwork etc, decorating, for a new stove any fire tools, perhaps wood store. Also to be aware of maintenance - my stove gets a lot of use (5kw to heat an 80 year old 3 bedoorm semi), in 6 year - 3 sets of fire bricks, 1 glass, 1 grate, and needs a new baffle plate next year so add about £50 a year so far.. plus sweeping)

take it, turn it on, take the photos, turn it off "saving the batteries and I don't want to leave it charging in the van while i'm up a tree"

I haven't read the full conversation so apologies if I am repeating anything. From the first few comments he wants to reduce his volunteers workload which is a good thing but I also bet that before they can walk in with a chainsaw some authority will want to see the paperwork. Bear in mind that as a volunteer they might only have a half day or day free each week that they can do the job. To keep the mountain bike track open then they would need to assess the job and do it on the same day. Now I am making assumptions here of course and might be very wrong. So volunteers can work on a Sunday morning . The authorities who own the wood stop working on a Friday night till Monday. It wouldn't be possible to present them with a full risk assessment and do the job that day. So to help the OP a generic RA and MS might let his volunteers get on there, do an onsite assesment and do the job on a Sunday morning

An interesting SNP politician on the radio last week "and of course this would give another revenue stream to local councils"... sort of confirms that' all the politicians want

Yup, I'd forgotten about big bits of kit like processors and forestry work.

My view is that a lot of government policies government (not the governing political party, just 'government', all parties are the same) have an intention of good stuff but fail when it comes to money and quantifying. We can quantify, legislate and count new efficient stoves being sold and installed but not older less efficient stoves currently instaled. If we really wanted clean air get these upgraded to more efficient models. Same we cannot count how many home owners open up a bricked in fire place, put in a grate and have an open fire even if these are the least efficient - too hard to count, legislate for and police. Same as fuel - hit wood sales, easy to legislate and quantify log sales not so much the homeowner who collects their own / has it delivered and then who processes and dries wood themselves to produce 'fire wood', much harder to legislate and police that. Easy to tax a sale (even if the tax is a registration to a scheme to confirm the wood is dry), cannot tax free stuff so easily. Currently I can buy dry wood or as the winter goes on and my dry(self processed) wood runs out I can just grab wood that is nearly dry for the last few weeks. So good intentions, we all burn dry wood in efficient appliances but in practice they are legislating against the easy targets rather than changing things to their intention, (think plastic bags as a good example, 5p charge reduced the amount of plastic we used.. but we still use the same plastic in the bags. 5p charge is easy to do, change the plastic bag matirials is a lot harder to do. Intention is good, implimentation didn't work fully)

A sale is a sale to most petrol stations... and what is the employee going to do once you have started filling a 20l can? Second comment comes from a few days work I did at a facility where they filled the petrol tankers. The petrol is the same in a Shell, BP or plane white tanker at that location (and is to a British Standard), however each brand can specify different addatives and quantities added to the petrol - and this is added as it is pumped into the tanker. So each brand will have a different petrol mix but the base stuff is all the same. Often the addatives are propriety - Shell addative won't go into BP and vice versa, supermarkets won't have either and often have none. Third comment, as a domestic user I use about 5 litres a year total in my chainsaws,hedge trimmers and lawn mower, when that can is getting low I just fill a second can up when I fill the car. I am guessing a domestic user will be fuelling the car more often than using 20l of chainsaw fuel.. so why not just get smaller quantities more often when you are in the petrol station anyway? Get smaller quantities and that limits how much petrol will go off. Last comment is just my brain wondering, how many professionals use 20l of chainsaw fuel and not have to refuel a van or truck in that time and so require a special trip to the petrol station? Appreciate that on a business day it might make sense for professionals to have a large drum of fuel in the yard.

They've always been appealing

Pensions? Here are my thoughts for what they are worth. The savings side of things are good value: - You get tax breaks with them, so every £1 you see in your pocket at the end of the month is worth more in a pension - Companies will pay into a pension on top of your salary. For example, mine will match up to 7% of my salary as a pension contribution. I'd be a fool not to pay in and loose out on this - The investment is compounded, so you earn £1 in interest this year, next year that £1 also earns interest. Over time this all adds up, I forget what the sums are but something like every 10 to 15 years (not sure might be longer) your money doubles because of this. - You cannot touch it, so a bad month and you still get a pension with what you have saved so far. So as a savings scheme for retirement a pension scheme works good. BUT at the end of it when you want the money. Mine are offering me 1/33rd of the pension pot back every year. So I have to live for 33 years before I use up what is in the pot.. retire at 67, pot will be empty at 100.. or well after I anticipate being dead. I can take it all out and hope for the best, die at 80 and the kids get the leftovers and all the interest it has earnt in those 13 years.. but the government want their cut out of that and taxes. For affordability, when I pay off the mortgage I reckon I can nearly give it all up, sell my car, (and save its tax and petrol and so on), stop the odd ork treats - the snacks, coffee, bacon rolls, the commuting - life can be cheaper

Thanks for the info So for efficiency I need (and I think in the order of importance): - Limit the air going up the chimney, use a door then - Insulated fire box, hotter fire = more efficient - Make sure the flame can burn fully before its extinguished and goes up the chimney. In a stove this is using a baffle plate, I might be wrong but isn;t this so they can increase the flame length and make the stove shorter? In a traditional fire the flame fully burns out but part way up the chimney first. - Air gap around the stove lets heat get out by convection currents and not just by radiated heat Is that about it? So thinking to my small upstairs fire, I could get a local blacksmith to make a suitable door on a hinge (complete with vents and clips to hold a glass window in), bolt that on and the open fire might double its efficiency? A door would be god because it can be kept closed and stop draughts up the chimney when not in use? After that I would want to get a builder in to open up the fire place to install a stove

This is something I have been wondering and Google is being no help at all. So what in its design makes a wood burning stove so efficient compared to an open fire? The door I think helps a lot by limiting the amount of warm air the chimney can draw up it, but if that was the main factor for efficiency, then why not bolt a glass sheet on hinges to the fire place? Smaller flue size than traditional brick chimney? all that does is keep the gasses warmer so they don't condensate as much creosote Is it the baffle plate? or the stove bricks, maybe the air gap around the stove? I am not sure. So what design feature makes a wood burning stove so efficient? (The reason I was wondering is that the upstairs fireplace is small, fits a 12" grate, and would be nice if it was a stove.. but would need some work doing first, but if I could work something out to make it more efficient that could be good)

I reckon Easter is a good time to end the wood stove season. Or...about 3 weeks more than I have dry wood every year As for mild weather, the stove has been off the last couple of days, been doing other jobs and not feeding it

|Hate to brag, but.....

Christmas morning with the fires, can't beat it... First thing I'll light the bedroom one and poke my feet out the end of the bed before the boys come through, then downstairs to fall asleep with and the afternoon film

If waterlogging is going to be a an issue then is it possible - given the layout of the site - to dig a trench out of the garden with gravel in and to use that as a drain / soak away. If not would a land drain to the house drains be a possibility (I am not sure if you are allowed to do this)

Years ago our windscreen was hit by a brick that had bounced out of a pickup carrying rubble. Similar cause and effects I guess

I'd also (maybe wrongly) assumed that stove manufacturers used this because, it is easier for them to produce (just cut them to size with a band saw) and cheaper.. and we, the consumer just replace like for like

My issue with the board is its life.I have a multifuel stove so will burn logs and coal.. and the vermicullite crumbles (3rd set of bricks in 5 1/2 years now). They re a consumable but original manufacturer costs quite a lot. This year I was going to buy a full vermicullite board and cut it to size (get 2 or 3 sets from that for the same price as the manufacturer sells), but a chat with the girl at Victas she recommended a castable screed for a more durable option - so thats what I am trying this year - I'll let you know in 18 months how it goes. Making the molds was easy - I had measuerd the last lot of manufacturers bricks to get the sizes right last time round, 1/2 hour in the garage and I was ready to cast them. I have also patched vermicullite bricks with clay.. to find the bricks kept crumbling behind the clay and it fell off, but the clay lasted quite well. Note as for fire temperature, I tend to run the stove on full power.. if its cold enough to have the fire on then it needs to be getting hot.

I've always gone with getting them cut and split as soon as possible as a general rule of thumb. The more surface area the better and the less nark on each piece is better too if you have time on your hands

Just a thought going back years - mum ran out of petrol in the car (once and only once...) - last few drops of petrol sucked up all the gunk in the tank with it needing new filters and things. So when you said it warn out of fuel for the first time my thoughts go back to that. Ignition system doesn't make sense, so look to the fuel system. Gunk sucked into the carb needing a clean / carb kit makes sense (OK I Know there won't be much gunk in the tank but thats how my thinkng works).

I'm with the 'free' answer for the best wood for my stove, I will burn different things depends how I feel. Pine and softwood for a flames and decent heat output.. so long as its dry outside and I can get to the garage what feels like every 5 minutes to bring more logs in without pulling on (worn out) boot. \i'll go for thorns any day of the week

I did mine with the mower at the weekend, blades set on highest setting to keep the grass OK it did the job, and it works on flagged areas. Remember you're not cutting the grass you're using the blades to suck up the leaves (I often 'mow' things off the drive and often wood chippings where I have split logs too).

I would chase him for the fees, there was a verbal agreement (which might not be binding but it was there) and confirmed in his 1st e-mail I guess when he was saying you were charging too much and he could get it cheaper locally. HAve you sent him an invoice yet? I would be making up a detailed invoice (travel to site, set up site, emergency works, clear site, remove waste and disposal, and travel again. etc). I would add a good description of the works you completed identifying why it wasn't a simple felling job (for example the nature of the dangerous tree - the failed parts, that it was roped so it didn't fall onto an overhung greenhouse and so on), and send him that - rather than what sounds like an informal e-mail chain. Obviously all on headed paper with things like VAT numbers and so in if applicable. Then if it goes to small claims court you can pull out the invoice, and this will be considered and add to your case

I think that last line is my problem.. they will migrate in. If your woods can support 50 squirrels you might kill 50 but they will migrate in again after the next breeding season until there are 50 new squirrels again and again. To cure your problem, you need to reduce their numbers in your woods and the National Trust woods, and their neighbours and theirs to stop this migration or you need to reduce their numbers and then stop the woods being a viable place for them - predators, reduced food supply or nest sites and so on. Yup set traps, but how to make the woods less attractice to them? Also to note, crows are vicoius and could account for loss of wildlife (though squrrels have been known to eat meat also)

Is that true about the potato peel?