Steven P

However will a fence rot quick enough to be useless by the next round of coppicing or will it just be bad enough to look a bit rubbish be then. My thought when I suggested it is that some of the willow might take in the fence and become more hedge like

Yeah, but those in charge are generally from privileged backgrounds and worked in 'city' jobs - finances, legal things - which places them perfectly for engineering solutions to our problems

Carbon capture is a bit like putting a sticking plaster onto a cut while the knife is still in the wound. Far better to remove the 'knife' £2 billion in the article could be wind power for 2 billion units of electricity generation (2 GWh), something like that. That would make as much difference I think

You might need to hire man and machine - local tree surgeons and so on who have them

only difference is how often you need to put more on the fire. Willow you get more exercise.

I find the same that trees felled in the winter are drier, though the moisture meter died a while ago so no figures to show it. I always assumed that when asleep they aren't sending water up to the leaves so the trunk hasn't got that water in it.

8kw is instant power - any more than that and I guess the cables could overheat and go bang, however over a day that is about 190kwH you can supply..... just got to hold back some of what you generate till it gets dark? If it was me and had the budget I'd go batteries and see what kit there is with a timer to export 'out of hours' if needed - in the summer, less demand for hot water but more solar power, holidays and so on, you can export what you store above the 8kw instant power when it gets darker, In the winter the batteries can still supply the hot water heating on demand

Strengthen the roofs as needed and add in solar / windmills at the same time, bonus! (a domestic windmill on a roof won't detract from the solar and all the gubbins are there to take the power and put it onto the grid)

However the loss of crop productivity is quite small considering the area of solar panels take up - just need clever thinking that they can keep using the fields for something else. But yes, in my mind it would be good to make it worthwhile to put solar panels on buildings. It will be a cost thing that fitting them will not give a 5 year payback or whatever landlords want why it is not taken up. Electricity will be paid by the building tenants, the landlords will see no real benefits there, export will probably give them 10 to 15p a unit, so not mega bucks that they might get from spending the same cash refurbishing an office space

For the French, their renewable energy will help but they will sell to us at a premium, as will the Norwegians with their Hydro (it also goes the other way when we have a surplus - I think to Norway we refill their hydro reservoirs with our spare electricity). Something in the back of my mind is that we take more than we send. Here at least is one of those bad days - cold, wind free, winter. Need a good mix of energy supplies, however maybe not burning traditional fuels (gas, oil, coal, wood), Nuclear is a good backup if you can get the locals to accept it (mini nuclear whatever they call it could be good near cities when they get that worked out) and renewables. I also think we need to be a little clever in the future as where we generate electricity. All the Barratt sheds should have excess solar capacity built in, so can supply not just that one house. Roofs in cities can be updated with solar, and I think possibility for small wind turbines - don't have to go for large scale turbines and solar farms, however they will have a part to play too. Solar farms I think lose about 20% crop productivity underneath - so a field of sheeps or chickens would barely notice them. For Nuclear the current government took their eye off the ball, happy to decommission coal power stations but forgot that nuclear takes 15 to 25 years to build As above, not convinced that wood chip from around the world is a solution, like oil we will be at the mercy of foreign supplies. However unlike oil, the wood producing countries aren't ruled over by mental cases as often.

Just looked in case the OP had asked the same anywhere else - also looking for it midlands and south (so I guess Penzance, to Birmingham and to Dover, anywhere there?) So in summary OP wants to pay good money for 25 tones arb chip anywhere in the UK?

I couldn't read the full article, but knowing The Telegraph that unless your Jacob Rees Mogg you're views won't be the same as theirs. Guessing the article is suggesting anything 'green' is bad, ("Green Tories" being the enemy of the piece?)

In this case if the OP wants to go that way probably better to hire it in for a day once every couple of years

How much a ton - better do the homework for the local market - what it is here might be different to what it is there. What type of quantity do you think a 'full load' is - a transit tipper 'full load' from a local tree surgeon or an Acrtic 'full load'? Going to have to learn fire wood standard units of measurement, how many types of ton there are, how many types of full load...

Oh, forgot, dead hedges around the site. Willow might sprout quite quickly - never made one so not sure

'can' is also dependant on someone working in your area who doesn't have a regular tip site too - might be you have to wait a while till a member here is working outside their usual area and in your area.

Anyone got any wood chip from Birmingham to Hexham? Any area in that is good, probably east from Norwich and west to Cockermouth as well. 25 tonnes - I guess OP is collecting else they'd be more specific as to the location?

My view - too small to be used as 'logs' so a branch logger as suggested perhaps the best way. You can make money from them otherways, however do you have the time to do anything with it, or just 'get them out the way quick' type of thing? (might be you look at turning them into charcoal - get someone in to do this, sell it onward to the glamping, or just as it comes, probably able to cut them up to lengths and flog lengths of wood as 'artists materials' - basket weaving perhaps, but with all of this it adds time and effort for an unknown return. Id go "Turn into smaller branches and burn")

Storage heater but with fire as the heat source and not electric element.

Well, what d'you know, in Edinburgh and getting London rates, but only asked to supply man + saw. Not man + 100k worth of kit.

part time hobby or full time business?

My accountant would know how long a year is.....

Where from... the horses mouth..... "I think you are suggesting your £200 a day also includes expenses - saws, fuel for saws, travel (after your commute - we all have to commute), safety kit, climbing kit and so on - which your accountant should be able to do before tax." (me) "You’re pretty much bang on the money. Not to mention kit needs updated/ replaced." "Check all the keyboard warriors. Don’t worry guys over £100,000 worth of kit will be on eBay" all that £100k worth of kit.... needs updating and replacing on the £200 a day you are getting.. else that £200 a day is for you and a saw. I can't work out how a saw costs £350 week in expenses to put your wages below the UK average. Doesn't add up.

I'm not convinced with the 100k worth of kit and working as a £200 a day subby. Something didn't add up about 6 pages ago, might be wrong. Brand new Transit ~£35k Brand new chipper ~£20k Brand new Trailer ~£5k Brand new splitter ~£7k 4 Brand new saws ~£4k Full set PPE, brand new ~£1k (lets go pretty good) Full climbing kit, ropes and so on, brand new ~£2k (a pure guess here) Bits and pieces, a few £k Say £80k for brand new kit, all bought in the last couple of months, no depreciation. As above, there are some local firms in Edinburgh loving you that you can turn up with all of this at £200 a day, less than it costs to rent some of the kit and much much less than man + kit

I don't think the issue then is being underpaid. A freelance 'man' with a saw & PPE should probably command those rates, a bit less maybe, add in skills such as climbing, team leading and so on and you can add something to that bottom line. This is the same as in any business - shelf stacker in Tescos earns less than Team Leader Shelf Stacker. As such the pay rate is fair, and if all you are selling is being a 'man with saw' then you are getting the right rate. If you are turning up with a tipper transit, a chipper, 3 or 4 saws, climbing kit, then you need to add that into the rate you charge. If you take 100k worth of kit to site (with, what, a 5 year replacement cycle?) you need to be adding £400 a week to your rates if you use it all. No wonder you are in demand, the employers are getting a lot of kit on site for free. So the issue isn't rates, it is business management. Same with any business. A good example might be driving, you shouldn't charge about 19p a mile (I think that is petrol costs), but whatever HMRC say, about 60p a mile. Pure business management needed, not different rates.