Rob_the_Sparky

They do look nice but also look physically wide for 5kW burner, I.e. the whole burner looks wide rather than just more glass area. Is that an optical illusion or is the firebox wide and shallow?

Just to add that putting a lot of wood on and then trying to choke the fire is not a good idea. This will send unburnt gasses up the chimney. This is inefficient and some of those gasses may condense into tar in the chimney eventually leading to chimney fires if not swept out. Otherwise as above, it is trial and error to get it right for your burner in your room. Note: just to make it harder wood of different types and densities burn differently (and different log sizes) so yet more trial and error involved. Good fun

Is there a key to drying it? I've not tried this, just assumed that big piles of green saw dust were going to rot before they dried.

I'd ask them to buy it back given that they sold you a car with a fault that they are unable to resolve. What sort of price would then be the argument but note that the courtesy car is costing them money plus hours spent trying to fix it. I suspect though it will depend on how they are incurring costs. Are they having to foot the bill or do they have an overall insurance to cover warranty claims. Why would you accept the car back with an unresolved fault and no compensation?

Yeah, over the last couple of years I have found out what happens with you screw up sharpening the chain and learnt how recover from making a mess of it Plenty of practice with a file and an eye glass to check what I was achieving and how I had messed it up...

I use a 1.9kW Bosch mains saw for firewood, 40cm bar (AKE40-19S) and I've cut through stuff with a greater diameter than that occasionally without a problem. For me it doesn't seem to lack power but as I've not used a petrol saw I can't compare cutting speed.

Previous years I have asked for wood in spring and cut when I got it, very little held in the stack. This year I have a stack over winter so I can start splitting earlier in the year as the PPE is chuffing hot during the summer! Also should give the wood longer to dry but that is secondary to my comfort

Glad it is not just me...but then my tarps are old advertising banners so not that worried about them, just figure the you want the direct heat from the sun.

I'd be very surprised if the lights didn't have an override that detected if all the lights were red for longer than a set period. It is easy to design the electronics for a system that would on detecting this case would drop back to a timer based system. Sounds like this is not part of the design though, I guess it is cheaper not to include this but really ought to be mandated this this type of system is included. Similarly it would not be hard to include a system that detected any one light that had been red for too long or to include one that could contact base if if all went tits up. None of this stuff is hard from an engineering PoV but just more expensive to include.

Best get replies from more knowledgeable others but the answer is "it varies" when they are wet. Some rot quickly (Silver Birch I think is in this category) if not dried but others are fine. If you haven't read Norwegian Wood (Lars W...) yet then I recommend you do, it is a good read and plenty of useful info in there. The book does talk about very long storage of dry wood and again it varies. Some woods contain more volatiles (generally softwoods) that do slowly get lost to the atmosphere but it is fair to say it is a very slow process. I have a stack out at the moment in 3' lengths that is VERY roughly covered (maybe 50% covered) and on pallets but traditionally stacking in the wood is the first part of drying wood. I think the book talks about why transport water back from the woods, better to get rid of it near where you fell it, then take it home.

Had 3 chunks of ash by the back door that I'd left a bit large in the hope they would go in the fire as is because they were going to be nasty to split. Went out in the dark (nearby street light so not totally dark) last night with a sledge and the wedge. First two were hard work and part way through the third I wished I'd got the saw out of hibernation; it was a so and so. Good exercise is the only positive I can think of...

Measure your pile is the quickest way but I doubt it was 4m^3 for that price (or you got a bargain). I only started ~4 years ago and also over estimated initially. Also note that a loose pile will be larger than a neat stack (less air space). Try contacting local tree surgeons or add yourself to the tip site linked here and ask for waste wood. I did the former and only found tip site link later after I have a contact that is happy to provide more wood than I can split. Some use all their waste, others have left overs they don't want. Don't go asking for free hardwood though, if you want to pay very little then it is up to their good will what you get. I'm lucky as my chap is often driving past my door anyway on the way back so no effort to dump it at mine and saves him collecting lots of wood he doesn't want. I expected to have had to buy a trailer by now so think myself lucky. You also need to think about where you will dry and store your logs. It is part of the fun for me to make stuff for this. Can be very simple or as complex as you want to make it My first cut was some old wooden paving slab crates on their side with old pallet planks on top (just put, not held down) to keep the rain off. It was all stuff rescued from bins, part of the fun to me is to re-use as much as possible. Current effort is made from scrap fence posts and planks from pallets. I get much more wood in (about 1m^3 per) and it looks better. I use a Bosch mains electric saw (AKE40-19S IIRC), a Fiskars x27 (much better than the screw fix splitter I started with) plus a sledge hammer and a splitting wedge for the really awkward bits (Fiskars again). Use a tree butt log as an anvil for cutting and splitting. I sometimes wonder if it is worth the effort with the wedge, it often isn't TBH but some hard to split wood does burn well (e.g. Eucalyptus). However, I will not be beaten by a log...good thing I don't try to make money doing it!

Yeah but seems to me at least (no proof) the less dense softwood naturally burns faster than the more dense hardwood so to get more similar burn rates (power output) I use larger logs of lighter woods (less surface area) and smaller logs for the more dense wood.

A lot of variables is what I find...(my stove also calls for 9" logs but my biggest logs are ~12") As above to get a very longest burn then you have to stop the gases burning and that is inefficient and risks depositing tars etc in your flue. Not a good idea. Assuming you are not smouldering a log as above then I find it varies with wood type. A single big hardwood log is often hard to get to burn well (stove has to be pretty hot when it is added). A piece of lighter softwood in large chunks does work well, cut it small and it just burns very hot for a very short period of time, a bigger log gives a more sustained heat. With dense woods I generally chop it smaller (exceptions when it is a git to split) and for lighter (less dense wood) I use bigger chunks. To give you an idea I might split a 12" lighter wood into 4 pieces or 6 or even 8 pieces if it is a denser wood. I don't think though there is a single right answer and I am certainly still experimenting and only have one stove to play with.

Note I wouldn't agree with this statement: "Softwood is less dense meaning that it will burn quicker, create less heat and be ultimately more expensive to use." Softwood is often much cheaper to buy, or even given away free in some cases if you look for arb arisings, so no it is not more expensive to burn softwood. In fact is is often the reverse. Also some softwood is really rather dense and some hardwood is not. Even when less dense it generates the same amount of heat (or slightly more) per dry unit mass. The real downside is that the less dense soft wood (a lot of them are) occupies more space for the same amount of output heat and you have to put logs on the stove more regularly.

It is difficult to fight all the stuff on the web about softwood being crap to burn. I don't know if it is true on an open fire but certainly not the case on a wood burner. Good luck fighting against years of "knowledge" and keyboard experts wrt burning softwoods but certainly should be tried. As I'm not fussy about the arising I burn so burn a lot of "rubbish" and have no issues.

I e-mailed a couple of local arborists to enquire about green wood and one response was that they use all theirs and the other was sure, if I'm coming past on the way home I'll dump it at yours for a bottle of wine (I offered to pay him but he prefers wine!). He does garden work and small tree work. I have now had a wood supply now for 3 years for the cost of a few bottles of wine a year and not had to invest in the trailer I was expecting to need for logs. However, I'm not fussy what the wood is and as he also sells logs himself I get mostly softwood or the stuff that is not much fun to split. In a way though I prefer mostly softwood as it dries so quickly and if you leave in in larger chunks then the burn time is acceptable plus it is easy to light. Basically if you don't ask you don't get but you just have to ask in the right way. "Got any free wood?" is probably not the right way. "Got any free hardwood?" is certainly not the right way!

I've made a small ish log store ~0.8m^3 from scrap wood at a cost of a bag of nails and some large screws. You could probably do the same on a larger scale if you have the spare time. Main posts are from fence posts that have rotten off (cut off the bottom and you get a 5'6" to 6' post) and most places are more than happy to give you these. Roof made from over lapping planks recovered from old pallets. The most expensive bit was a can of paint but the most important bit was the wife approved, I'm told it looks much better than a stack of old boxes that we got paving slabs in (turned on their sides). Can't imagine why...

The bamboo root ball is only half the problem though (unless it is clumping bamboo, which is unlikely) then there will be runners going out from the main root ball for quite some distance. Just removed two bamboos from mine with a digger but fairly small ones by comparison ~18" cube each but the runners are well over 6' in all directions. My runners are within a few inches of the surface (most are <3" down) though so can be removed quite quickly once found. If you don't take these out then it will come up all over the place.

I'm not that far North of Surrey so there is hope if you are happy with arisings...

3 years, Clearview Pioneer 400

A bottle of wine for a small delivery, 2 for a larger delivery - that is for arisings so any wood that he has left from a job that he does not want for himself (and assuming he is passing my place anyway).

Yeah, I like cherry but then I am comparing it to mostly softwoods. Oak and beech are also meant to be very good but I don;t get enough of either to judge so maybe you are just comparing good with very good?

Very very strict, how many images of logs against house walls are there in the Norwegian firewood book?

put in a naked flame (e.g. a some waste paper + match) and the gas will burn as produced. More heat and no boom.