Rob_the_Sparky

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We (groups of parents) shovel it by hand every month or so at school and sometimes it is dry and mouldy. Never had a problem so I guess it depends if you are already susceptible and how much you breath in. I always stand back from the dust when this happens but you can't avoid breathing some of it.

I don't want to consider the cost of ripping up all our floors Good points wrt hot water and bacteria, not ones I was aware of. Does that mean some sort of supplementary system is a necessity? The other problems with heat pumps is they work to generate a temperature differential. If the medium you are using to exchange to gets colder then the max temperature generated also drops. A particular issue with air based heat exchangers, as the air temperature drops then the max temp they can generate also drops. I.e. just when you need more heating power, the amount available reduces. I'm interested to see how all this pans out. OK for new builds although builders are prone to doing the minimum they have to and fitting an air based exchanger is MUCH easier then a ground (or water - I.e. lake/pond) based system. For retro-fit systems what is not always considered is whether the existing mains infrastructure can actually support them (plus the power for the electric car). My brother in-law gave up on his heat exchanger plans after he found out the cost of installing a second mains feed to the house to power it (he does live out in the sticks so it would had to have come a long way).

If all central heating and all cars are to move to electricity then there will have to be BIG infrastructure changes. We have yet to be able to phase out gas power stations with renewables, let alone provide for the much increased demand that will occur if this is to become reality. Big infrastructure investment has to be paid for suggesting higher prices so it is certainly possible there will be more demand for logs. However, the large volume of logs needed to heat a house and the faff (relative to gas or electricity) or reloading boilers I suspect will limit the demand. Another thought is that if houses have to use heat pumps and they just aren't that good at producing high temps to heat the house then wood burners might be an option people turn to to supliment them. We do this with gas at the moment, I could just use gas but the direct heat of the wood burner is nice and means I burn less gas than I otherwise would (and I like hitting things with an axe )

Yeah, not convinced it will increase demand, particularly as there are people out there quite successfully presenting domestic solid fuel fires as dirty polluting things. What might increase demand is more WFH though, those of us with stoves have to be here to feed them so when at home I burn more than I do when I'm in the office. Having said that I DIY my wood from arisings so I'm not going to change the demand for logs

Republic of Ireland to ban the sale of polluting solid fuels - BBC News Ireland are not banning the burning of wood yet they show an image of a wood burner burning logs and you have to read to the end of the article to find that out. Bias anyone, or just poorly informed reporting?

Does this scheme prevent the delivery of arb waste or is it only relevant if the wood is in ready to burn sized chunks? I'm interested as most of the wood I burn is delivered this way but supply seems a bit thin this year.

Considered adding yourself to the tip site list linked to this site? You might also want to add what you want the wood for, I'm guessing firewood in which case do some homework as softwood burns well (when dry) and is much easier to get hold of. The more flexible you are the easier you make it for the suppliers.

Yeah, you may get waste wood but don't expect "firewood". Firewood is really the end product so cut to length, split and dried so has time and money invested in it. What you may be able to get will be freshly felled wood, if the company in question has no use for it or you are willing to pay enough to make it worth their while. Will depend on the company. I contacted several local companies directly and many have a use for the wood already. The tip site is a resource for the companies and may get you wood delivered. Will depend on your access and how well you enter your details and how far you are from their job site/route home. The idea is to make it easy for people so the better the information given the more likely you are to get wood.

Other solutions include guttering or large overhangs but yes that looks very neat. My logs are generally hanging out the front of the log store so no chance of fitting doors

I can only guess this idea of resin build-up either comes from people letting it smolder overnight or from burning on open fires.

If it is offcuts of interior wood then is it actually treated? It may not be. Pallets used to be a right mix but now you rarely find a chemical treated one, the are almost all heat treated now so fine to burn.

I'd guess he wasn't using a tube though so gunk is in contact with the wheel.

When you get more time, you can use 3" fence posts that are being thrown away to make good sized log racks, lots of supply out there. The 6' above the soil is generally in good condition and long enough to make a nice tall log rack. Pallet wood for the slats on the sides and back, material of your choice for the roof and costs are some wood preservative, screws nails and roofing (I have made a roof of pallet wood but think clear plastic is better). I don't have a lot of room so need to make the stacks taller and this worked out fine

1. Measure the dimensions 2. Ensure you use the right type of measurement for you: Loose, stacked or solid. There are standard values used to convert from one to the other (but afraid I can't remember them off hand)

Look at the LONG thread on here about et and dry measurements. Dry is the water content as a % of the dry weight, Wet is % of the total weight. I.e. a 50% reading for wet = 100% reading for dry. It maybe this that is giving you the high numbers. Also in that thread there is input from those who have done the weigh wood, dry in a oven and re-weigh. They were saying that meters are not that accurate anyway and this is the only right way to get a measurement of any accuracy. Clearly though you have wet logs and the fire temps confirm this. Note: Looks like a helpful soul has pinned a message describing meter differences in more detail

It is a trade off. If I were paying for dried logs I might go for hardwood. If I'm getting arb arisings then most tree surgeons will keep the hardwood for their own uses (selling for firewood for example) but the softwood is hard to get rid of. That means that those of us that are happy to put in the hours processing the softwood others don't want, pay very little for it. Regarding "bang for buck" you can't get much better. Last year I got two large trees dumped at mine for free that were being taken down opposite my house. Tree surgeon saved a couple of trips to base and I get free firewood (only cost is the electricity to run my saw). I generally do donate something for my wood but the cost is minimal compared to paying for processed logs. Rob P.S. I agree with reloading times, I try to find some hardwood if I need to keep the fire in but leaving the logs larger can also help increase the time between re-loads.

The "we must have hardwood" argument is a good one for us who are happy to split, dry and burn softwood but not so good for those who cut trees. It means the price of softwood is low and in some cases just dumped for free. Yes softwood takes more space and involves more splitting but it also dries faster and generates more or less the same amount of heat weight for weight (dry weight).

Sorry, a bit late with this reply, but what you are describing is the difference between bias and noise. Noise is the scatter and if you average out noise then you get the correct answer. This is what gives you the variation measurement to measurement. Bias gives you an error in the reading no matter how much averaging you do, it is an offset from the genuine value you are trying to measure. The noise is most simply described using standard deviation but as complicated as that is, it is still a simplification. It is a case of the more you know the more complex it becomes I'm afraid and probably not something you want to go to deeply into. The bias is best calculated by taking the mean of a lot of readings. Note: all of the above applies when trying to measure something constant. With wood the material is not constant from tree to tree and species to species. I'd be surprised if you get any sort of bias or noise data from a moisture meter manufacturer. As far as I can tell the meter is set-up to measure high resistances then uses a look-up table (or a simple equation) to convert that resistance reading into a moisture reading. They are not directly measuring moisture, the reading is an estimate of moisture based on the look-up table. Poor match between the look-up table and wood being measure = poor accuracy (bias). I don't know how much variation there is in moisture for a given resistance but I suspect it is quite a lot given all the variations in the wood. Those who have done a load of oven drying would know though.

Software in the meter could well limit the reading to 40%. I.e. it may well read 40% even if you put a dead short (like a piece of wire) across the terminals. Still how to tell if it is dry or wet basis?

Why would the hearth hit 100C? That is a hell of a lot so very unlikely, otherwise you would burn yourself if you touched the hearth and I have never heard of that happening. Mine is black granite and doesn't get much above room temp.

There is no sign of controlled air entry at the front (no sealed door), which suggests this is something more like a free standing open fire than a log burner. Difference being efficiency of ~30% for an open fire and 75+ for a log/multifuel burner.

Hmmm, I brought my dehumidifer into the house as an experiment (normally lives in the garage to keep the cars dry - yes I know pampered cars). It removed very little water so I put it back. That was after friends of ours had issues with damp as like you found the dehumidifer removed a LOT of water. If you are removing that much water I'd be concerned about where it is all coming from...

Sounds a bit extreme to me, a day or so indoors is only going going to dry the very outer surface. If the bulk of the log is wet then it will still be wet after a day or two indoors. Just bring them in the night before should be enough

The Norwegian Wood book tells you to light a wood burner by putting the big logs at the bottom, the opposite of what you might have thought would be right from lighting campfires. In effect you set a fire in between/on top of a couple of logs, letting the wood gas come up and burn. However, I find it works best for lighting if I use a small (~1" diameter) stick to lift the bigger logs off the ash. Flame gets underneath the logs lighting the whole surface of them faster than if they are just placed on the ash. (Not when re-loading, only when lighting)