I've got wood!

Andy_WSM · 10 March 2017 at 9:22AM

I've just bagged myself 4m3 of very tidy pallet wood offcuts from a manufacturer not too far from me for the bargain price of £20. Sure it's not the longest burning, but 4m3 will go a good way towards next Winter's fuel requirements. The nice thing is that most of the offcuts are the same width / length so it can be stacked very efficiently. I do have to make one cut in each piece to make them fit my stove, but 5 minutes with a chop-saw the other day and I had cut enough wood for days worth of heating. Only having a small fire first thing (5am) and last thing now as the weather has got plenty mild enough by day.

Davesnave · 10 March 2017 at 10:04AM

Andy_WSM wrote: »

I've just bagged myself 4m3 of very tidy pallet wood offcuts from a manufacturer not too far from me for the bargain price of £20.

That's a lot of wood, regardless of the type! You must have a van.

'Fraid I wimped-out and bought a big load of ash & beech yesterday. It was cheap because they weren't split terribly well. Feeling it today from all the splitting.....

Andy_WSM · 10 March 2017 at 10:11AM

Davesnave wrote: »

That's a lot of wood, regardless of the type! You must have a van.

'Fraid I wimped-out and bought a big load of ash & beech yesterday. It was cheap because they weren't split terribly well. Feeling it today from all the splitting.....

I haven't shifted it all yet - managed to get it stored on a mates driveway. I managed to get 1m3 into the car, TETRIS style - and stored away in the garage the same way. I'm having to make a temporary wood store alongside the shed for the rest using a tarp and some battens, but well worth the effort whilst it's that cheap!

Like you my back is reminding me that i'm no spring chicken any more! I've commited to moving another car load tonight and the rest within a week.

bertiewhite · 10 March 2017 at 10:30AM

Andy_WSM wrote: »

I've just bagged myself 4m3 of very tidy pallet wood offcuts from a manufacturer not too far from me for the bargain price of £20.

I love pallet wood for all sorts - making fences & even garden furniture and then the offcuts are used for kindling.

The best bit though is I had to bargain with people when I lived in Lincolnshire because it was big business but where I live now in Wales, they can't get rid of them!!

lesta1980 · 11 March 2017 at 11:49PM

Greenfires wrote: »

I'm guessing you have a grate in the fireplace? Are you emptying all the ashes every day? If you are then don't - wood burns much better on a bed of ash - so you can let the ash build up until the grate is completely covered.

How big are the logs you're using, and are they split or still in the round? And are you sure they're dry? If you're buying them in nets from a garage or similar, they're normally wet through and often a bit on the chunky side. Any chance of posting a pic so we can have a look?

Obviously it's a bit hard to tell just from your description, but it sounds like the fire is "blowing itself out" due to a clean grate and too much draught coming up through the fire.

We light our open fire using a single small firelighter block between two chunks of wood, then another couple of bits on top of them at right angles, then another one on top of them at right angles again - a bit like a jenga pile. Works every single time without me having to touch it at all.

only clear the ash when it's overflowing

the wood seems dry, and have had it stored in the dry as well in my wood store, doesnt spit or overly smoke

just seems the fire hardly ever gets really going

A._Badger · 12 March 2017 at 12:05PM

lesta1980 wrote: »

only clear the ash when it's overflowing

the wood seems dry, and have had it stored in the dry as well in my wood store, doesnt spit or overly smoke

just seems the fire hardly ever gets really going

When you say an 'open fire', if you mean the sort of small grate often found in houses built in the 20th century, they were designed to burn coal and many won't handle wood all that well.

silverwhistle · 12 March 2017 at 2:14PM

Davesnave wrote: »

'Fraid I wimped-out and bought a big load of ash & beech yesterday. It was cheap because they weren't split terribly well.

What is cheap round your way? I haven't bought any wood yet and I'm getting to the end of my 3rd season. The problem is I've probably got a couple of winters' worth but not yet dry enough. Chestnut and apple in particular seem to take a long time to dry.

To see me out this season I'm burning briquettes, pallet wood and mahogany! The latter are small offcuts from a boatbuilder and about a solid wine case full. Although I've kept a few bits for a friend who wants to make fishing plugs there's not too much else you can do with them so a few bits go on the fire every burn to give a nice bit of flame!

Davesnave · 12 March 2017 at 2:38PM

silverwhistle wrote: »

What is cheap round your way?

£65 for a big trailer load, but as I said, variable in size/quality of cutting, although dry enough to use straight away. It's a sideline of a local business with other more proftable aspects, so the people they get to do the cutting are less 'trained' than some.

edwink · 12 March 2017 at 5:27PM

I'm another on this forum with stoves and when we had then installed 8 years ago we had our gas supply turned off :eek:
We have a multi fuel stove in the living room which supplies us with hot water in the winter months and also supplies 10 radiators. We also have a large wood burning stove/cooker in the kitchen which is just a little smaller than a range. This stove is easy to use as a continuous burn over the winter months. It is normally still going in the morning and as it is in the centre of the house it never feels cold for us.

We purchased our very first supply of logs when we had the stoves installed as had not accumulated any by then and have never purchased any more since. We rely on local builders/chippies to drop of pallets, roof timbers and wood off cuts which we get delivered around every month or so. We have a constant supply of logs as we back on to a common. Also for the last couple of years contractors for the nearby railway have been clearing all the trees and shrubs on the embankment near the railway lines since a tree came down on one of the lines 10 miles away. The year before last we were given around 2 ton of logs (Ash) and some oak and last year we had around 11.5 ton delivered by the same contractors. All cut in to the nice sizes ready for splitting. We now estimate to have around 6 years supply ahead of us which is great because at one time we only had about 1.5 years supply stored.

Living like we do is not for everyone as at times it can be hard work but we enjoy it and just take it as part of our chosen lifestyle. It has been very money saving for us having the stoves installed and have never really worried where the next batch of logs is coming from or when. Not having a gas bill to pay for the past 8 years has paid for the stoves easily.

Not a lifestyle for everyone but we enjoy it immensely :dance:

Andy_WSM · 23 March 2017 at 7:40AM

6 weeks after install and i'm still delighted with the stove. Couple of complaints from neighbours though, none justifying any action as one said "we don't like the smell of wood smoke", so I replied "I don't like the smell of your diesel 4*4" and they went away and the other was complaining the chimney looked ugly (bit my tongue because I wanted to say "so do you").

I've had very little in the way of additional heat in the rest of the house since the stove went in. The walls surrounding the chimney / flue are acting like a massive storage heater and keeping the rooms sufficiently warm overnight even when the stove isn't on. Example, this morning, 1C outside, still 20C in the living room when I got up at 5:30am.

Over the last week I've been using up wood that has been collected or donated to me, so i've had a zero heating cost.

I've now transformed the garden shed into a wood store as I needed somewhere to put the huge quantity of wood I purchased for £20 for next Winters fuel. I have also bought myself a good quality briquette maker and started making paper briquettes for next Winter. I have a freely available supply of shredded paper, so another free fuel source, other than my time to make the briquettes, which I find rather therapautic.

I've got wood!

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