OK guys, a bit of help here please

pawpurrs

A country kitchen with an Aga, no 1 on my wishlist, but with the price of gas now, not sure its viable.

Davesnave

pawpurrs wrote: »

A country kitchen with an Aga, no 1 on my wishlist, but with the price of gas now, not sure its viable.

I can't help you with gas, but for oil users, these guys seem to have some interestiing things to say:
http://www.snughomecookers.co.uk/

Looking to the future, I'm going to grow some ash trees, as back-up, and this site is ideal for solar water heating.;) At present, I just have a woodburner that assists the Aga.

lostinrates

I'll probably had a solid fuel stove eventually, not totally green, but it will only be on six/sevenmonths a year, hopefully.

michaels

We have an 8 burner range with electric ovens, Parents have an aga but it seems to lack flexibility and tends to run out of steam if you are doing something major. If you are off mains gas have a look at the thread (I think on the in my home board) on heat exchange (reverse air conditioning) - seems you can use electric to achieve gas level cost per btu heating and get grants on the installation.

My brain says STR but that feels like a punt - if a home is for living in for long term then do short term price swings matter?

It would be nice to buy the size needed rather than have to get the works done but somehow the original design / extension never seems to be how I would have done it.

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

I'll probably had a solid fuel stove eventually, not totally green, but it will only be on six/sevenmonths a year, hopefully.

AFAIK, burning wood is carbon-neutral;the trees having stored carbon through their lives, which returns as CO2 when you set fire to it, but having already released an equal amount of oxygen.

JonnyBravo

Davesnave wrote: »

AFAIK, burning wood is carbon-neutral;the trees having stored carbon through their lives, which returns as CO2 when you set fire to it, but having already released an equal amount of oxygen.

Burning wood can be carbon neutral. If you grow as much wood as you burn. If you don't replace those trees then clearly it's not and what's more you obviously then reduce the planets ability to remain carbon neutral.

It occurs to me theres a rather apt analogy here with financial matters. It's kind of like compound interest on debts in that once the planet starts to fall behind carbon neutral the differences really start to build in an unstoppable fashion with you not only needing to get back to neutral but also clear a past deficit. Without a step change in the planets consumption it just aint gonna happen.
Burning fossil fuels could be carbon neutral, but obviously when burnt at a tiny rate.... it's a loooong process to get to oil/coal.
(The fact trees release oxygen is merely a by product of locking in the carbon.... we get into trouble from increased carbon in the air long before we run out of oxygen)

Davesnave

I'm intending to grow more than I burn. Oak trees are better for wildlife, but take longer than I have left!

JonnyBravo

Davesnave wrote: »

I'm intending to grow more than I burn. Oak trees are better for wildlife, but take longer than I have left!

Sure, oak trees are our mature woodland but diversity is the key for wildlife so don't overlook other species. Of course oak trees will take years to make up your deficit, you'll not be carbon neutral til long after you're gone.
I'm not decrying your efforts, if everyone was making your effort we'd be in less of a pickle, it's just that actually being carbon neutral is very very hard to do.

Phirefly

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

a 30 minute train time to London makes comparison to villages further north rather unfair.

I agree, and I hoped it came across in my post that I appreciate the fact. It should be bourne in mind though that the properties I drew comparisons with are all within an easy daily commute to Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Peterborough, Loughborough, Northampton, Sheffield and Stoke.

lostinrates

JonnyBravo wrote: »

Sure, oak trees are our mature woodland but diversity is the key for wildlife so don't overlook other species. Of course oak trees will take years to make up your deficit, you'll not be carbon neutral til long after you're gone.
I'm not decrying your efforts, if everyone was making your effort we'd be in less of a pickle, it's just that actually being carbon neutral is very very hard to do.

way out of my area of knowledge, but I had some idea that young trees were faster consumers of CO2and greater producers of O than older trees? I hink I read this as being one of the ways people can be carbon nuetrally ungreen: saying they are carbon nuetral tree planters while cutting into mature forest? Growth is nutrient heavy, but then mature trees are bigger so not sure whether the ifference would be significant.

Re tree planting, my future plans are toreplace anything harvested for wood twice, and a third diff species for diversity/other produce. We've planted lot here, and have a small copse in pots waiting to move with us too.:o:o

Michaels, AGAs can be temperamental, every stove I'be used is slightly different. We had a very ecellent, if less ''chic'' stanley, and I've also had a rayburn. I remember one AGA, where I lived with ex partner, only really liked ''big'' cooking if the wind blew the right way: our Christmas turkey was epic, and distressing cooking eperience. AGA probably isn't the way I'd go, however iconic they are, Rayburn (owned by AGA ) might be.