Burning of waste timber ecological or not?

Wiggly_Worm

I'm not a woodburner myself (except on my allotment) though I would like to be - I hate using gas - but I do know a few woodworkers/turners, and they often get large amounts of wood free or very cheap from the council when they are felling or pruning 'public' trees. May be worth getting in touch with your parks department and offering to help them out with waste disposal Certainly 'treatment free', although you would need somewhere to store it and let it dry out.

Ted_Hutchinson

Wiggly_Worm wrote:

..... large amounts of wood free or very cheap from the council when they are felling or pruning 'public' trees. May be worth getting in touch with your parks department and offering to help them out with waste disposal Certainly 'treatment free', although you would need somewhere to store it and let it dry out.

Most of this years supply came from LA contractors pruning roadside trees who just left the large logs in the hedge bottoms.
For storage, a wall to stack them against is all you need. I've rigged up a lean to roof but the sides can be just a couple of poles, and a couple of runners to stand the bottom row of logs on. Ideally you need a couple, one for using and the other for seasoning.

John_3:16

Well first year with a woodburner so not sure how much we would need. Started in March this year stacking. At the moment looks like we have enough for 2 seasons. I am now stacking for 2008-9. I was unsure about willow told it would spit no problem but very wet. i have dried some for 5 mths in a ice warm workshop and am happy to say it burns well. I have as much willow as I can handle just need to chop.

Burner is great just keeping an eye on the chimney. I have found always burn hot and it helps with tar etc.

HugoSP

It's worth at least considering lining your chimneys.

speedyjoe

HugoSP wrote:

It's worth at least considering lining your chimneys.

Legally nowadays you are required to comply with the building regulations when fitting a stove or altering a flue. Here's the regs http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/stove-chimney-documentation/Document-J-building-regulations.pdf

Some people will tell you that all stoves now need liners but as far as I can tell so long as the chimney is sound (needs testing with a smoke test) then I don't think that is true.

I think officially you need to tell the council building compliance officer of any work affecting a flue and will probably have to pay them to inspect. To be honest though as long as you comply with the regs if you don't tell them I don't think the risk of getting in trouble is very high.

HugoSP

It's worth considering lining the chimney because in older properties that have no lining in the flues but are internally brick or stone (with lime mortar) the flues are at risk of deterioration.

Once a stone or brick becomes dislodged and it blocks the flue then worst case scenario is asphyxiation for all the family - not nice.

This was mentioned to me by the chap who lined my latest flue. Although I understood what he was saying I didn't think it was likely to have affected my chimney. He and his son spent the morning trying to fish bricks out of my flue. They hadn't put them there, the wisp between two flues had collapsed. I could see the damage for myself.

Lining them not only stabalised the flues by ensuring equal pressure all round but has also given me a suface through which gasses cannot escape.

A smoke test will not confirm a condition of a flue in this respect. Mine passed a smoke test carried out by a sweep, only to have these faults discovered a few weeks later. In fact the flues between our basement kitchen (to be) and my DDs bedroom were infact 'joined' by this collapse. Had the problem gone unnoticed, with the wind blowing in the wrong direction, my DD could have been killed!

speedyjoe

If you comply with the regulations you will be fine.

markb777

better to burn wood then leave it to rot co2 into enviroment anyway

Hapless_2

Wood is officially carbon neutral, especially if it comes from managed woodlands (if buying). My hubby cuts wood for his ex boss so he can get his woodland trust payments, in return we get the wood for free, which means we buy less more polluting coal for the rayburn.

cepheus

johnjp wrote: »

It`s true to say that the CO2 release is the same from burnt and unburnt products but the speed of release is much faster with a burnt product and it is , by and large, the much faster rate of CO2 release, e.g. by burning fossil fuels, that has speeded up the effects of global warming....On balance it is probably wiser to send building timbers to landfill where any harmful stuff can be locked away for, well, forever!

Using wood to store carbon is an interesting concept which has largely been ignored. I calculate that there is enough wood produced to offset the entire aviation and shipping emissions combined. Placing wood in landfill is probably the best way of dealing with it as you say. However rotting wood gives of methane with 20 odd times the global warming potential of CO2. Wood has to be managed in use and landfills properly capped to stop too much Methane and CO2 production from buried biomass. Burning it simply gives it back to the environment as well as the toxic chemicals you mention (this is why it is difficult to legally incinerate) but by properly burying it you can effectively offset carbon production from other sources.