Free heating with Pallets

Tim_Mullis

Just saw the bit about why we leave the door open. When the fire is going it gets to the point that down stairs is nice and hot. The door is open for the heat to convect up stairs as well. The lovely thing about heating for free is you can have it on full blast and not feel guilty about it.

firefox1956

Less chemicals / harmful emissions from a pallet than your motor car I would think.

ChumpusRex

firefox1956 wrote: »

Less chemicals / harmful emissions from a pallet than your motor car I would think.

Unlikely. On a total basis, domestic wood burning accounts for about 2x as many toxic emissions as road transport.

This is a particular problem in London: while the "low emissions zone" has reduced road emissions, people installing log burners have increased emissions by 6x the amount saved from road emissions.

poppasmurf_bewdley

I like everything you are doing, but I've found that the wood from pallets burns extremely quickly when compared to logs. Whenever I've burnt pallets, I've had to top up three or four times more often than with the more traditional wood.

But for free, what the hell!!

Tim_Mullis

Agreed, more frequent loading is required. We stack it good and high in the stove and sometimes control the air flow to make it last. In truth though we do like to have it roaring away Strangely the pallets aren't always made of pine, there are some really heavy hardwoods. Sometimes there is a deep red coloured wood used that is practically impossible to saw through but that burns for ages.

I guess the extra loading is offset by the knowledge that you just don't need to worry about the bill. Before we started heating in this way I was always pushing the thermometer down the odd degree until you end up sitting in your jumper at 16/17 degrees. Now after a few hours I'm in my T-shirt in the middle of winter!

Tim_Mullis

Does anyone know of other sources of free wood?

Tim_Mullis

I'm not convinced about the emissions from a stove. When an open fire is used you can see the smoke coming out of a chimney. When the stove is good and hot and drawing air well the smoke tends to get combusted. When I stand outside of the house and look up at the chimney the only way of knowing the wood stove is on is the slight heat shimmer above the chimney. There really isn't any particulate emissions as the carbon gets completely burnt.

On balance I really can't see that this is worse than using gas or oil for emissions (let alone the fact that wood is renewable).