THE Prepping thread - a new beginning :)

thriftwizard

I've also picked up the anti-woodburner thing, maryb. Yet when ours is lit and up to temperature, there's hardy a wisp of smoke to be seen or smelt; I know there ARE gases escaping up the chimney, but you'd need to be fairly close to it to realise. Same when we're cooking outside; to get up to cooking temperatures, you need a "clean" burn where there's just a little white smoke. If there are clouds of grey smoke & sparks after the flames have got going, the wood is damp (or green) and the temperature will be too low. I do sometimes see chimneys belching smoke, and wonder if the owners have taken on board about how best to start a fire, and what to burn; our installer insisted on conducting a masterclass for us, even though I grew up with stoves and open fires, but I've heard of others who haven't.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'll admit to always having "had my suspicions" re woodburners.

Yep - they look nice.

Yep - they certainly do turn out the heat.

.....and then "Everyone and Their Dog" started getting them - and the death knell started getting sounded on them imo.

There is always the "Doing whatever by just a few people works - but then Everyone Else does so too and it just doesnt" factor. I thought that would happen with woodburners - and it has.

The "Copycat Factor" is often the killer for an idea that would work fine for just a few people. The first few adopters get the benefit - but then the Copycat Factor comes in and it all goes belly up imo.

I must say that is what I think has happened now with woodburners unfortunately. The Copycat Factor has ruined it for the first adopters.

maryb

Mardatha, I say woodburner but it is in fact a multifuel stove. But if we don't burn wood we can only burn smokeless fuel because we are a smokeless zone. Expensive and hard to get round here. It would turn the stove into just a very cost-inefficient backup for a powercut

mardatha

I burn smokeless eggs, 2 bags a week @ £17 a bag. But that heats my radiators, my livingroom, my stone walls, gives me tons of hot water, and dries my washing overnight. I use hardly any elect and there is no gas here. For us, we think it's expensive but worth it in comfort, too many powercuts up here to depend on electric heating. Also I can burn a lot of my rubbish too which saves ua ll work.

[Deleted User]

Ours is a Clearview and we only burn wood and I find that once she's lit and up to heat we get the second burn and can't smell anything outside. I wouldn't swap mine for any other heating source, it's the best investment we ever made and the source of a large percentage of my contentment and better to watch than the TV!!!

maryb

I think you're right, it depends on getting it up to temperature quickly but we seem to have quite a lot of softwood at present and that simply doesn't burn hot even when it's dry and seasoned. Hopefully going forward we'll have a better mix of softwood and hardwood

[Deleted User]

He Who Knows read the article about wood stove emissions in London and the Mayor was suggesting that people needed to learn how to run stoves properly so that emissions were minimised and also that stove manufacturers need to make the actual stoves run more efficiently and reduce emissions that way too all of which makes a great deal of sense.

Cappella

There's no real form of clean energy in this country surely? Whatever we use to heat our homes will have an inevitable environmental impact. Even wind turbos and solar panels use scarce resources And create potentially hazardous emissions during the manufacturing process and add to landfill problems.
I refuse to adopt either a " holier or a guiltier than thou" attitude with reference to the form of heating I use, partly because living where we do our choices are limited by byelaws and regulations, but also because I believe that we are ALL responsible ultimately for the state of the planet, no matter how careful we may be to limit our carbon footprint.
As Mrslurcherwalker points out the best that we can do - given that we are mammals who need to stay warm in for bad weather - is to limit the damage by being sparing with the resources we have. I'm NOT advocating sitting shivering. I AM advocating turning our heating down, wearing thicker clothes, wearing layers and being mindful of the wider consequences of everyday actions we take.
Plus of course less heat = smaller bills.
We have central heating and a gas fire in our living room. We also still have an open fire in our sitting room. We don't use it much but we do sometimes burn wood or smokeless fuel on it when our boiler breaks down. I do have to admit though that visitors seem to find our house chilly, and I'm often uncomfortably hot in shops and public buildings. Maybe as a nation we've just got too used to easy, instant heat. ( Yes, I know a wood burner doesn't give instant heat) That's something we should all be thinking about.
On which sanctimonious note I'll switch the fire off and go and walk the dog!

fuddle

It's a great point. How many of 'us' crank the heating up whether that be electric, oil or gas powered and sit in t-shirts and bare feet? Their perogative I suppose and who am I to judge if it's those same people who have a moan about the emmisions of stoves and fires and set about judging others then I find that a bit of issue. I agree, we all need heat to survive. Fire's and stoves are age old. Many of us grew up with them, they're all around where I live now. They're nothing new and I don't believe they are a fashionable fad in my neck of the woods at all. I think my kinda folk rely on their stoves and fires and have done for generations.

I find it hard to believe that now I have a multifuel stove that heating one room with solid fuel and allowing the residual heat to travel is any worse that having central heating system heating every room. And if it is? As long as I am careful with my resources and learn how to use the stove properly then that is enough for me because as Cappella said, we're mammels who need to heat our spaces to survive the cold of winter... and I wear socks and a jumper.

[Deleted User]

That's NOT sanctimonious lovey, that's the stark bare truth of the situation we are in in 2017! People are used to plenty, to choice, to running homes in the winter so warm that they answer the door in shorts and strappy tops when it's arctic outside (I've seen it!). We have lost touch with the reality of real life, we have been sold a false dream by the advertising community, the media and the capitalists who only survive because we are taught to buy everything they make 'because we're worth it!', I SO hate those ads!!! We are spoiled in a word and folks who have no other yardstick to measure their success in life or otherwise are materialistic in their views and judge a good life by what they have, what they can get next and what others would think if they didn't have several exotic holidays a year and all the latest 'must haves' for the family at Christmas. It's unsustainable and has brought us to the place in history we are at now. We need a bucket of cold reality and eyes that can see exactly and honestly how fragile this earth and our existence as humans really is, I'd much rather know the truth than live in a bubble.....so yes, turn down the heating and throw on a jumper for your own sakes as well as that of mankind and the Earth!!!