Log burner investment?

dunstonh

Living in a rural area with a decent supply of wood, a place to store it, and away from neighbours I think I do little harm

If you burn good quality seasoned wood correctly then your burners wont let off much in the way of particulates.      PM2.5 has a relatively short life counted in days.  A rural location and a woodburner run correctly means you are doing no harm.

The issues are the cumulative effects in built areas and people burning badly.    

 and on a cold winter night the sight of a flame is comforting. 

I have a burner in my office.  Nothing beats the flame from that when the rain beats against the window or its snowing outside.  The ambience is soothing.

Now the BUT while I've had the multi fuel for well over 20 years and it had been in daily use up until about two years ago.  The wood burner has now developed a crack on the top of the stove and I'm going to have to start looking for a fix.  Bear that in mind OP. That said I think they are great - go for it.  I'll reframe from mentioning the manufacturers name.

Post about it in the alternative energy section.  Lots of woodburner posters in there.

FreeBear

kah22 said: Now the BUT while I've had the multi fuel for well over 20 years and it had been in daily use up until about two years ago.  The wood burner has now developed a crack on the top of the stove and I'm going to have to start looking for a fix.  Bear that in mind OP. That said I think they are great - go for it.  I'll reframe from mentioning the manufacturers name.

If it is a mild steel casing, welding it is pretty trivial. More likely it is cast iron if it has cracked. It can still be welded, but it requires careful pre-heating, welding with specialist rods, and allowed to cool very slowly. Even then, there is no guarantee that a repair is effective or that it will last.

Apodemus

FreeBear said:

kah22 said: Now the BUT while I've had the multi fuel for well over 20 years and it had been in daily use up until about two years ago.  The wood burner has now developed a crack on the top of the stove and I'm going to have to start looking for a fix.  Bear that in mind OP. That said I think they are great - go for it.  I'll reframe from mentioning the manufacturers name.

If it is a mild steel casing, welding it is pretty trivial. More likely it is cast iron if it has cracked. It can still be welded, but it requires careful pre-heating, welding with specialist rods, and allowed to cool very slowly. Even then, there is no guarantee that a repair is effective or that it will last.

While welding might be possible, most stoves have a wide range of replacement parts available and it is probably not too big a job to unbolt the top and replace it.  Cast iron stoves tend to be good old-fashioned engineering requiring only brute force, ignorance... and sealant!

pcgtron

The price of wood has rocketed though in the last 2 years 
In 2020, I was paying 110 quid for 1 cubic metre of kiln dried hardwood
This year, the same amount is 180! 

thriftytracey

I have to admit to being a log burner fan which we had installed about 5 years ago.

1.  Takes about 5 minutes to clean and put ash on flower beds.
2.  Two loads of wood usually last the winter - lit our first fire yesterday.
3.  Cost of a load of logs has gone up £5 purchased from a local farm £95 a load, all hardwood and seasoned.  He comes in a tractor and dumps it on the drive.  Actually pleasant team exercise wheelbarrowing it to store.  I wheelbarrow it and hubby stores it!
4.  We hang around when anyone local has tree surgery and ask for the logs (ensure hard wood) which we then store for 2 years
5.  The concrete cracked at the back of the fire - repaired with fire cement.  The only other maintenance was the rope around the door started to come off.  Just glued it back 5 minute job
6.  Watching the flames is very relaxing
7.  We live in a rural location and many houses appear to have log burners.
8.  We sweep the chimney ourselves, in the summer, we bought the brushes, sellotape a sheet around fireplace - no mess and saves £40 odd a year.

Ally_E.

pcgtron said:

The price of wood has rocketed though in the last 2 years 
In 2020, I was paying 110 quid for 1 cubic metre of kiln dried hardwood
This year, the same amount is 180! 

Where? Prices around here are £360 for cubic meter. We're in Surrey.

Ash on the garden is only good for acidic soils, we're on the downs, so very alkaline and ash would only make soil worse, something to consider in case people aren't aware 

davemorton

I pay £50 for a large dumpy bag, all unloaded and stacked for me.  Not kiln dried, but very dry, from a local tree surgeon.  

Intoodeep

Ally_E. said:

pcgtron said:

The price of wood has rocketed though in the last 2 years 
In 2020, I was paying 110 quid for 1 cubic metre of kiln dried hardwood
This year, the same amount is 180! 

Where? Prices around here are £360 for cubic meter. We're in Surrey.

Ash on the garden is only good for acidic soils, we're on the downs, so very alkaline and ash would only make soil worse, something to consider in case people aren't aware 

I would be far more comfortable buying logs by the Tonne, you get what you pay for by weight. Would love to hear these guys selling by the Cubic Metre how they work it out.

dunstonh

Intoodeep said:

Ally_E. said:

pcgtron said:

The price of wood has rocketed though in the last 2 years 
In 2020, I was paying 110 quid for 1 cubic metre of kiln dried hardwood
This year, the same amount is 180! 

Where? Prices around here are £360 for cubic meter. We're in Surrey.

Ash on the garden is only good for acidic soils, we're on the downs, so very alkaline and ash would only make soil worse, something to consider in case people aren't aware 

I would be far more comfortable buying logs by the Tonne, you get what you pay for by weight. Would love to hear these guys selling by the Cubic Metre how they work it out.

It shouldn't be sold by weight.  It should be by size.

Officer_Dibble

Selling by weight is great for the farmer wanting to flog wood that's soaked through, but not good for the customer.