Log burner investment?

Officer_Dibble

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

If you're happy to consider delivery from further afield, you can get 1.6 cubic metres of kiln dried wood for £309 (inc delivery)  from certainlywood in Hereford.

ariarnia

Officer_Dibble 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

If you're happy to consider delivery from further afield, you can get 1.6 cubic metres of kiln dried wood for £309 (inc delivery)  from certainlywood in Hereford.

if you mean this https://www.certainlywood.co.uk/products/kiln-dried-logs then how do they come in the bag? quite often here a bulk bag is logs dumped in not stacked so you dont get 1.6 cubic meters in a 1.6 cubic meter bag. 

our local supplier does one of the 0.8 bags they sell for £200 for £80 (£75 each if you buy 2 plus £10 if you want them stacked) but two bags is just over a cubic meter (maybe 1.2) when properly stacked. 

Officer_Dibble

That's good - our local suppliers don't, we're nearer the Surrey costs for something much less dry. Seems crazy that it's worth ordering from 100 miles away, but it is. They're not stacked but sold as "loose fill". measured in a cage. I've never felt short-changed. Obviously the smaller bags are worse value as the cost of sending the pallet is proportionately much more.

ariarnia

we're lucky we can get a lot of what we burn free (or just petrol for OH to collect) but yes its a lot easier to think about getting in a couple of bags at 150 than double that!

uk1

For people in North Hampshire or within their deliveries I cannot praise Frank Haighton enough ….. they have been supplying us for years.

https://frankhaightonlogs.co.uk/prices/

pcgtron

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 

We're in Bedfordshire, but get it delivered from Nene Valley Firewood in Northampton

Qyburn

Intoodeep said:

 

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.

From our nearest supplier here's a pile of information, calorific values, correction for moisture content, hardwood vs softwood etc. However just on the point of volume, merchants sell by the "loose" cubic metre, ie they throw the logs in to fill that space.  They don't pack it down.  From Linnorie they estimate one cu.m loose = 0.6cu. stacked = 0.4cu.m of solid wood. Their softwood comes in around 250kg, hardwood is about 400kg, making softwood at £60 a little bit more cost effective than their hardwood at £99.

https://www.firewoodbylfs.co.uk/about-firewood

On selling by weight, the argument used to be that wet or dry logs would come in at different weights, but the same volume. However nowadays when virtually all supplier guarantee m/c of 20% or less then weight would make sense. Take hardwood for example, a cu.m of Beech or Oak is going to have a lot more heat than a cu.m of Willow or Poplar (or Balsa wood for that matter).

Cautiouslyoptimistic

We had a Blithfield Clock 5 kwh wood burning log stove installed 3 years ago on 0% finance spread over 12 months.  It wasn't cheap as we also needed chimney repairs to make it work. It was only ever intended to be a focal point for the lounge replacing a 30-year-old clapped out gas fireplace. However, fast forward 3 years and we are now in the midst of a fuel price crisis. Based upon a 4-bed detached house, our predicted annual fuel bill based on the October government capped rates was just under £4,700 over the next 12 months.  This included about 27,000 kwh of gas of which about 24,000 kwh was used between October '21 and March '22. That's nearly £2,500 on this years "fixed rates" JUST for central heating over 6 months or £416 per month / £104 per week.

During October just gone and mostly as a trial we bought two 1 tonne builders' bags of chopped log delivered including free kindling wood. We used 338 kwh of gas as opposed to 2,048 kwh last October, so we saved about £100 on gas heating just in October.  If we can get through the next 5 months by just using the log burner during the days and evenings, then we will save thousands on the gas central heating.

Personally, if you already have a log burner installed then you would be mad not to use it IF you can find a reasonably priced wood supply.  Mentally I've written off my install costs from a few years ago and now everything saved on using gas is a plus. I'm a week into November and I've only used 105 kwh. It won't go above 400 kwh which will be a further saving of 3,400 kwh on last years use.  For us it's a no brainer.  The gas CH is not being turned on.    

 

Petriix

A woodburner can definitely be a money saving investment, if you're prepared to do the hard work.

I picked up a good quality, second hand Villager stove for £150 and bought a flue kit and everything needed for the installation for about £250. I put the flue down the chimney myself then paid a HEATS engineer £100 to check it all and register it. So about £500 total. 

I bought one load of wood for £120 of which I still have about 1/3 left. I have supplemented this by collecting, cutting and drying any hardwood that I find lying around. I also know a few gardeners who sometimes come into piles of logs.

It's hard work sawing and splitting it all, but it allows us to heat our main room and turn the heating for the rest of the house right down much of the time. I estimate it's cut our gas use by 30%, but this also requires effort to keep doors shut and control moisture to avoid condensation in the cold rooms.

You need space to season the wood and you need to plan ahead by a year, but it's very satisfying. And it gives a degree of security to know that you can keep warm even if gas supplies run short or your boiler breaks down.

QrizB

Cautiouslyoptimistic said:

During October just gone and mostly as a trial we bought two 1 tonne builders' bags of chopped log delivered including free kindling wood. We used 338 kwh of gas as opposed to 2,048 kwh last October, so we saved about £100 on gas heating just in October.  If we can get through the next 5 months by just using the log burner during the days and evenings, then we will save thousands on the gas central heating.

This latest October has been unusually warm, it made the news. Many people on this forum didn't run their heating at all for the whole month. If this was true in your area, you'd have saved the £100 on gas even without buying a stove.

A 1-tonne bag of logs contains about 1200kWh of heat, and a stove is rather less efficient than a boiler. I'm not saying you won't save money, but I think your estimate is on the high side.