wood burners

dunstonh

FreeBear said:

dunstonh said:

And the effort... carrying in logs, spending 20-30 mins every day getting it going, cleaning up, dealing with all the ashes....

I have spent 6 hours in the last two weeks with a chainsaw cutting wood up.   I find it quite enjoyable and its good exercise.  However, the oil for the chainsaw and sharpening the blades need to be considered.  It's also quite messy with the shavings (I do it on a tarpaulin and tip it into the green bin.

The debris from cutting can go on the garden as a mulch, or spread out in the wood shed to dry - It won't take long, and can then be used as a base layer when lighting the fire.

Good idea for those that need it.  But we don't need mulch and we don't need a base layer.   We put it on the horse muck trailer and take it to the allocated muck field when full.  

we looked at some recent quotes and it was closer to £8k for a 'basic' installation (no or minimal roof work). guy said the demand was crazy at the moment so prices had jumped. something we might look into but probably not for a couple of years till things have maybe settled a bit.  

You may wish to check if your council is running a buying scheme.  Our council is obtaining lists of people who express an interest with installing them and then arranging firms to quote on a bulk basis with appropriate discounts for the scale.  The council is doing due diligence on the firms as well.   I don't know if it's a nationwide thing or a regional thing.   It comes under our district council's remit but the parish councils were given information to pass on for those interested.

you need to remember that batteries alone are around £1000 per kWh of storage.   So, if you need 10kWh or storage, you are looking at around £10k just for that with panels etc on top.

ariarnia

that wasn't a quote with islanding. just the basic panels and inverter(?) the guy said the prices were nearly double what they were a year ago (i can't remember the exact quote but it was more than £7k) because of the demand. we're signed up for ovo's scheme and the only local council schemes are eligibility people in fuel poverty or income related benefits (which doesn't include us). nothing cooperative open to anyone. 

dunstonh

ariarnia said:

that wasn't a quote with islanding. just the basic panels and inverter(?) the guy said the prices were nearly double what they were a year ago (i can't remember the exact quote but it was more than £7k) because of the demand. we're signed up for ovo's scheme and the only local council schemes are eligibility people in fuel poverty or income related benefits (which doesn't include us). nothing cooperative open to anyone. 

I just checked and it is actually a county council initiative.  Suffolk, Norfolk, Liverpool City Region, Hertfordshire and Hampshire are active.  it suggests other county councils may be open soon.  

https://solartogether.co.uk/landing

Qyburn

One cu metre of softwood is around 10,000kWh.  At local prices that makes it equivalent to an oil price of 60p per litre.  In reality it's a bigger saving because we get around half our wood from our own property and other free sources, and because the wood stoves directly heat the rooms rather than trying to heat the whole house.

maisie_cat

We inherited a wood burner and an ancient oil Rayburn when we moved here, the oil Rayburn was expensive to run so we relied on the woodburner for heat except for mid winter.
We also have nearly an acre of woodland, mostly hardwood, so don't need to buy wood, and have the time to collect, cut, split and create wood piles. We use the wood burner more than the now installed central heating, but I wouldn't like to buy wood, it's costs a fortune around here.
We did need to invest in chainsaws, wood splitter, and safety equipment, but that's because I love climbing trees!

nastyphoenix

A lot depends on whether you have an efficient burner. I'd recommend a wood only burner as they will ban coal soon in a lot of places. Generally I find that it costs more to run when gas/electric are at normal prices. At the moment, it's about the same. I use around 3 shopping bags of logs per evening which is about £6. This has some helpful information : https://www.the-fireplace-studio.co.uk/news/gas-stoves-vs-wood-burners/#:~:text=Despite the traditional aesthetics of,heating up the entire room.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

FreeBear said:

mark_cycling00 said: As mentioned above, there is **lots** to consider including the burner, installation, chimney works, kindling (don't go burning chemical soaked magazines or cardboard every day) wood storage, the increasing price of wood as everyone out there buys a log burner, annual chimney cleaning etc. Probably getting close to the cost of roof solar installation!

Shed - £1K - Do not underestimate just how much wood you'd get through each winter.

If you can get your hands on a bunch of pallets and have reasonable DIY skills I think you could knock together a tidy and sizable woodstore for the cost of the screws and corrugated sheet material for the roof. 

Mister_G

Like this? 

Cash-Cows

You don't need log stores. Stack wood on pallets to keep off wet ground and it will dry. Periodically brush off any debris from the top eg wet leaves. 

Apodemus

Cash-Cows said:

You don't need log stores. Stack wood on pallets to keep off wet ground and it will dry. Periodically brush off any debris from the top eg wet leaves. 

But you do need to cover it or it will just get wet again!