Wet Wood & Coal

[Richard_C]

Remember we made all our gas out of coal once. Need to check date but I think it was mid 60s when the new-fangled natural gas came along, region by region, someone from the gas bosrd as it was called came along to convert the oven, new nozzles. A massive logistics undertaking.

 

[MikeG.]

I make wheels for horse drawn vehicles.......

I'm a keen follower of Engel's Coach Shop on Youtube. It'd be good to see some posts on your work here on the forum.

 

[John Brown]

I make wheels for horse drawn vehicles and use pallets to heat and expand the steel tyres to fit over the wheels. They burn like hell, no Idea what the moisture content would be though

Probably a few posters in the EV thread would be interested in your services.

 

[powertools]

A properly designed wood stove will be much more efficient at burning wood than a multi fuel will be - the draught intakes will be in different places. Clearviews are nice stoves, but cost a small fortune in baffles, grids, firebricks etc. - Mine worked out to cost £400 or so every three years on average. By the eighth year it had cost as much in parts as it had cost new. The running costs of my Dowling ............ zilch.

Well that is not anything like our experience of our Clearveiw stove it does have separate controls for wood or smokeless fuel.
We are now into our 5th winter of using it and we have had no maintenance costs at all.

 

[Mike-W]

As a rural resident I try and buy/ beg/collect recently felled trees/branches, cut split and then season. It’s unclear whether it’s ok to buy a wet trunk but not ok to buy wet wood that has been cut and split ready for burning that still needs seasoning.
Sounds like another half baked poorly thought out scheme

Richard

I'm a volunteer helping to manage our 15ha mixed woodland on the edge of our village . As part of our ongoing woodland management we fell broadleaf trees in the winter that have become or are soon likely to become unsafe to the many users of our woods, this produces about 20 m3 of cordwood i.e. all cut to metre length that we currently sell for processing as firewood to the local community. - Its our main revenue source to help manage the woods. We could sell some of it to a commercial firewood processor but i suspect the vast majority of our hardwood (which will be above 20% moisture content) would end up being burned in a giant bonfire-
What did Richard say about half baked poorly thought out scheme?

 

[Trainee neophyte]

As a rural resident I try and buy/ beg/collect recently felled trees/branches, cut split and then season. It’s unclear whether it’s ok to buy a wet trunk but not ok to buy wet wood that has been cut and split ready for burning that still needs seasoning.
Sounds like another half baked poorly thought out scheme

Richard

I'm a volunteer helping to manage our 15ha mixed woodland on the edge of our village . As part of our ongoing woodland management we fell broadleaf trees in the winter that have become or are soon likely to become unsafe to the many users of our woods, this produces about 20 m3 of cordwood i.e. all cut to metre length that we currently sell for processing as firewood to the local community. - Its our main revenue source to help manage the woods. We could sell some of it to a commercial firewood processor but i suspect the vast majority of our hardwood (which will be above 20% moisture content) would end up being burned in a giant bonfire-
What did Richard say about half baked poorly thought out scheme?

I have been reading up on wood drying this morning (solar kilns, to be precise), and a polytunnel is the perfect way to dry firewood, it would seem. If you can get a slope on the tunnel, you get automatic air movement through convection. All clever stuff - it is even done as a commercial drying system. It looks to be a bit too aggressive for kilning wood without it splitting, (I have walnut and olive wood to dry, carefully) but for firewood is ideal. I don't suppose you have access to / could build a polytunnel? Anyone who has a greenhouse can do the same, and the wood acts as thermal mass to hold heat for your tomatoes (assuming you leave some room for planting, too).

The townies will be putting a stop to bonfires soon (https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/ba ... nfire.html), so you better invest in a wood chipper. Someone needs to invent a steam-powered, wood chip burning wood chipper, to keep the greenies happy. Or would it?

 

[Rich C]

T_N that poll is 13 years old and have seven signatures, I'm not sure the government are going to be reading to implement it.

 

[RogerS]

As a rural resident I try and buy/ beg/collect recently felled trees/branches, cut split and then season. It’s unclear whether it’s ok to buy a wet trunk but not ok to buy wet wood that has been cut and split ready for burning that still needs seasoning.
Sounds like another half baked poorly thought out scheme

Richard

I'm a volunteer helping to manage our 15ha mixed woodland on the edge of our village . As part of our ongoing woodland management we fell broadleaf trees in the winter that have become or are soon likely to become unsafe to the many users of our woods, this produces about 20 m3 of cordwood i.e. all cut to metre length that we currently sell for processing as firewood to the local community. - Its our main revenue source to help manage the woods. We could sell some of it to a commercial firewood processor but i suspect the vast majority of our hardwood (which will be above 20% moisture content) would end up being burned in a giant bonfire-
What did Richard say about half baked poorly thought out scheme?

If it were me I'd simply carry on doing it and say 'Sod 'em'. Actually you raise an interesting point. What are you supposed to do with the wood, if you don't sell it ? Leave it to rot? Big bonfire ...releasing all that nasty stuff and heat into the atmosphere rather than heating peoples' homes who will then go and spend more money on burning more oil in their CH system.

Seriously, the way round it is to form a charity. That accepts donations. Wink wink. Charity formed "to manage the woodland for the benefit of the nation ....insert BS words to suit"

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I wonder what the legal definition of a "log" will be? They'll have to define it. I would imagine a metre long piece of wood would fall outside of it, anyway.

 

[Mike-W]

I wonder what the legal definition of a "log" will be? They'll have to define it. I would imagine a metre long piece of wood would fall outside of it, anyway.

I think Cordwood in this country means mixed diameter and bent wood of a particular length that cannot be sold for processing at the sawmill (nor commercial chippers/ biomass power stations- they normally take 3 metre straight lengths of timber for economy of haulage rates). The Americans define cordwood at 4 feet long.

My description of the wood we previously sold for firewood as Cordwood was quite intentional!

The polytunnel idea was mentioned yesterday when we were talking about this directive- but we are already handling the timber three times (felling, forwarding then stacking for final sale), how much more handling before it becomes un-economic?

We do leave some wood on the ground to rot- it provides excellent Bug Hotels, but there is a limit on how much we want to leave before it becomes an eyesore.

As far as i am aware there is no restriction on fires in our woods to burn off waste wood and vegetation but by its nature the felled trees & brashing's will be significantly more wet than burning the timber in a fire grate at home, so for our village its a no brainer and as i mentioned previously its our main revenue source for us to continue effective woodland management.

 

[AJB Temple]

I am currently growing an area of mixed woodland specifically for my own log burning and other needs. First felling is about 2 years away. Investigating pellet boiler systems again (pellets far more efficient and much less labour intensive than logs). Snag with that is I would have to buy the pellets in.

 

[RogerS]

I wonder what the legal definition of a "log" will be? They'll have to define it. I would imagine a metre long piece of wood would fall outside of it, anyway.

I think Cordwood in this country means mixed diameter and bent wood of a particular length that cannot be sold for processing at the sawmill (nor commercial chippers/ biomass power stations- they normally take 3 metre straight lengths of timber for economy of haulage rates). The Americans define cordwood at 4 feet long.

My description of the wood we previously sold for firewood as Cordwood was quite intentional!

The polytunnel idea was mentioned yesterday when we were talking about this directive- but we are already handling the timber three times (felling, forwarding then stacking for final sale), how much more handling before it becomes un-economic?

We do leave some wood on the ground to rot- it provides excellent Bug Hotels, but there is a limit on how much we want to leave before it becomes an eyesore.

As far as i am aware there is no restriction on fires in our woods to burn off waste wood and vegetation but by its nature the felled trees & brashing's will be significantly more wet than burning the timber in a fire grate at home, so for our village its a no brainer and as i mentioned previously its our main revenue source for us to continue effective woodland management.

As I suggested. Form a charity.

 

[RogerS]

..... (pellets far more efficient and much less labour intensive than logs).....

Ain't that the truth. Trouble is LOML likes her open fire.

Out of curiosity are you going to get someone in to fell and prep them ?

 

[John Brown]

I find it hard to get my head round the attitude expressed in some of these posts.
If the burning the wet stuff gives rise to particulates that are harmful, then we should take steps to sort it out. If that means regulations about how logs are seasoned, then so be it. Why would anyone believe they have a right to burn whatever they like, regardless of the damage they may do to other peoples lungs?
OK, there's going to be a lot of pollution from China, India or wherever. But is that any excuse?
There are serial killers at large, but that doesn't mean it's OK for me to mug old ladies in the street.

 

[Jake]

As I suggested. Form a charity.

I can't find much detail on the proposed regulation, but it appears it may be to ban sales of less than 2m^3 of wet firewood. Over 2m^3, it seems to be proposed there is an obligation to give advice about seasoning. So an answer without the hassle of charity status (quite a burden) would be a buyers' club so the single sale is always more than 2m^3 and the club just divvies it up.

 

[Blackswanwood]

I wonder what the legal definition of a "log" will be? They'll have to define it. I would imagine a metre long piece of wood would fall outside of it, anyway.

I think Cordwood in this country means mixed diameter and bent wood of a particular length that cannot be sold for processing at the sawmill (nor commercial chippers/ biomass power stations- they normally take 3 metre straight lengths of timber for economy of haulage rates). The Americans define cordwood at 4 feet long.

My description of the wood we previously sold for firewood as Cordwood was quite intentional!

The polytunnel idea was mentioned yesterday when we were talking about this directive- but we are already handling the timber three times (felling, forwarding then stacking for final sale), how much more handling before it becomes un-economic?

We do leave some wood on the ground to rot- it provides excellent Bug Hotels, but there is a limit on how much we want to leave before it becomes an eyesore.

As far as i am aware there is no restriction on fires in our woods to burn off waste wood and vegetation but by its nature the felled trees & brashing's will be significantly more wet than burning the timber in a fire grate at home, so for our village its a no brainer and as i mentioned previously its our main revenue source for us to continue effective woodland management.

As I suggested. Form a charity.

I suspect the Charity Commission may have a different view as forming a charity to get around legislation wasn’t a permissible purpose last time I looked.

 

[RogerS]

I find it hard to get my head round the attitude expressed in some of these posts.
If the burning the wet stuff gives rise to particulates that are harmful, then we should take steps to sort it out. If that means regulations about how logs are seasoned, then so be it. Why would anyone believe they have a right to burn whatever they like, regardless of the damage they may do to other peoples lungs?
OK, there's going to be a lot of pollution from China, India or wherever. But is that any excuse?
There are serial killers at large, but that doesn't mean it's OK for me to mug old ladies in the street.

Partly because it's been poorly reported in the media, I suggest. In fact, the proposals don't go far enough. There is consistent evidence out in there in peer-reviewed scientific papers that the level of PM2.5 from wood burning stoves - REGARDLESS of type of wood burnt - is unacceptably high specially in urban environments. If the Govt was serious then they should ban the sale and use of ALL wood burning stoves in urban area unless they are of the exempt type that burn their own smoke ...full list available on the Govt website.

Rural areas should burn only seasoned (yes, seasoned wood is still acceptable) or kiln-dried.

 

[Mike-W]

As I suggested. Form a charity.

I can't find much detail on the proposed regulation, but it appears it may be to ban sales of less than 2m^3 of wet firewood. Over 2m^3, it seems to be proposed there is an obligation to give advice about seasoning. So an answer without the hassle of charity status (quite a burden) would be a buyers' club so the single sale is always more than 2m^3 and the club just divvies it up.

We won't be going down the charity route, its something we have looked at in the distant pass and feel for our organisation it would make running the organisation too bureaucratic.
I don't have a log fire so I don't know how long 2m^3 will last, but we currently sell 1m^3 loads of Cordwood from two measured out 'pens' so actually it would be quite easy for us to do a minimum sale of 2m^3. Several of our customers currently take 2 or more loads anyhow. For some users I think it is their main source of heating as we don't have gas in our village. The buyers biggest problem is transporting it from our loading area to their home.