Log Burners

[Meta menardi]

I was perusing Horticulture Week (including Grower) , 20 Nov 2009, and there is an article titled "Putting waste wood to use".

Glasgow produces 8,000 tonnes of wood from their woods every year, until this has been looked at as a way of providing other uses, most of this has been going to landfill. The article states that this is probably typical for most cities and towns.

[Highland Damsel]

The forestry commission in Scotland is really good, for a small fee you can get a liscence to pick up the leavings from a clearfell site as Seamusagleann was saying. They also keep a stock of small roundwood logs drying for the purposes of woodchip production and then after that for a couple of hundred quid you can have a timber wagon deliver its contents of fiveish meter roundwood logs of around 10-20 in diameter if you have the space, ability and capacity to process it. My local pub has been burning one such load for about three years. This is FCS so it is worth chechking with FC in England too.

There are incredible amounts of wood discarded after being cut, often just burnt on site as an easy way of disposal. To collect and process it is time consuming and hard work but a days work can be a good long time of burning. Often if a large tree has to come down i get a local with a mill to take the stem (easier than spending days processing it and such a good way to use it) and then the remnants support most of the staff fires if we don't sell it or it gets taken by people anyway.

Incidently Rhododendron ponticum is a highly calorific hot burning wood with little flame and so must be great seasoned for stoves. Also in some places it is abundant.

Just building a new house and looking forward to choosing a stove ouselves, te sitka spruce trees we had to take down will keep us going next year and the ash we coppiced, this year (and the arb guy took some of the ash in part payment). I'm all for it and good for cooking soup or stew on top too, especially in a power cut.

[sharon leane]

hi,can anyone tell me where i can get a grant to install a log burner.?? any help much appreciated. best to PM me the answer to this .many thanks

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by sharon leane

hi,can anyone tell me where i can get a grant to install a log burner.?? any help much appreciated. best to PM me the answer to this .many thanks

as far as i know you cant - the govt alt building grants cover solar panels, rain water collection and sundry other things but as far as i know not log burners.

you cabn get a grant for a wood pellet burner - see here http://www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk/ but note that the grant isnt one hundred percent and they are expensive (plus you are limited to buying pellets as fuel)

best bet id to get a cheap burner from ebay and just do it (tho you will still need a competentinstaller to line you chimney etc)

[sharon leane]

thanks eeyore,i have the burner but its the chimney/flue and fitting costs!!! ive had 2 quotes of 3.5k and 2.7k.....
its a long term rented property and my elec bill is £10 per day on a good day!also living in the forest we get alot of power cuts from lines being bought down by fallen trees...of which the electricity boards chosen arborcultralist cuts them up and i beg for the logs...or will do!!!

as for where does all the wood come from...here in the new forest we have self subsatinable woods that are cut and regrown.

i own a copse and would use and regrow my own wood.

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by sharon leane

thanks eeyore,i have the burner but its the chimney/flue and fitting costs!!! ive had 2 quotes of 3.5k and 2.7k.....
its a long term rented property and my elec bill is £10 per day on a good day!also living in the forest we get alot of power cuts from lines being bought down by fallen trees...of which the electricity boards chosen arborcultralist cuts them up and i beg for the logs...or will do!!!

as for where does all the wood come from...here in the new forest we have self subsatinable woods that are cut and regrown.

i own a copse and would use and regrow my own wood.

You could try your Local Authority which may consider the work to fall within its Housing Renovation scheme; do be aware though that grants are often limited to low income applicants. Some loca authorities are now offer low interest loans in place of grants.

If you are fitting the stove into an existing fire place, it may be that if the chimney lining is intact you will not need to install a full height flue, it's worth discussing this with the prospective installers.

CM

[eeyore]

In a rental property I'ds be sorely tempted to do it myself - okay it wouldnt conform to building regs but its not your house so who cares - it would only be a problem when the house was sold, and if the landlord didint like it you could always take it out.

back when i was a contractor me and my mate gary did a house in blandford like that - just bought some "gypsy tubing" (and yes i know that isnt a pc name - i dont know what it is really called, its that stuff thats made of a load of flexible metal rings) from ebay for about a hundred notes - climbed on to the roof and dropped a rope down to the hearth - tied the rope to the tubing and hauled it up then secured the tube to the top of the chimney (having taken the cowl off first) with a couple of screws in rawl plugs - put the cowl back on, dab of motar, and bobs your aging relative.

back in the living room we put a cast pipe on the top of the stove, and stuck it inside the tubing, and secured the joins with boiler tape.

Strictly not according to the book and contrary to building regs - and i take no responsibility if anyone does the same - but it kept us warm for two winters for a total spend of a couple of hundred notes. (gary owned the house in question - so when he came to sell we just un did the screws and dropped the tubing back down the chimney and ripped the whole lot out - and sold it on ebay for about half what we paid for it originally)

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by eeyore

In a rental property I'ds be sorely tempted to do it myself - okay it wouldnt conform to building regs but its not your house so who cares - it would only be a problem when the house was sold, and if the landlord didint like it you could always take it out.

Log burning stoves are far more efficient than an open fire, so particular attention needs to be paid to venting as well as the fluing. Anyone doing a DIY burner installation must ensure that adequate ventallation is provided. Carbon Dioxide isn't just a hazard with gas fires; in a modern house, or even in an older property with double glazing it's a serious issue whatever the combustion source which must be addressed - children are especially vulnerable. Building regs on venting should be adhered to because unlike the flue, which if defective will be obvious because of the smoke - CO is invisible and odourless.

CM

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by Cotham Marble

Log burning stoves are far more efficient than an open fire, so particular attention needs to be paid to venting as well as the fluing. Anyone doing a DIY burner installation must ensure that adequate ventallation is provided. Carbon Dioxide isn't just a hazard with gas fires; in a modern house, or even in an older property with double glazing it's a serious issue whatever the combustion source which must be addressed - children are especially vulnerable. Building regs on venting should be adhered to because unlike the flue, which if defective will be obvious because of the smoke - CO is invisible and odourless.

CM

absolutely - but my point is that this work isnt rocket science and it certainly isnt worth several k

[Cowgirl]

This is probably a really stupid question, but why do you need to have a special liner for the chimney if converting a coal fire to a log burner, but if you use the coal fire you don't have to have this liner & can simpy burn logs? I understand the dangers re wood & chimneys & fires etc (had a coal fire for main source of heat & water for over 20 years). Am I missing something?