|
|
Post by SpiralScratch on Dec 19, 2023 13:51:28 GMT
Yeah that's definitely a factor. I got some cheap logs from tesco once. Christ, never again. They were shite and I spent more time constantly reviving a smoked up fire. Back on the kiln dried ones, and bingo. All clean and a piece of piss to maintain. Those logs and some smokeless oval coals hardly produce much smoke at all. I go outside and check the chimney and can't see any smoke half the time, never mind smell it. Don't tell the guardian that though, they'll explode in fury. Yep - the firewood they flog at silly prices in supermarkets and garage forecourts is usually absolute shite. Living in the city I'm gobsmacked by the current prices of kiln-dried from reputable log suppliers locally. When I worked near a farm that ran a little firewood business I used to be able to get a 0.9m3 builders dumpy of perfect ash logs, barn dried for several years, for £80. He stopped doing it last year unfortunately and same amount of kiln dried if I have to buy it locally here in Bristol is £180 or more....fucking hell. Energy prices of kiln drying to blame I guess. |
|
|
|
Post by quadfather on Dec 19, 2023 15:25:48 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Mr Wonderstuff on Dec 19, 2023 15:30:24 GMT
I bet most of the journos have log burners/open fires - it's a middle class thing innit. *Looks at log burner*. Hmmmm.
|
|
nexus6
Junior Member
Posts: 2,527
|
Post by nexus6 on Dec 19, 2023 15:32:29 GMT
That image at the top says it all too. Shitey wee stove, and look at the nick of it!
Also, the caption on that photo is badly written and misleading - it could easily be read that wood burning has now replaced traffic as one of the most harmful sources of particulate matter and not of a specific particulate matter.
|
|
|
|
Post by henroben on Dec 19, 2023 16:53:40 GMT
The Guardian these days is basically just buzzfeed. Clickbait articles based on the most extreme results and then extrapolated from there. But that's what happens when you base your business model on ad views I guess. They were always very keen on log burners in the past I seem to remember.
At least they've stopped referencing that incredibly flawed study that lumped open fires, antique stoves and modern stoves all together in one category. Although it wouldn't surprise me if they're still actually basing their articles on it.
What they never mention is that often when people are installing a log burner they're actually replacing an open fire. Loads of houses near me have had log burners put in over the last decade and it's definitely less smokey than it used to be in the winter!
|
|
|
|
Post by quadfather on Dec 19, 2023 17:18:21 GMT
Yeah, all of the articles are skewed for sensationalism, just like most sites. It's just the *amount* of hatred for this specific subject that they seem unable to stop frothing about.
|
|
|
|
Post by quadfather on Dec 19, 2023 17:28:01 GMT
I use the discover option on my Google search which obviously tags what I select so it's probably bringing them all into my feed, suppose I have to factor that in.
But they just keep coming!
|
|
|
|
Post by jeepers on Dec 19, 2023 17:31:51 GMT
I love my open fire dearly but it is a disaster from a particulate/pollution pov. Not sure why the rage at the Guardian; better if they just pandered to us by saying it’s all fine?
|
|
|
|
Post by quadfather on Dec 19, 2023 17:35:10 GMT
It used to be rage, but now I'm more bemused at the amount  |
|
|
|
Post by quadfather on Dec 24, 2023 15:08:02 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by quadfather on Dec 25, 2023 16:07:59 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by darkling on Dec 25, 2023 18:49:10 GMT
That image at the top says it all too. Shitey wee stove, and look at the nick of it! Also, the caption on that photo is badly written and misleading - it could easily be read that wood burning has now replaced traffic as one of the most harmful sources of particulate matter and not of a specific particulate matter. Isn't that wee stove a Jotul? Not sure if you were joking, but they're pretty darn good stoves. Not to my taste though. Anyway, just topped up my log supply with a third bulk bag of kiln-dried logs in preparation for winter. I just wish it was cold enough to warrant lighting the stove. I was hoping the cold early December weather would persist. Looks like it's getting a bit colder this weekend, but I absolutely detest this mild windy / rainy weather. I want snow. |
|
nexus6
Junior Member
Posts: 2,527
|
Post by nexus6 on Dec 25, 2023 22:40:04 GMT
You may be right indeed. I had a thought as I was typing that I might be showing myself up.
Also my modernist bias showing - if it’s traditional looking I think it’s a cheap knock off from the hardware shop!
|
|
|
|
Post by zisssou on Jan 12, 2024 10:00:32 GMT
We didn't buy any logs this winter, as last year it just felt similarly priced to having the heating on (£150 for a builders bag). I saw those heat logs at Tesco over Christmas, just to try them out for a tenner. They kick out a decent amount of heat, but you only get 8 logs, and soon burn through them in about 3 days. Ah well back to central heating.
|
|
|
|
Post by darkling on Jan 12, 2024 10:33:26 GMT
Until yesterday, my stove had been out of action for a few days (waiting for a sweep to clear some creosote) and it made me realise that the central heating just doesn't cut it in my Victorian terrace.
On Wednesday I spent £10 on gas and electric, yet my living room didn't manage to get above 20 degrees.
Fired the stove up yesterday and within 2 hours my living room went from 15 to 22 degrees, and by bedtime it was 24 degrees, and the upstairs bathroom and bedrooms were 20 degrees, purely as a result of the stove.
I'm honestly not sure if the central heating is cheaper than logs in my case, given it doesn't really heat my rooms properly.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dougs on Jan 12, 2024 10:49:06 GMT
Yeah, my wife complains about that too. Unless the heating is on all the time, it struggles to get above 20/21. We just don't have a stove to compensate!
|
|
|
|
Post by darkling on Jan 12, 2024 11:11:06 GMT
I think you know what you need to do Dougs 😉
I should add my central heating was off yesterday and I heated my house using just the stove. One advantage of a tall narrow terrace house.
|
|
|
|
Post by technoish on Jan 12, 2024 14:24:35 GMT
Are the radiators hot?!? What temp is the boiler set to? How old is the boiler? Are the pipes insulated? How big are the radiators?
We are terraced, large rooms high ceilings. Even my son's north facing room with large single glazed sash windows gets to 21 degrees easily.
|
|
|
|
Post by darkling on Jan 12, 2024 15:14:23 GMT
The boiler is a year old and it's set to 70 degrees. The pipes aren't insulated as far as I know. The radiators are double panels with a sort of grill on top, around 1.5m in length and feel hot, but not absolutely scalding. Just standard radiators really, nothing fancy like cast iron.
I admit it's really odd. I haven't had the central heating on since this morning as my home office / box room stays warm, but my living room is currently 17.5 degrees, which isn't bad considering. It's quite still outside today though, so maybe the wind is a factor.
|
|
minimatt
Junior Member
hyper mediocrity
Posts: 1,684
|
Post by minimatt on Jan 12, 2024 15:26:33 GMT
475kg of the 2000kg coal* bought last summer (£1344) now burnt and doing catastophic things to the climate and everyone's lungs, finger in the air guess we'll end up using ~1200kg by this summer (that's without any central heating on account of the oil tank needing replacing)
* coal = solid smokeless fuel, I'm not a complete monster
|
|
|
|
Post by quadfather on Jan 12, 2024 15:51:31 GMT
I found the problem with radiators is that the room cools down quickly after turning them off. Whereas the stove takes hours to cool down. As my living room is open plan to the 1st floor, it helps heat half my house and it stays like that for hours. Maybe I should tell the guardian that |
|
|
|
Post by Dougs on Jan 12, 2024 16:27:28 GMT
The boiler is a year old and it's set to 70 degrees. The pipes aren't insulated as far as I know. The radiators are double panels with a sort of grill on top, around 1.5m in length and feel hot, but not absolutely scalding. Just standard radiators really, nothing fancy like cast iron. I admit it's really odd. I haven't had the central heating on since this morning as my home office / box room stays warm, but my living room is currently 17.5 degrees, which isn't bad considering. It's quite still outside today though, so maybe the wind is a factor. Sounds very similar to my house tbh, although I'm a Victorian semi. I'm also North facing, with another house blocking the west side so it's quite dark a lot of the time. New boiler, set to 60 I think. Given I am on the octopus tracker tariff, we're not spending more than we put in at 20° and have a large surplus so am experimenting with 21° to see how much that costs. As for the wood burner, I've moaned about it here before. It's on the list and nearly got it done in the summer but the one guy who gave us a decent quote didn't get back to me when I asked for some modifications. Then my wife lost her job, so the funds were swallowed up. Hopefully later this year if I can sell my mum's house quickly! |
|
nexus6
Junior Member
Posts: 2,527
|
Post by nexus6 on Jan 12, 2024 17:20:09 GMT
The boiler is a year old and it's set to 70 degrees. The pipes aren't insulated as far as I know. The radiators are double panels with a sort of grill on top, around 1.5m in length and feel hot, but not absolutely scalding. Just standard radiators really, nothing fancy like cast iron. I admit it's really odd. I haven't had the central heating on since this morning as my home office / box room stays warm, but my living room is currently 17.5 degrees, which isn't bad considering. It's quite still outside today though, so maybe the wind is a factor. HAUNTED |
|
|
|
Post by technoish on Jan 12, 2024 18:41:27 GMT
That seems crazy to me, our 200 sqm house only takes several hours to go from 15 degrees to 21 degrees. Boiler set to 60, I believe
Boiler is 8 years old, supposed to be condensing but it clearly isn't properly... (Lots of condensation out the back).
|
|
|
|
Post by darkling on Jan 12, 2024 18:42:00 GMT
The boiler is a year old and it's set to 70 degrees. The pipes aren't insulated as far as I know. The radiators are double panels with a sort of grill on top, around 1.5m in length and feel hot, but not absolutely scalding. Just standard radiators really, nothing fancy like cast iron. I admit it's really odd. I haven't had the central heating on since this morning as my home office / box room stays warm, but my living room is currently 17.5 degrees, which isn't bad considering. It's quite still outside today though, so maybe the wind is a factor. Sounds very similar to my house tbh, although I'm a Victorian semi. I'm also North facing, with another house blocking the west side so it's quite dark a lot of the time. New boiler, set to 60 I think. Given I am on the octopus tracker tariff, we're not spending more than we put in at 20° and have a large surplus so am experimenting with 21° to see how much that costs. As for the wood burner, I've moaned about it here before. It's on the list and nearly got it done in the summer but the one guy who gave us a decent quote didn't get back to me when I asked for some modifications. Then my wife lost her job, so the funds were swallowed up. Hopefully later this year if I can sell my mum's house quickly! Sorry to hear you've had a run of bad luck there mate. Getting a stove installed is definitely a summer job when things are dry, and installers are less busy. I was looking at the cost of a new chimney liner for when mine eventually needs replacing and I was a bit shocked at the costs involved. I've had a bit of experience with various installers and sweeps in my area now, and I'd say the installer themselves is more important than saving a few quid. Some of them are complete cowboys who should be on Watchdog or something, with completely the wrong attitude. If you have a stove installed and there's an issue - which is likely - you need a good installer who's willing to come back and put it right. Otherwise you'll be paying another installer to finish the job. |
|
|
|
Post by Dougs on Jan 12, 2024 19:16:00 GMT
Yeah, despite the price, we didn't get a very good vibe from the reasonably priced installer. He was a bit arrogant, kept trying to get us to change where we wanted it etc, just to make his life easier. The other guy was better but twice the price. We'll have another go around later in the year if cash allows.
|
|
|
|
Post by technoish on Jan 12, 2024 20:59:34 GMT
We got it all done by the shop selling stoves. Is there one of those nearby?
|
|
|
|
Post by quercusrobur on Jan 24, 2024 11:10:12 GMT
Our woodburner has been put to work over the last few weeks - we would have been screwed without it in our timewarp of a house with no central heating.
Oh and got my wood supply sorted for the next few years thanks to Storm Isha; massive great sycamore and a huge beech limb crashed into our land. All I've got to do now is prepare, split and stack an absolute SHITLOAD of firewood.
Can anyone recommend a decent electric chainsaw? Planning to get one this year. Ta.
|
|
|
|
Post by henroben on Jan 24, 2024 11:32:48 GMT
Our woodburner has been put to work over the last few weeks - we would have been screwed without it in our timewarp of a house with no central heating. Oh and got my wood supply sorted for the next few years thanks to Storm Isha; massive great sycamore and a huge beech limb crashed into our land. All I've got to do now is prepare, split and stack an absolute SHITLOAD of firewood. Can anyone recommend a decent electric chainsaw? Planning to get one this year. Ta. Not sure about an electric chainsaw for actually cutting up a decent size tree, I thought they were more for branches / saplings etc. really? Could well be wrong though, maybe new ones are more powerful! Depending on the size of the tree, the heartwood, especially near the base of the tree can be a right pig to cut through, even with a petrol chainsaw. Trees that come down in winter will be much dryer than summer trees as it'll have withdrawn a lot of the sap, so you might be lucky and be able to burn the sycamore & beech next winter. Beech usually takes 1 - 2 years to dry enough, scyamore 1 year, but obviously there's a lot of variables. Wood's easier to split usually when it's dry, so I'd suggest cutting into lengths and leaving under a cover outdoors to dry - preferably somewhere where the wind can get to them. Then you can cut into rounds and split late autumn maybe if they're dry enough? 3 ft seems to be a common size I've seen round here for drying wood. The smaller the log the quicker it'll dry, but a lot more work to get to that stage! Depends how much you want to be out in Jan/Feb cutting up trees ;-) |
|
|
|
Post by brainbird on Jan 24, 2024 11:59:20 GMT
I've bought a Bosch AdvancedChain 36V-35-40 about half a year ago and am very pleased with it. I haven't cut a whole tree yet but it can easily go through thick branches. I trimmed an old olive tree last autumn and had no problem. Olive wood is very hard.
|
|
