Energy prices.

[brewdexta]

What type of boiler do you have??

It's a Solar Focus combined log and pellet for the house. You can fill it with logs and it will put the energy into a 2000 litre heat store then move over to pellets to keep it topped up. I mainly use just pellets as I work away a lot but intend to use more logs as I move towards retirement.

 

[brewdexta]

Bio mass power is only really a viable buisness while the subsidies are there, take them away and wheels of industry will view it differently when margins drop.

I installed my biomass boiler with very little RHI. It had been cut by 3/4 by the time I had built the boiler room and installed the boiler.

Biomass is great if the wood comes properly from sustainable sources, like the pellets I use or logs from arboriculture. Less so when it's on the scale of Drax where the source is questionable but it ticks a carbon emissions box.

 

[Rannsachair]

Seems like someone has been listening - the new energy to waste site at Ince (Protos) has its own railway siding, so I believe the bulk of their stuff is coming in by rail. Hanson cement in padeswood has in the last few years reopened it’s railway siding so we now get cement wagons as well as steel from tata on our local line.

Those are 2 examples that are reasonably local to me that have happened in the last couple of years - I’d hope similar stuff is also happening elsewhere.

I’d agree there’s more to be done but it’s at least a step in the right direction.

Hanson Cement is a blast from the past for me, back in the 80's I was a Production Engineer for a Papersack Maker based in Dundee that also owned a factory at Padeswood making paper sacks for Hanson Cement, I spent a few months working there and had a tour round the cement works. I stayed in the Dolphin hotel in Mold while down there, interesting place... sorry for the drift off topic.

 

[prepman]

It's a Solar Focus combined log and pellet for the house. You can fill it with logs and it will put the energy into a 2000 litre heat store then move over to pellets to keep it topped up. I mainly use just pellets as I work away a lot but intend to use more logs as I move towards retirement.

Heat store a water tank? Buried?

 

[reb78]

It's a Solar Focus combined log and pellet for the house. You can fill it with logs and it will put the energy into a 2000 litre heat store then move over to pellets to keep it topped up. I mainly use just pellets as I work away a lot but intend to use more logs as I move towards retirement.

Just looked them up... look interesting - I have access to a lot of wood in the form of logs.

I know its hard to quantify, but how much hassle is it to run on logs? How many times a day do you have to top it up etc?

 

[Morrisman]

This month I've shaved a quarter off of our electricity bill in terms of kWh used by turning stuff off/down and controlling stuff better. I may be able to shave a little more off. Plus I'm using less pellets by turning the temp down a little more, we never had it hot. but my girls don't mind an extra jumper while walking around the house. If everybody did that, it would make a bigger difference than many of the initiatives to move to greener fuels. Not using it is far better.

Two years ago I moved into a bungalow that had no mains gas, so long story short I eventually had a bulk lpg tank installed last April. I was rather wary that the gas bill would be pretty hefty, so ai have kept usage to a minimum, but after 11 months I have just filled the tank, it came to £300. Not as bad as I expected, but that was at last years locked in 40p a litre price.

I rarely put the heating on during the day, just the evenings, in winter. And there's no piping hot soak in the bath every night any more, as I don't have one, just an electric shower.

Next year I'm expecting double the utilities cost, the way prices really going. My fairly reasonable pension will have to stretch even further.

 

[brewdexta]

Heat store a water tank? Buried?

Here's a pic of the heat stores

 

[brewdexta]

Just looked them up... look interesting - I have access to a lot of wood in the form of logs.

I know its hard to quantify, but how much hassle is it to run on logs? How many times a day do you have to top it up etc?

It has been a while since I did it but it wasn't difficult, the hard part is getting the logs into the boiler room, but I can sort that. One full burn of decent logs will fill up the heat stores to a good temp, with a bit of head room, sufficient for a day. I need to give it a go soon and quantify how much logs per burn etc.

Just tried to get 8 stacked IBCs of logs. The company are making too much money out of selling logs in small nets and tonne bags at the moment so I may go back in a couple of months when the weather is better. Plus I have a couple of smaller arboriculturalists to talk to. I have a log splitter that fits on the bobcat so can take unsplit logs from them if the price is right. At some point, I may just buy a lorry load of timber in the round and log and split it, not this year though, too much on.

 

[reb78]

It has been a while since I did it but it wasn't difficult, the hard part is getting the logs into the boiler room, but I can sort that. One full burn of decent logs will fill up the heat stores to a good temp, with a bit of head room, sufficient for a day. I need to give it a go soon and quantify how much logs per burn etc.

Just tried to get 8 stacked IBCs of logs. The company are making too much money out of selling logs in small nets and tonne bags at the moment so I may go back in a couple of months when the weather is better. Plus I have a couple of smaller arboriculturalists to talk to. I have a log splitter that fits on the bobcat so can take unsplit logs from them if the price is right. At some point, I may just buy a lorry load of timber in the round and log and split it, not this year though, too much on.

Really interesting. I can see a replacement for our oil boiler in the future. With some careful thought to the installation, I can kind of see where we could fit this in and hook into the existing pipework. Can you run this alongside a traditional boiler? I.e. have them both plumbed into the heat stores?

 

[brewdexta]

Really interesting. I can see a replacement for our oil boiler in the future. With some careful thought to the installation, I can kind of see where we could fit this in and hook into the existing pipework. Can you run this alongside a traditional boiler? I.e. have them both plumbed into the heat stores?

I have a standby gas boiler that I can start up after swapping out about 10 valves. The Solar Focus has been reliable so far, but it a part goes that needs to be shipped then I can swing onto gas for a while. The standby boiler can't be seen to be part of day to day heating to satisfy for RHI and if I use it then I have to declare the use and my RHI is reduced. I don't get much RHI and I only have a couple of years left then I can do what I want, which will probably mean some solar to assist heating, and hopefully replace the need for the boiler for hot water in summer.

 

[reb78]

I have a standby gas boiler that I can start up after swapping out about 10 valves. The Solar Focus has been reliable so far, but it a part goes that needs to be shipped then I can swing onto gas for a while. The standby boiler can't be seen to be part of day to day heating to satisfy for RHI and if I use it then I have to declare the use and my RHI is reduced. I don't get much RHI and I only have a couple of years left then I can do what I want, which will probably mean some solar to assist heating, and hopefully replace the need for the boiler for hot water in summer.

Thanks - it looks like the RHI scheme closes at the end of this month, so anything I do will be too late for that anyway but it still looks like an appealing install given the amount of wood I have access to, especially if a second (and third i.e. solar) heat source can be added to the system for times when wood is not available or only a quick burn of something is needed (i.e. to heat a water tank in the summer - but then, solar powered immersion might be better to have for those times)

 

[fizzy]

Thanks - it looks like the RHI scheme closes at the end of this month, so anything I do will be too late for that anyway but it still looks like an appealing install given the amount of wood I have access to, especially if a second (and third i.e. solar) heat source can be added to the system for times when wood is not available or only a quick burn of something is needed (i.e. to heat a water tank in the summer - but then, solar powered immersion might be better to have for those times)

What a scam that was.
The derelict building behind my warehouse had a massive wood burner installed. Earning £100,000 a year for heating a building with no windows and nobody in it. A disgrace. Loads of pollution - took us ages to get it shut down. To burn waste wood you need a licence but due to RHI no planning needed
It brought the government down in Northern Ireland but exactly the same going on here.

 

[brewdexta]

What a scam that was.
The derelict building behind my warehouse had a massive wood burner installed. Earning £100,000 a year for heating a building with no windows and nobody in it. A disgrace. Loads of pollution - took us ages to get it shut down. To burn waste wood you need a licence but due to RHI no planning needed
It brought the government down in Northern Ireland but exactly the same going on here.

Since October 2015 you had to keep records that wood comes from an approved BSL source so it has gone from one extreme to another. If I want to burn logs from my own woods I have to get a BSL license....

 

[fizzy]

It has been a while since I did it but it wasn't difficult, the hard part is getting the logs into the boiler room, but I can sort that. One full burn of decent logs will fill up the heat stores to a good temp, with a bit of head room, sufficient for a day. I need to give it a go soon and quantify how much logs per burn etc.

Just tried to get 8 stacked IBCs of logs. The company are making too much money out of selling logs in small nets and tonne bags at the moment so I may go back in a couple of months when the weather is better. Plus I have a couple of smaller arboriculturalists to talk to. I have a log splitter that fits on the bobcat so can take unsplit logs from them if the price is right. At some point, I may just buy a lorry load of timber in the round and log and split it, not this year though, too much on.

I bought 2x full loads - 26 tons each - mixed hard and softwoods. Cut it all up myself with 18" Stihl chainsaw. Some of the logs were 36" diameter.
Split them all with a Clarke log splitter.
Burnt the lot in 1 year
I am very lucky to get nice chunky pallet bearers. Cut them either into 2 or 3 pieces so very easy. Also bone dry. Unlimited supply.
When I move I will build my own woodburner. It will be big enough to take the pallet bearers in 1 piece no cutting. Also a flush door so I can just rake out the nails and ash into a wheelbarrow!
I will connect to a big heat store like you have.

On a rare day when I had some help! And yes My little Clarke log buster split everything!

 

[prepman]

I bought 2x full loads - 26 tons each - mixed hard and softwoods. Cut it all up myself with 18" Stihl chainsaw. Some of the logs were 36" diameter.
Split them all with a Clarke log splitter.
Burnt the lot in 1 year
I am very lucky to get nice chunky pallet bearers. Cut them either into 2 or 3 pieces so very easy. Also bone dry. Unlimited supply.
When I move I will build my own woodburner. It will be big enough to take the pallet bearers in 1 piece no cutting. Also a flush door so I can just rake out the nails and ash into a wheelbarrow!
I will connect to a big heat store like you have.

On a rare day when I had some help! And yes My little Clarke log buster split everything!

Damn those nails!

 

[fizzy]

Damn those nails!

Yup the only drawback.
I empty my woodburner perhaps once a week. Get about 20kg of nails out - hardly any ash!
Saving them up to weigh in - have about 200kg so far.
Hardly worth it but metal really is worth recycling - I don't fall for the rest of it!

 

[prepman]

Damn those nails!

My log splitter uses the tractor hydraulics so it's a bit inconvenient. In the process of making one for digger. It already has the thumb. Fitted that wayback. INCREDIBLY useful. So now just need to make a blade. That's my barrel tipping quad trailer also.

 

[addjunkie]

My log splitter uses the tractor hydraulics so it's a bit inconvenient. In the process of making one for digger. It already has the thumb. Fitted that wayback. INCREDIBLY useful. So now just need to make a blade. That's my barrel tipping quad trailer also.


View attachment 337565

I used to just run my log splitter from the pecker connections on the digger boom. Have a suitably sized piece of 2x1 for the pedal.
As for buying a logging wagon load…..have you seen the price these days. Im updated most Sunday lunch times at the Sunday Gentlmens club. The cheaper ones dont come with RHI paperwork either.

 

[dobbslc]

I bought 2x full loads - 26 tons each - mixed hard and softwoods. Cut it all up myself with 18" Stihl chainsaw. Some of the logs were 36" diameter.
Split them all with a Clarke log splitter.
Burnt the lot in 1 year
I am very lucky to get nice chunky pallet bearers. Cut them either into 2 or 3 pieces so very easy. Also bone dry. Unlimited supply.
When I move I will build my own woodburner. It will be big enough to take the pallet bearers in 1 piece no cutting. Also a flush door so I can just rake out the nails and ash into a wheelbarrow!
I will connect to a big heat store like you have.

On a rare day when I had some help! And yes My little Clarke log buster split everything!

Jeez @fizzy I can see the teeth flying off that saw from here!

 

[fizzy]

I used to just run my log splitter from the pecker connections on the digger boom. Have a suitably sized piece of 2x1 for the pedal.
As for buying a logging wagon load…..have you seen the price these days. Im updated most Sunday lunch times at the Sunday Gentlmens club. The cheaper ones dont come with RHI paperwork either.

I paid £825 a load back in 2016 I think.
How much these days?
I much prefer my free wood - far less work as well