Logg burners as the answer .

For all things financial
Vitamin c
Posts: 1070
Joined: Mon Sep 21, 2020 1:16 pm

Logg burners as the answer .

Post by Vitamin c »

With the ever increasing price of power and food how many folk will try to offset the cost of heating with log burners .
If you own your own property and have a fire place even if blocked many wil do the maths and have one fitted .
I don't think this will be a few but thousands and this almost definitely lead to legislation due to the global warming aspects ie what you can burn even if you can fit one in the first place laws , fines ect.

Are you thinking of getting one.
Already got one or simular.

Discuss. .
Fill er up jacko...
bobble
Posts: 168
Joined: Tue Aug 02, 2016 8:57 pm
Location: merseyside

Re: Logg burners as the answer .

Post by bobble »

We have a log burner which we bought in 2007. It came with us when we moved house about 8 years ago.
Weve made toast, a couple of casseroles and keep 2 kettles on top for hot water. We light it most autumn/winter evenings and have never paid for wood. We collect twigs for kindling, dead branches and we scavenge in builder's skips for off cuts etc. We also have trees at the back which we have pollarded and use the branches for firewood.
If push came to shove, we could up our game and cook and heat as necessary all year round. However, if everyone else nearby had the same idea, i'm sure supplies of wood would soon dwindle!
jansman
Posts: 13622
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: Logg burners as the answer .

Post by jansman »

We have two multi fuel stoves. Had them 20+ years ,and they are our primary heat source. I recently took delivery of enough smokeless coal for Winter 22/23 ,as I suspect it will increase in price in the current economic climate.I wouldn’t like to predict any future popularity of solid fuel / burner installations .Recent legislation has all but outlawed bituminous coal ,and that fact alone might make newcomers wary,as they may ultimately be left with an expensive lump of cast iron in their homes if our leaders decide what is best for us.

Installing a stove is not cheap though ,especially if you have to bang a liner down the chimney. Nor is wood fuel and coal. Several of my colleagues have stoves,but they are merely ornamentation,to be lit on the odd Sunday afternoon or Christmas Day. They buy those silly penny- packets of logs at The Range or the garage.When I tell them my Sunday mornings are often taken up chainsawing wood etc.
they say “oh,I’d sooner put the heating on ,I couldn’t be bothered” ,or notably,my boss who spent £6,000 on a Swedish job plus installation ,and has never lit it.”it looks nice”. :roll: Oh to be so wealthy!

When I put the stoves in,it was not about cost savings as such.It was about resilience .The ability to be off grid in adverse circumstances was the main driver.At that time we had had several power cuts in a couple of weeks during January,so one Wednesday morning on my day off,I got up,took out the gas fire and ripped out the 1980’s fireplace back to the builder’s opening ,laid quarry tiles ,and before long we had lift off.It was such a success that within two months I did the same in the other living room! But… no way could I afford to heat in the way many do ,by buying silly,expensive amounts of fuel.That fact unleashed something of a monster if I am honest. Before long my search for wood - which constitutes 3/4 of our fuel consumption- became all consuming.Judging by comments by other members here ,I am not alone! I was now embroiled in the world of the log burning owners club. :lol:

In a short while I was familiar with different weights of splitting mauls,wedges and chainsaws ,the latter begetting a whole new set of technical skills. It takes work ( even my coal merchant said most of his customers were occasional fire- lighters,simply because it took work), but it is - to me- pleasant and productive work. As the original post by Vitamin C commented,the current fuel situation may well drive people down the solid fuel route,and that situation certainly mitigates me in my ever constant pursuit of fuel! :lol:

I wouldn’t discourage anyone if they are thinking of doing that,but to do it properly ,it takes planning ,some physical graft ( which isn’t such a bad thing for most), and a new mindset. That mindset means you have to embrace space heating ,not whole- house heating ( if you are tough country kids like Mrs J and me :lol: )Right now I am sitting in my armchair by the kitchen door,back door open for the animals to wander-in and out .I am wearing clothes ,unlike my neighbours whose heating is full bore.She has just come out into the yard for a smoke,looking like a gym- bunny and whinging on her phone how cold it is; it’s 10 degrees- positively tropical! Mindset.It is possible to to hook up radiators,but that means relying on electricity for the pump.That’s about as good as solar panels without battery banks! In the morning when I get up at 4.30 am ,I put on the kettle,let out the dogs ,feed the cats then clean out and relay the stoves,bring in fuel and kindling so that we are ready to rock in the afternoon. I can have the big living room warming up inside 15 minutes that way. It takes planning. For all that though,it is ,to us,well worth it. And there is no better sight than stacks of firewood,it gives a sense of security. :D
7A59940D-278D-4AAD-9447-B35DE4AE80E0.jpeg
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
User avatar
korolev
Posts: 606
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2017 2:18 am
Location: Land of the South Saxons

Re: Logg burners as the answer .

Post by korolev »

We're having our chimney taken out when we eventually get our loft extension :|
Vitamin c
Posts: 1070
Joined: Mon Sep 21, 2020 1:16 pm

Re: Logg burners as the answer .

Post by Vitamin c »

One recent post said the some local company's charge for scrap wood in 27 years of getting my wood / heat for free this sure alarms me.

The more joe public gets these log burners fitted the more the demand will be for scrap wood unfortunately this will lead to charging and locked skips.
Fill er up jacko...
jansman
Posts: 13622
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: Logg burners as the answer .

Post by jansman »

Vitamin c wrote: Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:47 am One recent post said the some local company's charge for scrap wood in 27 years of getting my wood / heat for free this sure alarms me.

The more joe public gets these log burners fitted the more the demand will be for scrap wood unfortunately this will lead to charging and locked skips.
I noticed this during the 2008 crash. Prior to that ,logs at the roadside,cut by the council,would be there for days.2008 onwards,it was literally ‘gone in 60 seconds.’It eased somewhat about two or three years later,but as you say, it’s likely to get tighter.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
Vitamin c
Posts: 1070
Joined: Mon Sep 21, 2020 1:16 pm

Re: Logg burners as the answer .

Post by Vitamin c »

I can also see it leading to crime if fire wood ect become more expensive just like the crime wave around scrap metal and few years back those same people I'm sure would help themselfs to wood piles coal bunkers and those tanks you get in people's gardens our local community Hall tank go drained and few years back costing a small fortune.

Fuel security will be a thing .

I wonder if scrumping will come back but the other way around ie leave the fruit and nick the tree.
Fill er up jacko...
jansman
Posts: 13622
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: Logg burners as the answer .

Post by jansman »

Vitamin c wrote: Wed Jan 12, 2022 5:56 pm I can also see it leading to crime if fire wood ect become more expensive just like the crime wave around scrap metal and few years back those same people I'm sure would help themselfs to wood piles coal bunkers and those tanks you get in people's gardens our local community Hall tank go drained and few years back costing a small fortune.

Fuel security will be a thing .

I wonder if scrumping will come back but the other way around ie leave the fruit and nick the tree.
Firewood weighs.Nicking a wood pile takes energy,makes noise etc. Draining an oil tank is a different matter altogether. Just my take.
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
Yorkshire Andy
Posts: 8733
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 4:06 pm

Re: Logg burners as the answer .

Post by Yorkshire Andy »

Vitamin c wrote: Wed Jan 12, 2022 5:56 pm I can also see it leading to crime if fire wood ect become more expensive just like the crime wave around scrap metal and few years back those same people I'm sure would help themselfs to wood piles
It's happening now know a firm who lost 4 packs of machined timber they carried it by hand across about 80m across a ploughed field to a road to avoid the places main gate / security


During the 2008 crash we "lost" several skips of scaffold board off cuts... Funny thing was they had been left to one side as we couldn't put them in the usual bulk scrap wood skip as.... Wait for it..... The timber had been treated for use in the oil and gas industry and had been specially treated to make it fire retardant :lol:
If your roughing it, Your doing it wrong ;)

Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine