I’ve never really kept much of an eye on our log consumption, so I thought it would be interesting to see how far our old water tank woodshed would last.

It’s 10’x8’x6′. It contained mostly Elm, some Cherry and ‘that’ tree.
I only built the outside wall the rest was just tossed in so it wasn’t that densely packed, mainly to aid drying.

We’ve had two stoves on in the house and the studio stove on almost constantly over the last couple of months. They are usually the coldest months of the year, so I wouldn’t expect we’d get through as much at any other time in the year.

It’s sobering to see how much we’ve used. 3 3/4 Cords.

January 29

April 8

Take it as a positve. You’ve got another one to fill up again! 😆

like the turnip lantern face at far end.. 🙂

That’s a lot of wood you get through! Is it your only heating?

That’s a lot of wood you get through! Is it your only heating?

Yes, it’s our only heating. No mains gas, oil would be in the region of £200 a week.

I was out foraging last night and brought this load home.

The refill starts here…

Christ! That is a lot of wood! Just imagine having to pay full wack for that lot. Still, there’s the warmer months now to stockpile even more.
I think mcm ought to change his user-name, something like Agent Orange, perhaps… 😉

This looks like the rate at which I burn wood. Its not a cheap way to heat a house. In fact mcmoonter I would say your method of heating is pretty much a lifestyle choice rather than the best/efficient. If you consider the cost of tractors, loggin eqpt and time spent foraging, collecting, splitting, stacking, bringing into the house, cleaning and setting and maintaining the fire, you would probs be way better off installing GCH.
I understand that is not the point, I am envious of your lifestyle. I would happily swap the sport of commuting to work sitting in front of a desk and using the results to pay for gas with spending a decent proportion of my life doing all the wood related activities you do…

Last wood burner we had was supplementary to Oil central heating over 3 months we got through about 1te of Elm that I got from my dad. It looked like loads when it was stacked up but went very quick.

When I was living at home we had 2 log burners doing all the household heating duties (water, CH and general room warming) being on a farm access to wood wasn’t much of a problem but it was time consuming, there were tree’s felled and stacked up, every time you collected one you felled another. Each summer/autumn it was time to get the log splitter out, even with that it would take at least a day maybe 2 to get through enough wood for the winter, stack or bad it it – now most of it goes into 1te dumpy bags that can be moved with the tele handler much quicker.

So despite having free access to wood, chainsaws, a log splitter and enough space to store all the split wood my dad built an extension and put an oil boiler in. He still uses wood for the living room fire most days and the range in the dining room sometimes but leaves the heating to oil.

What are you calling 1te? Is it tonne, metric ton,1000kg?

yep about a tonne (1000kg) Te as a version of T to avoid confusion with the imperial ton 🙂

cool, we use Te here too but just checking as we had recent confusion with a client who defined it as something else.

from wikipedia:

Non-approved abbreviations for tonne and “metric ton” include “T”, “mT”, “MT”, and “mt”,[5] and “Te” (particularly in the offshore and nuclear industries).

This looks like the rate at which I burn wood. Its not a cheap way to heat a house. In fact mcmoonter I would say your method of heating is pretty much a lifestyle choice rather than the best/efficient. If you consider the cost of tractors, loggin eqpt and time spent foraging, collecting, splitting, stacking, bringing into the house, cleaning and setting and maintaining the fire, you would probs be way better off installing GCH.

More to the point, what else could you be doing and how much could you be earning during all that time related to wood collection?

I reckon that you will double the amount of logs in the tank stacked neatly, I’m always a bit disappointed when a massive heap of split wood shrinks so much when stacked up tidily.

More to the point, what else could you be doing and how much could you be earning during all that time related to wood collection?

I would say that a nicer loves comes of you doing the things you want to first, and then you spend any time left over “earning”

Wood collection, handling and processing takes me on average 1-2 days a week I guess. In alternative fuels saving say, £3k in fuel costs, that means my wood collection pays me about £5 per hour. That might be a lot less than I might “earn” but it’s a job I much prefer doing 🙂

If I was there I don’t think I could resist removing one right from the bottom left corner (and running away) 🙂

More to the point, what else could you be doing and how much could you be earning during all that time related to wood collection?

Well that was included in my mental maths, but I think I would be prefectly happy being poorer and wasting my life collecting wood and building holzharryhausens..

Globalti – spot on. People seem to charge by the hour for everything now!

Wasting my life?

What a tit.

excuse me? Don’t be rude.

I think I would be perfectly happy being poorer and wasting my life collecting wood and building holzharryhausens..

About to embark on an extension build, with a lovely big stove in it. Can’t wait! Mind you, all the wood I get is kiln dried hardwood that I have to scavenge from my offcuts. Not quite as satisfying but burns hotter than the sun, and it’s completely free (if you ignore the circa £1m/yr I spend on timber!).

Laudable principles but if you have a well-paid job that you enjoy (I love my export job) then it’s clearly better to pay somebody else a bit less than you earn to do the day-to-day stuff and leave you free to enjoy your job and your free time. This is why I will never undertake another bathroom refurb; I’ll get a plumber in to do it next time.

That is a lot of wood to burn. Do you sit nekkid in the house at night? 😯

There must be a third, less labour intensive, way?

Big wood chipper and a screw fed boiler?

edit:

Phwoooar!

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBrbh6JxxuQ#t=120[/video]

We started off here with oil fired central heating. It was inefficient and expensive back in the 70s. We then installed a solid fuel boiler, it too wasn’t especially cheap to run. We are miles from the nearest gas main so that is impossible too.

I only go foraging when I’ve got some time on my hands, usually after a spell in the studio while I’m waiting for paint to dry. It’s a perfect distraction being out in the woods in every season.

I can usually cut and split a trailer load of logs in about an hour and a half. The hydraulic splitter saves a lot of time and energy.

I’m very fortunate in that most of my working day is as good as always in the outdoors. I can’t imagine a life where a working life routine couuld be so removed from nature, so in that respect it is a lifestyle choice.

Wasn’t a criticsim mcmoonter, I love living vicariously through your posts. My comment just an extension of your own observation (ie you estimated £200 a week..)

gti

maybe im sick in the head – but i enjoy doing work around the house.

refurbing & fixing shit – very satisfying sitting back and looking at the changes YOU made.

i also enjoy my job- but it gives me alot of time off to indulge in such things along side my cycling since i no longer race.

Having felled a tree and chopped it, I have to say I now fully understand the appeal, chopping wood with an axe was one of the most enjoyable ways I’ve spent a weekend, as as such I’ll be ripping out a Victorian open fire and putting in a wood burner soon.

Hi mcmoonter, out of interest what splitter have you got? i’ll be doing some splitting today, believe me i’d rather be in the pub. 🙁
This is my splitting kit.

We have used around, but hopefully less than £300 of oil to heat our oil and hot water since September (3 bedroom 1/2 timber cottage with some insulation). But the woodburner has barely gone out in that time, the boiler has just been doing hot water since early march.

I built a small woodshed off a pallet in the autumn, about 5ft high, filled it up, thought it’s last a while, oh how wrong I was, must surely have filled it 6 or 8 times over the winter. Dread to think what that would have cost to buy.

Now got a fair bit of windfall and some dead trees to fell/saw up. Gonna hire a tractor mounted splitter I think, but got a plan to build one too!

my wood collection pays me about £5 per hour

5 quid net would be like earning 7 or 8 quid before tax, too.

Laudable principles but if you have a well-paid job that you enjoy (I love my export job) then it’s clearly better to pay somebody else a bit less than you earn to do the day-to-day stuff and leave you free to enjoy your job and your free time. This is why I will never undertake another bathroom refurb; I’ll get a plumber in to do it next time.

Personally I like doing manual stuff and hence spend all my spare time doing jobs I could easily afford to outsource, but I quite like making fences, mowing the lawn, plumbing, electrics etc. I only outsource stuff I can’t do as it’s too big a job or too skilled (like plastering).