All You Wood Burners, Wet Wood.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,

The whole point for me is a sustainable energy source that provides all my heat energy needs (except hairdryer!).
The emphasis is on sustainable! And efficient.

That's all well and good for you, but if we all did it we would be screwed. There isn't the land.

We need a better solution, so normal people can have sustainable energy.

+1

[PDQ Mobile]

Hi,

The whole point for me is a sustainable energy source that provides all my heat energy needs (except hairdryer!).
The emphasis is on sustainable! And efficient.

That's all well and good for you, but if we all did it we would be screwed. There isn't the land.

We need a better solution, so normal people can have sustainable energy.

+1

So "normal" people live surrounded by a fantastic renewable cheap and simple energy source and don't use it?
Or is that the "normal" of the mad modern age?
Hmmm.

Renewable energy comes from a variety of sources.
When the wind blows it's often cloudy!

Geothermal, tidal, solar, wind, hydro it's all out there.
Use what is suitable for one's circumstance and environment surely?
Wood, properly used, has an important part to play.

[Cyril Haearn]

I have seen the future and it works
CAT Pantperthog near Machynlleth, +1

[random37]

Geothermal, tidal, solar, wind, hydro it's all out there.
Use what is suitable for one's circumstance and environment surely?
Wood, properly used, has an important part to play.

Geothermal, tidal, solar, wind and hydro do have a part to play. Wood is for people that have land, and therefore money. So is solar, at the minute. It's chronic shortsightedness that will cost future generations dearly.

If you think that heating your home sustainably from your own private woodland and generating your own electricity from solar panels makes any difference whatever, you are deluding yourself.

[Cyril Haearn]

Geothermal, tidal, solar, wind, hydro it's all out there.
Use what is suitable for one's circumstance and environment surely?
Wood, properly used, has an important part to play.

Geothermal, tidal, solar, wind and hydro do have a part to play. Wood is for people that have land, and therefore money. So is solar, at the minute. It's chronic shortsightedness that will cost future generations dearly.

If you think that heating your home sustainably from your own private woodland and generating your own electricity from solar panels makes any difference whatever, you are deluding yourself.

No I am not
The NCAT had a passive house 40 years ago
New houses with solar panels export to the grid and heat bath water that can be put on the plants after
Heat exchangers and heat sinks transfer and store energy
A very simple measure: thick walls like the old houses in Wales have would even out temperature variations
The technology for autonomous energy has been available for decades
I do my bit too, I wear more clothes in winter

[PDQ Mobile]

Geothermal, tidal, solar, wind, hydro it's all out there.
Use what is suitable for one's circumstance and environment surely?
Wood, properly used, has an important part to play.

Geothermal, tidal, solar, wind and hydro do have a part to play. Wood is for people that have land, and therefore money. So is solar, at the minute. It's chronic shortsightedness that will cost future generations dearly.

If you think that heating your home sustainably from your own private woodland and generating your own electricity from solar panels makes any difference whatever, you are deluding yourself.

Most of my wood comes from forestry waste.
Some comes from a neighbours wind blown damage.
It is certainly sustainable and the energy input to collect and process it all is very tiny.
Wood is carbon neutral because the cycle is so fast.

It is also excellent value to me monetarily because of what I save on energy costs.
The sums work, but the hourly rate is low!

I have to say not all people with a little land are rich.
Indeed I know hill farmers with quite large tracts that only make a fairly humble living for long hours of work and the farm only supports one farmer. The sons have to go out to work.

Small holders cannot make a living, merely offset costs.

So if you think landowning equals money, I think it is you who is delusional.

[Paulatic]

[

If you think that heating your home sustainably from your own private woodland and generating your own electricity from solar panels makes any difference whatever, you are deluding yourself.

I've never owned a woodland but yet I’ve heated my home with wood for around the last 30yrs. As others mention it’s taken me many man hours to do this but it has saved me money in buying the alternatives for me. Coal, oil, or electric.
I’ve cleared up trees foc, I’ve bought left over stack ends from the forestry commission. The last 5 years my supply has come from loads dropped off in lay bys by drivers who discover there’s a weighbridge in operation or drop some of their load off for whatever reason. One of the advantages of cycling is I discover these abandoned logs before others do.

[random37]

All of you are still only talking about heating one house.

I will say it again, in case I didn't make myself clear.

To make a difference, everyone needs to change. All new houses should be built differently, not just the one you live in.

None of you are making the slightest bit of impact changing what you do individually.

[pete75]

I have seen the future and it works
CAT Pantperthog near Machynlleth, +1

They're building houses from straw. There are moves to reintroduce wolves to the UK. It's well known straw houses are very unsafe when there's a wolf about.

[pete75]

All of you are still only talking about heating one house.

I will say it again, in case I didn't make myself clear.

To make a difference, everyone needs to change. All new houses should be built differently, not just the one you live in.

None of you are making the slightest bit of impact changing what you do individually.

And you are?

[random37]

And you are?

This isn't about me!

The point I am making is the attitude that your personal actions don't make the slightest jot of difference.

If you really cared about having the lowest environmental impact possible, you'd be better living in a city. If you can get the block of flats you live in to use renewable energy then yes, you're making a difference.

The way you generate your heat and electricity at home is a hobby.

[Ben@Forest]

All of you are still only talking about heating one house.

I will say it again, in case I didn't make myself clear.

To make a difference, everyone needs to change. All new houses should be built differently, not just the one you live in.

None of you are making the slightest bit of impact changing what you do individually.

Drax, the UK's largest power station has three boilers that run on wood pellets. Most are imported from the US and Canada but at least 30% of it is from companies that are subsidiaries of Drax (in the US). Where created from primary timber this comes from fast growing short-rotation forestry plantations - such as poplar - not old growth forests. They do burn other clean biomass byproducts too.

Again l think people are somehow surprised we import timber (or pellets) but we do, and again how is it worse than importing coal from Venezula?

[Mark R]

Yet good dry wood burned with sufficient oxygen is really quite clean. And to my nose smells quite pleasant!

Except the science says otherwise. The fact you can smell it at all indicates the presence of volatile organic compounds and exposes the myth of the modern 'clean burning' woodstove.

Even if you can get one burning 'cleanly' with no detectable odour, studies show even the latest stoves are major emitters of PM2.5. If the trend for installing urban woodburners continues they could even become the biggest source of PM2.5 as dirty IC engines get phased out.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
And finally we get back to pollution.

Tell me that your home wood burner is clean, and if we say 20% of use wood burners how clean would it be

I am sure an industrial pellet burner or even a none recyclable waste with scrubbers burner can be clean..........but how is your home unit cleaning the gasses?

On solar panels............................

How will it pay without fit's?

Tarrifs were paid to the energy companys via the gov via taxes.

It was assumed that 50% of energy from your solar panel was used by you or exported for tarrifs...................

Tarrifs have gone and those with the money to invest have got rich off the tax payer.

[pwa]

If I lived in a built up area I would probably not use a wood burner. On the basis that if all my neighbours did the same, even with dry wood, hundreds of chimneys in close proximity would create a problem. But I'm lucky. I live in a village on top of a low hill, and the background air quality is excellent. There are quite a few wood burners around but you rarely see smoke except at a flue exit, and any smell of burning wood is fleeting. Even so, I make an effort to minimise smoke at start up. That is the point at which you are most likely to make serious smoke if you aren't careful.