Pending Energy Crisis?

[oldclaypaws]

Ukraine said on Saturday it was suspending payments to Russia for deliveries of gas, ratcheting up the tension in a standoff that has the potential to leave European Union states cut off from the Russian gas supplies on which they depend

Seems I wasn't being sensationalist in the title of this thread. Good time to be stacking up logs, it may seem medieval and a lot of effort chopping logs compared to flicking a switch, but its reassuring to be self reliant on your own means of heating. Perhaps we don't look quite so eccentric buying woods.

[Lincswood]

Yes, agree. I'm hoping to install a log-fired boiler this summer, linked to a 2000 litre buffer tank, so all the space and water heating is supplied from logs sourced in our wood. Anybody got any experience of these?

[oldclaypaws]

I don't know if you've seen a 2000 litre tank, perhaps you have a large house, but that sounds pretty huge to me. Our oil tank is 1000 litres which would heat the house for a year (but is hardly used due to free wood), and I've a 1200 litre propane tank for firing pots (hopefully to be superseded by wood at some point). 2000 litres is 2 cu metres, eg takes up 6'6 x 3'3 x 3'3, the size of some domestic downstairs cloakrooms.

The disadvantage of wood pellet boilers and some wood hotwater systems is if you have a modest house as we do, there simply isn't the physical space available. We also face roughly North, so unfortunately solar panels aren't an option. We do get virtually all of our heating from the one logburner, and sell some fire wood, so even though we get an occasional small amount of oil for me to have a bath and have to pay for electric, our annual domestic energy bill is as follows (we're not connected to gas). I think its about 1/3rd of the average.

Lecky £40/ month = £480 /annum

Heat; Oil £300 less Wood sales (£300) = zero

Total net energy costs £480.

With quite a lot of thinning and clearing to do in future years, if I can sell more wood, we should have several years breaking even.

I did work out that if we felled all our oaks and used them for our own fuel, they'd last us around 300 years (!), by which time they'd have regrown twice over, in other words we are always going to have a surplus and can afford to leave a good portion as deadwood rather than harvesting every scrap for fuel.

[ballibeg]

Rhi for domestic installations went live on 9th April. Can't remember the figure paid per kw/hr.

Dave

[oldclaypaws]

Had a look at the RHI details, wood pellet boilers are eligible, wood burning stoves are not. Quite how they decided that is beyond me, perhaps they thought the popularity of stoves would make it too expensive for the government.

[Wendelspanswick]

Had a look at the RHI details, wood pellet boilers are eligible, wood burning stoves are not. Quite how they decided that is beyond me, perhaps they thought the popularity of stoves would make it too expensive for the government.

Some log burners are eligible, my business partner is going down this route. I think its just the traditional room heater log burners that are ineligible.

[Lincswood]

I wish my energy costs were under £500... I've got a teenage daughter who likes a decent bath; a son who spends an age in the shower, and a wife who is "always cold". Plus a leaky house that is, shall we say, well ventilated at least. I've put 14 solar PV panels on the south west facing roof last December so I'm hoping that the bills will come down. The house does have a large basement, which is why I'm thinking of something like a froeling S4 down there, linked to a buffer tank, as there is room for that, plus the actual wood. I just feel that it would be rewarding to heat the house and the water from our own wood supply, rather than using gas piped in from wherever. The wood is in need of significant thinning, so will benefit too. I love the log burner in the front room but it can't do the whole house, unfortunately.

[Dexter's Shed]

thankfully our small log burner does heat the whole house, the kids are always moaning it's too hot and can we turn it down

[oldclaypaws]

If its a cold night we always stock ours right up just before going to bed, close the dampers so its just ticking over, and that way the cat (somewhere between 17 and 20 years old) doesn't get too cold. Having the chimney running up the middle of the house also means the bricks act as a sort of storage heater, after an evening with the woodburner on, you can feel the chimney outer walls are warm to the touch.

Isn't it disappointing when it gets warmer, there's no need to have a fire. Kinda look forward to winter just so we can gather round the hearth. It's that primeval instinct.

[Dexter's Shed]

If its a cold night we always stock ours right up just before going to bed, close the dampers so its just ticking over, and that way the cat (somewhere between 17 and 20 years old) doesn't get too cold. Having the chimney running up the middle of the house also means the bricks act as a sort of storage heater, after an evening with the woodburner on, you can feel the chimney outer walls are warm to the touch.

Isn't it disappointing when it gets warmer, there's no need to have a fire. Kinda look forward to winter just so we can gather round the hearth. It's that primeval instinct.

yeah, our bricks stay hot even after fires gone out, we haven't blown up yet, due to the ammo safe being bolted to the chimney too