PowerSwitch

adam2 · Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 4:02 pm Post subject: Mother now has a wood stove !

Mothers home, which is otherwise all electric, now has a small woodstove to heat the main living room.
For some while I have been by concerned by Mothers reliance on electricity.
I fitted a large UPS in order to supply lighting and low power appliances, but of course that does not supply heating.
I keep a number of parrafin lamps for long term power cuts, and these produce a lot of heat, but are not ideal for heating.
No natural gas is available.
No suitable space for an oil tank.
So that only left solid fuel.

Initialy Mother was not keen on a wood stove owing to the amount of work involved.
The room is fairly well insulated, but retains heat or cold for a long while due to stone walls. Electric storage heating works fine but is increasingly expensive and vulnerable to any prolonged power cut.

The new stove has seen seen very limited use so far, since the installation caused the hottest April for years, with no need for heating.
The stove can burn wood or coal. The intention is to burn wood normally but to keep a ton or two of coal for emergencies.
The heat output was ample, and easily boiled a large pot of water, or toasted hot cross buns.
I have a local source of fire wood, and have enough stocked to last throughout the coming winter.
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RenewableCandy · Joined: 12 Sep 2007 Posts: 12595 Location: York

Hey congrats on talking her 'round! My mum loves her woodburning stove...and it's been vital during their many power cuts.
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biffvernon · Joined: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 18544 Location: Lincolnshire

JohnB

adam2 · Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 9:35 pm Post subject:

Anyone know how much wood Mother might expect to use over a winter ?
It is a small stove, nominal output 4.5KW. The intention is to use it every day in winter for perhaps an average of 12 hours a day.

The very limited use so far suggests up to about 1KG of wood an hour, but the use was too limited for this to be very accurate.

I have stocked about a ton so far, and have room for about another ton.

It is mixed wood but largely silver birch, from a long neglected wood that is now being managed to produce fence posts, small building timber, and fire wood.
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biffvernon · Joined: 24 Nov 2005 Posts: 18544 Location: Lincolnshire

Hmmm, silver birch lights easily when dry but is probably amongst the lowest calorific values per volume of our hardwoods.

If you've got the space, buy more. The price goes up and the wood gets drier.
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adam2 · Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 12:58 pm Post subject:

Ive got room for about another ton so will get that much.
Otherwise, it means outdoor storage which I would prefer to avoid on account of the risk of theft.
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RenewableCandy · Joined: 12 Sep 2007 Posts: 12595 Location: York

1 kg of dry wood has between 3.5 and 5 kWh of energy in. Thus, on a 4 or 5 kW stove, your burn rate makes perfect sense.

10 kg per evening by 100 evenings a year is a good start.
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snow hope · Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 11:09 pm Post subject:

At least a chord I would think, maybe up to 2 chords. 12 hours a day is quite a lot of burning. 1 chord = 4ft x 4ft x 8ft.

This seems quite a good link and it gives calorific values of various woods as well as dry and Green weights (in pounds).
http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/home/heating_cooling/firewood.html
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JohnB · Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 11:22 pm Post subject:

RenewableCandy · Joined: 12 Sep 2007 Posts: 12595 Location: York

Too gaddamned American...how many kg are there in a cord?? (thinks...roughly 2 tonnes assuming wood's 1/2 as dense as water?)
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JohnB · Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 6:57 pm Post subject:

goslow · Joined: 26 Nov 2007 Posts: 705

As well as logs I'm burning briquettes made out of wood shavings produced by a joiners yard. Maybe that's worth looking into as well for your mum - though some of the commercial briquettes are quite expensive unless got in 1 tonne pallets.

adam2 · Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 9:11 am Post subject:

goslow · Joined: 26 Nov 2007 Posts: 705

I tried several suppliers. Different materials, mostly wood wastes, most quite expensive though meant to be cheaper than wood when you compare heat output etc. The supply I have now is simply sawdust from a joiners pressed together by themselves, without any wax. So they look a bit amateurish and break apart quite easily, but do the job and are not expensive. I burn them in combination with a log or two.