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I have access to plentiful (more than I need) supplies of native hardwood suitable for burning. Time to stop using gas, methinks; wife's not opposed to an AGA or similar ....
what should I do?? stove + thermal store? if so, can we avoid cooking ourselves in summer??
Burn It!!!! Just don't buy an Aga because you can't burn wood in them.
What you burn it in depends on your lifestyle. The general idea down our way (were there is a plentiful supply of cheap wood), is to have a wood fired cooker supplemented by a gas or elecric cooker for use in the warmer months. You do have to keep throwing wood into the cooker/boiler/stove regularly throughout the day if you want to get a useable amount of heat for cooking and heating and it does take an hour or two to heat up from cold so it's not for people who spend most of the day out as by the time you've got it going it's time for bed... although I have seen dedicated wood boilers that you fill to the brim with wood every couple of days and the boiler takes care of the rest.
Asides from all that though having a wood cooker in the kitchen and a wood stove in the living room in our house really made a difference - especially in the kitchen, which became a real focal point in the house when the cooker was lit. I'd definitely go for it just on those grounds.
How about using the renewable, low impact material that is wood to both make things and to lessen your reliance on fossil fuels or inefficiently generated electricity.
www.cosi.co.uk/prod01.htm
This page has a fairly good diagram illustrating how to fit a wood fired device into your central heating system.
Go for a log boiler with a decent size thermal store. We are out all day 6-7 days a week and with 4 hours burning have plentiful heat and hot water, of course you must insulate well also this reduces your reliance on heating!
thanks all for your replies; this wood generally isn't too useful for making stuff, although I anticipate some suggestions. Our house is reasonably well insulated, but we'll always need a heat source, if I don't burn this wood, it'll get ground and composted, so ... is tony suggesting I continue with gas instead??
Nickysells - what thermal store have you got, can one attach wood, gas & solar?? how much did it cost?
It might be worth pointing out to all you 'carbon counters' out there that if your wood isn't much good for making things with and ends up ground and composted (or just left to rot down over time), it will release more or less the same amount of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere as it would release by burning it. Remember, there would be no life on Earth without some CO2.
Our 100 litre heat store costs about 1,700 Euros (1,200 UK pounds) although I'm not sure of the manufacturer and you can attach a number of primary heat sources, (cooker, boiler solar panels etc.). Most companies who deal with wood fired seem pretty well versed in this technology nowadays so it's probably worth asking for a couple of professional opinions too.
Macdonald engineering in Louth £800 for 1200ltr, bit Heath Robinson with loft insulation round it but works none the less. Akvatherm seem to be the current tank of choice google it and suppliers will appear.
I believe you could hook up solar to an emmersion, you wont need gas if you have the other 2 with all that free would!
I dont even believe in anthropogenic warming but it should matter to you when it gets turned into CO2. The longer it is wood the better if you worried about CO2.
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