Want a wood burner but high cost.

[SimonH2]

... but I doubt that many people who use a wood burner as a principal source of heating are fuelling it with rotten wood gathered from a forest floor.

`it's not the rotten timber, it's the timber that would rot if it were left there, and apparently there is enough of it being gathered in some places to be a concern about the ecology.

Where the timber comes from is of concern. If it's "recently grown" farmed wood then that's OK (but as you hint at, there's still the net carbon released during it's planting, harvesting, preparation, and transport. But, I get the impression that a lot of wood coming from northern US and Canada isn't really farmed in the way our conifer plantations are - a very large part of it is what's been growing (slowly) for a long long time, and the replacements will be many many decades in growing back to the size of what's been harvested.

Still, as you say, it's a lot better than coal/oil that's been thousands or millions of years in the making.

 

[geraldthehamster]

Where the timber comes from is of concern. If it's "recently grown" farmed wood then that's OK (but as you hint at, there's still the net carbon released during it's planting, harvesting, preparation, and transport. But, I get the impression that a lot of wood coming from northern US and Canada isn't really farmed in the way our conifer plantations are - a very large part of it is what's been growing (slowly) for a long long time, and the replacements will be many many decades in growing back to the size of what's been harvested.

Still, as you say, it's a lot better than coal/oil that's been thousands or millions of years in the making.

As far as I'm aware (and I could be wrong), north American timber is imported for construction and joinery. Most logs used as fuel are from British forestry.

Cheers
Richard

 

[SimonH2]

But there's also a lot of ship/pellet imported - isn't there a whole power station run off imported pellets ?
I suppose it depends if these are from trees felled for pelleting - or whether it's just the waste from timber production. The former isn't very green, the latter is - apart from the "cost" of shipping it half way round the world !

 

[geraldthehamster]

But there's also a lot of ship/pellet imported - isn't there a whole power station run off imported pellets ?
I suppose it depends if these are from trees felled for pelleting - or whether it's just the waste from timber production. The former isn't very green, the latter is - apart from the "cost" of shipping it half way round the world !

I was surprised to discover that quite a lot of fuel used for UK biomass power generation is imported, which is a bad thing:

“Canadian provinces are diving into a “biomess” by opening the door to large scale clearcuts, salvage logging and highly damaging extraction practices that could double the forest industry’s footprint on already damaged forest ecosystems. Whole trees and large areas of forest are being cut to provide wood that is burnt for energy.”

http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2013/biomass-faq-2/

...though this doesn't really relate to the question of burning local renewed wood in a domestic stove ...

Cheers
Richard

 

[Hikerdude]

I put in my own wood burner a few months ago whole project cost was around £750 and took three days. To put my own in was due to the high cost in paying a professional, we would have had a better end result but not enough to justify the expenditure, besides I really enjoyed the project.
We were quoted around £1800 for the job as of October 2013.
I'd recommend anyone to have a go at it (there's a fantastic site that takes you through all the rules, regs and steps, although am i allowed to put it in)?.
YouTube is also great for tips.

 

[big-all]

you must inform building control before instillation
install to regs[part j]
and have them pass the instillation at your expense
remember a wrongly installed stove may null and void your house insurance