The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Land Management => Topic started by: macgro7 on January 14, 2018, 05:12:55 pm
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I'm looking at a property for sale in our area which has a 5 acre of mixed native woodland planted in 2016.
Would that, managed as coppice, be enough in several years, to heat the house using tile masonry stove which is much more economical than simple wood burner.
Not exactly what species they planted out but I would add some poplar and willow, chestnut and ash. Perhaps some non native trees like eucalyptus (heard it coppice well).
A sort of average three bedroom house I'm talking about
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A cord of wood from what i remember is about 3.6 cu/m or 128 cu/ft. If it is your sole source of heating then it's better to have to much than to little. So i'd say four cords worth personally a year if sole source. But i'm sure there are more informed persons on here who could answer better.
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That should be plenty once eatablished. Assuming theres a good mix in there.
Unfortunately ash may mot be the best bet as ash die back is likely to wipe out over 95% and I don’t believe you can buy them in the UK anymore, if that’s where you are.
Hazel works really nicely in a coppice.
Sounds like fun! I love producing oir own wood.
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That's a wonderfully 'it depends' type of question ;D . I believe you live somewhere a lot warmer than I do, but for native species it's going to be a long time before you would be producing enough wood to heat your home, even for a few months a year. After about 10 years or so trees such as birch which grow quickly will produce some logs of around 20cm diameter, but the trees are still small so one might do a couple of fires for a day each. The willow etc will grow more quickly but it also burns far more quickly too.
Things such as the actual species grown, their spacing, local climate and rainfall, soil, how much your stove would really use and for how many days a year and hours a day you want to use it - all these things have a bearing. But, if you are intending to live there forever, one year in the distant future you'll be cosy. Until then you would be buying in wood.
Having said all that, I so wish we had a decent amount of woodland here - think of the wildlife and amenity :tree: :tree: :tree: :tree: :tree:
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Cool.
My great grandmother had an old masonry heater in her house and no central heating. Kept the house warm all night once lighted in the evening. And im not talking about English winter (1 inch of snow and all the schools are closed lol). That was in Poland where you ocasianally get -20! (In summer +34 btw - it's not Siberia...)
How it works it actually burns the wood quicker to very high temperature but instead of making the room very hot And cooling some quite soon (like metal wood burners) it stores the heat for a long time a realises it for a number of hours (depending how big it actually is).
There are beautiful contemporary designs and even companies on the UK making them.
Such a shame about ash... really love that tree. Usually have to fight with them (recently using goats lol), not as bad as sycamore though.
We are in Leicestershire so our climate is slightly colder than London but much warmer (And dryer!) Than Scotland or Wales!
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I burn about 2 or 2.5 tons of wood a year to supply all my heating and hot water (130m2 house). That's about 8 or 10 m3 of stacked, dry wood.
But (and it is a big but) I have a fairly well insulated house and a family that doesn't use much hot water. Unless you built it yourself and know for sure you have to assume that any house in the uk has rubbish insulation. Even a house built 10 years ago will be pretty poor (building regs are improving standards for houses built now.)
I know someone who burns a 20ton Arctic load every year and still has to buy oil!
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I looked into this in some detail a few years back though its al a bit hazy now. I found information that indicated one acre of woodland should be capable of keeping one house going. Of course there are so many variables (size of house, heating usage, insulation, type of wood burned) involved its not easy to say x is enough, however id say with 5 acres you will be well in. As it was only planted in 2016, youl have a few years before you can start to realise it however ! We planted one acre of woodland (about 700 trees if I recall correctly) with our retirement in mind...I expect ill be to knackered to chop down the tress and process them by then though !
Unfortunately for us all the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago.
In recent times we have had the odd mature tree blow down and have found one mature tree lasts us a winter quite comfortably. Though we only burn in the evenings and at weekends.
When we first bought our place I looked at ground source ( very expensive to install ) etc etc. but when watching Grand designs one day a couple proudly announced it cost something riduclous like £160 a year for all their energy costs. It was then that it hit me like a ton of bricks, its not what you burn (oil gas wood whatever) but how much of it you burn that matters. Their house was super effiecient not because the fuel was cheap, or the heating system super effiecient, but because it was insulated to very high standards and hence retained its heat. It doesn't really matter what your heat source is if you use very little of it. Say my fuel cost doubled...its still only £320 a year ! So I conclude , spend your money and time insulating, you only do it once and it pays back over and over and over.
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<<So I conclude , spend your money and time insulating, you only do it once and it pays back over and over and over.>>
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[/size]I agree with that stufe35. We looked into wind power and solar panels, but given the installation costs, and our age, we concluded that the best thing to do was insulate. So we spent our money on a new roof, repointing of all the walls, new double glazed windows, and building a porch on the front and a scullery on the back of the house - these latter because otherwise the outside doors opened directly into the house, so any heat we had was sucked out every time anyone went out or came in. Now we can survive on just a small log burner, with a burst of central heating first thing in the morning, or when it's really cold. It did cost a lot, though not as much as a turbine, but has had the extra benefit of updating the outside of the whole house (still some inside to do)
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[/size]Oh, and we did plant some trees 20 years ago ;D :tree: :tree: :tree: . Amazing to be reaping the rewards now, on a small scale.
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Macgro7 have you done your research on tile masonry stoves? I wondered if you could recommend any or will you be looking for second hand ones? Thanks.
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I've only looked on them briefly. There's few companies that do the in the UK.
To be honest I don't think you can get them second hand... ask a bricklayer to make it for you!