[doganjo]

Should be around 60p or so at present

http://www.boilerjuice.com

will give you an idea of prices in your area. You can usually get it less than the site by phoning round; but it gives you a good idea of what the price should be at any time.

I quoted this site a few posts back and was shot down in flames lol

[poppajohn]

What appalling stories folks! I agree on avoiding Boilerjuice, its a ripoff. I bit the bullet last summer and had another multi fuel stove installed ( with a chimney liner as the flue is 10 feet wide at the bottom ) I topped up with oil in August to the three quarter mark and still have a quarter tank left so thats used about 500 litres. I spread the cost between wood and coal, doing a lot of the wood myself in summer. The other stove has made all the difference to the whole house and total heating costs for November to March were only £200. We use bottle gas for the cooking range and with electricity I can honestly say we only have an annual bill of around £600. Thats for coal, oil and wood plus the electricity bill. I am seriously looking at a coal pellet boiler to replace the oil but as I dip into this tank for tractor fuel as well at present.......
All fuel is dear, I think the secret is not all eggs in one basket, my wife retired two years ago and consequently is inside all winter so needs the heat. I bought the best stoves I could afford, a 6kw Stovax for the lounge and a 5kw Woodwarm for the dining room, as I said they have worked wonders and the central heating was hardly on even in Decembers cold.
I hope the price comes down soon for people, somehow I think we are stuck with high oil prices so maybe diversifying to coal and wood is the answer. It works for us!

[RUSTYME]

Time for those that can, to think about another way of doing things . Grow you own oil !!!!! or grow your own wood !!!
 It is easy to do either way , but prices for bought in stuff are not going to go down in the long term so if you are going to do it , do it now .
If you plant wood , you can go for willow , ash and hazel ( all have other uses as well , basketry, fencing etc etc). 3 or 4 acres would be what was needed . Either a boggy field for willow or maybe just extra wide hedges all the way round your holding .
 Oil is more intensive as you have to process the seed once grown and harvested . Sunflower or rape seed are probably the best to go for , but I am not sure how well this type of stuff grows too far up north ?
 About 1/3 of the weight of seed is oil , so 3 ton = 1 ton of oil (+ the remaining 2 ton is animal feed ie oil seed cake). You have to have some sort of processor to get the oil out and that could set you back from £500 - £1000 for a new machine , but it is a one off expense and would cope with many more tons of seed than you are likely to ever process. The hand operated ones are ok for very small amounts of oil , but for 1000 litres + forget them .
 Once you have the seed and the processor , you are set up for virtually free oil thereafter .
The same with the wood. Once planted and growing the coppice will provide you with all you need for just the time it takes to cut and stack .
 For those that say " but it means loads of work " and " this can happen , or that can happen " and so on , don't do it , carry on paying for it at whatever price 'they' decide you are going to have to pay ., and it IS NOT GOING TO GET CHEAPER !!!

cheers

Russ
 

[poppajohn]

Good points for spare acres Rustyme. I forgot to mention that foraging licenses are avaliable from The Forestry Commission as well, they wont let you loose with a chainsaw but there is always ample windfall on most estates and its free. I used to pile the family into the truck every weekend and fill the trailer, now I go once a month with a large trailer and do half a days gathering. I reckon on gathering around 6 tons a year that way.

[piggy]

 my wife retired two years ago and consequently is inside all winter so needs the heat.
[/quote]
Im very mean i afraid when the kids say there are cold i tell them to go and put a jumper on!

[Beewyched]

Sounds like it's gonna be thermals & 2 minute showers for us 

Seriously - how much would someone charge to fit one of those 3kw wood burners & probably line the chimney?  Think our landlord would be ok with us doing that (& we could always take the burner with us when the tenancy ends  ) At least it would heat about half the house for us 

[doganjo]

I just installed a 5kw multifuel stove in my lounge.  Cost to buy fire and pipework was £2500, installation £1300 - I own a 1988 timber frame kit house, so needed non combustible material all round the flue pipe through the wall and under the fire.  I had a concrete plinth built with slate tiles on top. It looks great and is brilliantly warm.

[Beewyched]

Wow £3,800 - just calculating the number of piglets I need to sell 

Yours looks so cosy Annie - can feel the warmth just looking at it, bet the dogs love it too 

[poppajohn]

Beewyched, cost for us was £1,900 for the Woodwarm, £900 for the stove and liner was £25 a metre. They fill the gap with Vermiculite and thats not too expensive, this was the old kitchen chimney for a range so hence a wide flue at the bottom and more filling.
The Stovax I bought and installed myself in the lounge in an existing working fireplace, I got that for £1,200 but its solid cast and enamel finish, it should see me out!
So just over £3,000 is a hundred weaners at £30 each! 

[robert waddell]

NO IT IS 50 WEANERS AT £60

[poppajohn]

Lillian, at £60 a weaner they must have gold plated trotters! 

[robert waddell]

YOU HAVE TO KEEP AND FEED THE weaners for at least 8 wksthe sow for the 3 months 3 wks 3 days the boar or the boar hire the cost of the sow to start with  and you want weaners with a token price of £30  expletive expletive expletive
you would be better trying to get your hands on my wallet at least i would get the chance to cut it off

[sausagesandcash]

I hate to say it but doganjo paid dear for what she got. 30 kw multifuel stove ~ 1700 euro including flu and bits n' bobs. Two friends put it in for a song.

[benkt]

Ah, over here you're not allowed (as per usual) to let 'two friends put it in' - either need a HETAS certified fitter or get stuck in a pile of building regs and consents. One can only assume this increases the cost quite a bit!

[robert waddell]

if it is wood burner only all you can do is set the house on fire if it has a boiler then you can blow yourself up and your neighbours
some of these tradesmen the nearest they will come be what ever trade they indulge in is if they slept with one