[OT ish] Log stacking

[Dave Liquorice]

Ah but Mr Mears knows his stuff, no doubt knowledge gained by asking questions... My curiosity got awakened by the Norwegians. B-)

It would fill solid with snow...

Hope it's split already, Big bits of beech become like lumps of concrete when dry, DAMHIKT. The small say 1" thick 4" wide 9" long bits of dry beech I'm splitting down for kindling almost explosively split when the hand axe hits 'em.

Half a tonne won't last long. We get through about that much in a month with the stove lit for about 6 hrs/day.

[Dave Liquorice]

But what happens when you take the top off...

[Tim Lamb]

It doesn't look as though the car spends much time under cover:-)

Could you reduce the size of the opening and slow the wind down?

Slatted panels to let in air and light.

I doubt anyone fully appreciated how exposed you are. Bark up and sloped to drip clear for rain but snow melt is slow and may not drip.

Home for the weekend and claims to have found a possible site! From further discussion, they are trying to emulate an MOD training site on the cheap!

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[Tim Lamb]

In message , Dave Liquorice writes

We have gas fired CH. The log burner is in the middle of an open plan section and offsets some of the gas.

My intention is to replace the ground floors in 3 rooms and fit wet under floor heating: run from the woodburner with gas back up.

Currently I use a small garden barrow full of dry Oak each day. Over a heating season this may equate to 3-4 tons! There are enough dead and dying Oaks on the farm to see me out!

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[Dave Liquorice]

I don't think mine fits or if it does it's *very* close to the roof. Anyway, snow apart, it's a useful storeage area, that a car would stop the use of and get in the way from the door.

Possibly but even then the dry powder snow we get just swirls about on the air currents, which radically alter depending on the direction of the wind.

B-) Visitors nearly always comment on how windy it is. To which we normally respond is it? as we haven't noticed. We don't until it gets above an F5, 20 mph sustained, A "Fresh Breeze" makes small leafy trees sway, as in the whole tree moves.

[Dave Liquorice]

Luxury, rather expensive oil here probably about 7p/unit ATM.

Ours feeds the thermal store and offsets some of the oil.

Bear in mind that wood burning boilers will tar up if they don't get hot. Ours does and when on shouldn't be any lower than 60C. The water in the underfloor loops will only be at 40C or there abouts. Should have thermostatic mixer valve on it anyway so having the boiler far hotter than the loops shouldn't be a problem but what do you do with the excess heat?

We planted a load of trees (>800) over ten years ago, the biggest would keep the stove going for an evening and there are only a couple that size. Most of the rest aren't much more than kindling. We didn't plant for firewood though, planted for habitat.

There are trees lower down in the valley bottoms and near some of the lower farms but at our level and higher is effectively above the tree line. It's open, rolling, moorland, not a tree in sight.

[S Viemeister]

Sounds familiar - the trees and shrubs in my garden all look as though the wind is blowing, even when it isn't. They point roughly east.

[Steve Firth]

You use the back boiler to hear a 300L or bigger thermal store. That us fitted with a mixer valve to maintain 40°C to underfloor and can supply

70°C to radiators. Use a plate heat exchanger to operate the shower. Since the store is a neutral point you can also add gas/oil boiler and solar panels to the store to make effective use of whatever source of heat is available.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Steve Firth writes

Yes. That's the plan:-)

Currently trepidating about existing ground floor pipe routeing. The hall and utility flooring is insulated and finished in rather nice ceramic tiles. I planned to retain the radiators and that part of the original pumped system but now realise I don't know where the pipes run as they are mainly buried in the screed.

Job for an infra red thermometer perhaps?

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[harry]

Metal detector. Even a stud/nail finder.

[harry]

Heat stores are a complete waste of time. Spend your money on insulation.

[Tim Lamb]

That's a thought, Harry.

Won't do for under the suspended floor bit but I can lift a board or two there.

The thermal store is necessary to allow heat to be used from different sources; gas, wood and electric.

Getting rid of excess heat is an issue!

[Dave Liquorice]

The 300l store here buffers the three available heat sources quite well.

We did that as well.

[Dave Liquorice]

Might work if you know roughly where to look. Quite pleased with the dua l laser IR thermometer I got from CPC the other week. Fast response, variable emissivity, hi/lo alarms, 12:1 distance spot ratio. Still on offer £32.95 + VAT until 15th March IN0545702. Yes there are cheaper o nes about but they tend to be single/no laser and fixed emissivity.

Would these pipe be insulated, buried direct or in conduit? Insulated might make the "warm" pathe hard to see but buried direct or in conduit

I'd expect to be able to find by slowly scanning across the suspected area.

[Steve Firth]

No they aren't.

Spend your money on the education you need.

[harry]

Control is the thing.

Most of your heat will have leaked from your thermal store by the time your need it. If if it didn't, it would need to be huge to be significant.

What you need to store heat is thermal mass. Ie the structure of the building to be dense masonry with insulation outside. I have such a building, with PV panels I have net zero energy use. Finacially I make a profit of around£2700/year. The total benefit is around £3700/year.

The principles are set out here.

[harry]

[Tim Lamb]

Not the issue here. This is a Victorian farmhouse with largely studwork walls in the original building. The *upgrade* of 1995 met the thermal requirements of the day (U 2.3?) and was achieved by adding 25mm of PIR insulation externally. The only thermal mass is the brick chimney which does a job with the enclosed log burner.

Retirement and age means the house is occupied during the day which suits *permanently on* ground floor heating. I have a source of logs which is free at the cost of my labour. The other benefit is the opportunity to fit insulation in the floors.

I saw the photos of your house.

I think the government of the day was wrong to encourage PV installations using money from a levy on other consumers. I know they were desperate to achieve their CO2 emissions target but this technology should stand on its own feet.

[Tim Lamb]

Thanks for that. I had one in mind for radiator balancing anyway.

In screed they, mostly:-( have a sleeve of woven sacking. Bare copper elsewhere.

My concern is the possibility of orphaning part of the system I need to retain.

[Steve Firth]

harry wrote: [snip]

And as the designer and owner of a system with a thermal store, solar, gas and solid fuel heat sources I can tell you that you, as ever, talking shit about things you don't understand.