the complete guide to woodfuel

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Fuel from Recycled DustHeating with briquettes, pellets & heat logs

Complete Guide to Woodfuel 2012

Autumn 2012£5.00

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For more information visit www.living-woods.com

For anyone supplying or using firewood, pellets or chips

W elcome to this, our second Complete Guide to Woodfuel,

earlier than expected. The first edition was well received, but we were asked to bring it out in the autumn, when readers would be preparing for winter and keen to learn new ideas about heating with wood. Though last winter was warm, and demand for logs was lower than expected, the interest in woodfuel is still blossoming, particularly with regard to boiler installations for commercial properties, benefitting from the Renewable Heat Incentive. It’s exciting to learn that the first community-owned energy supply company (ESCo) is on the verge of going live with its first contract, and indeed the boiler is on order. This edition we look at the use of boilers for centralising heat provision, we explore the dusty world of briquettes and pellets and we ask which trees should we be planting to meet future demand for logs, chips and other forms of biomass. Nick Gibbs, Editor-in-Chief

Contents04 Woodfuel NewsUpdates on grants, events and initiatives

07 Choosing WoodHow to make sure you are using the right wood for your appliance, and can distinguish one species from another, plus some simple handling and splitting and cutting advice for anyone aiming to produce their own logs

11 Buying a StoveOur guide to buying a woodburning stove, looking at the difference between standard woodburners and boiler stoves, asking what size is best, and what are the different styles

14 Centralised HeatingExploring the burgeoning world of the wood boiler, and particularly the log gasification boiler, and how it needs to be integrated into your wood supply. There’s a brief look at grants and other useful information

19 New ProductsA device for unloading logs from a pick-up or trailer, a diminutive truck for moving cordwood and logs around the wood or the yard, Makita’s new entry-level chainsaw and Oregon’s new ‘cage’ for bulk cutting of firewood

22 Planting for FuelWhich species of trees should we be planting, and how can trees be processed efficiently to convert into firewood

26 Working with DustA report on the making and using of briquettes and pellets in the home and commercially

28 DirectoryLists of contacts for buying woodfuel appliances, forestry equipment and other sources of information

month 2011 03

EditorialNIck Gibbs, Editor-in-Chief [email protected]

ContributorsSune Nightingale, Jude Walker, Jacky Leadbeater

AdvertisingTo learn more about advertising in Living Woods please contact Sarah Ellis at: 01285 850225 or [email protected]

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PrintingPrinted by Buxton Press

© Freshwood Publishing 2012

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Complete Guide to Woodfuel 2012

Autumn 2012 £5.00

Freshwood Publishing, The Hope Workshops, Ampney St Peter, Glos GL7 5SH

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S ales of solid-fuel Rayburn cookers rose by a quarter in 2011 with consumers watching rising fuel bills and

caring more about the environment. People are keen to save on their fuel bills, says Rayburn brand manager, Nigel Morrison, but believes there is more to it than that. “The most obvious reason for installing woodburning stoves and cookers is the shocking rise we have seen in fuel prices. We saw the big domestic energy suppliers introducing price hikes resulting in as much as 20% increases in energy bills last year. But there are other factors. We’ve used many years of expertise to develop new solid-fuel cookers, as well as really innovative products like our range of smoke-exempt Aga woodburning stoves, which can be used in smoke control areas, and the Aga Fusion pellet stove, which fits beautifully in even the most contemporary interior.” Rayburn emphasise that it is easier to link their range cooker to central heating with Eco-Connect (above), enabling the interconnection of different appliances, such as a wood-fired boiler stove and a gas boiler.

Details Learn more about Rayburn at rayburn-web.co.uk. T he annual Surrey Hills Wood Fuel Conference, now in its third year, is making a name for itself

and attracting ever-more interesting speakers. Held on 5th October this year, at Birtley House, Bramley again, the conference features many authoritative voices. Their experiences may be largely local to the area, but will resonate with woodfuel suppliers and users around the country. Entitled Making Wood Work for You, the conference aims to pack 11 speakers into the session before lunch. In the afternoon there are workshops and demonstrations, and then a woodland walk and a chipping display that combines a delivery of wood chip to the Birtley House boiler. The event attracted 140 delegates in 2011, with the theme this year focusing on ‘business opportunities in wood’. The organisers say that it will be equally valuable for woodland owners, contractors, land agents, woodfuel

end users or suppliers, installers of stoves or boilers, or property developers. The ‘Woodland Market Place’ is designed to put you in touch with others who can help you achieve your goals.

Details Booking is essential, and a conference fee of £30 per delegate (including lunch and refreshments) will be charged on acceptance of your booking registration. To register visit surreyhillswoodfuel.co.uk/conference.

00 The Complete Guide to Woodfuel 2012 The Complete Guide to Woodfuel 2012 00www.woodfuelguide.com www.woodfuelguide.com

NewsThe latest updates on woodfuel

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Aga LinkSales of Rayburns rise 25%

Surrey HillsAnnual conference reaches beyond local Home Counties

The Lincolnshire Firewood Fair, which this year is being held on 2nd September at Ravesby Estate, has recently won the community section of the Lincolnshire Environmental Awards. The awards have been run for 25 years, and are organised by the Lindum Rotary Club and the Lincs Wildlife Trust. The judging panel was led by Professor David Bellamy. “It is quite a novel twist for an environmental award to be won by a group encouraging people to cut down trees,” said FC Woodland Officer, David White

Matthew Woodcock will be speaking about a new FC initiative

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Living with FirewoodBurning wood makes life less convenient, but it can be done

It’s hardly surprising that gas, oil and electricity have proved so popular. Burning wood is a chore, unless you have a wood chip or pellet boiler (or stove). Woodland owner Stuart Galey

in Gloucestershire reckons he uses about 5-6 tonnes of logs a year, just to fuel one large woodburning stove, which heats his home. He air dries the wood for two years before burning. Even if you have the wood delivered, there’s still stacking to do, then moving it into the house, storing it ready to burn and then dealing with the ash afterwards. Don’t expect it to be easy, but it can be good value, should be doing woodlands good, it is renewable, and it means you aren’t using up irreplaceable fossil fuels. And you’ll be taking more exercise! A basket is the traditional store for wood inside. It lets the logs breathe, and looks good. But it is perhaps surprising that so many are round, which is an inefficient shape for storage in most situations. Buying a rectangular or square basket makes more sense, but they can be difficult to source. One solution is to make one yourself. Last year Jenny Crisp ran a course to make a Log Basket, using a hoop and scalloms, at a cost of £160. There are no details of similar courses this year, but you can approach her by email at [email protected].

06 The Complete Guide to Woodfuel 2012 The Complete Guide to Woodfuel 2012 07

Firewood

At the other end of the burning cycle, dealing with ash can be less tiring, but a much dustier challenge. It is difficult getting the ash out of a stove and into a bucket without filling the room with billowing clouds of dust. One solution is to use a lidded metal biscuit tin to scoop out the ash, with the lid preventing too much of the dust escaping. Another is to make a receiving bin into which the dust tray from the stove slips. As a prototype we did this in plywood, and it works really well, but you’d need to make them from metal if the ash is hot. The tray slips into the slot, and the ash drops into the bin. It is increasingly difficult to find suppliers of galvanised metal buckets with lids. You can’t use a plastic bucket for fear of it melting should the waste still be hot. You can buy metal ones easily enough, but few of them have lids, which means that the ash gets wet and difficult to manage outside the back door before being added to the compost heap.

A moisture meter (above) helps you monitor the dryness of your firewood. We made a prototype ash collector in plywood, but it needs to be metal (above left)

Stacking firewood can be made into a family affair (left) with a bit of encouragement and competition. A covered store makes life much easier, especially if you need to separate species and wood of differing moisture content

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It is not well known, though commonsense if you think about it, that the ideal piece of firewood is not too large. It’s probably smaller than you’d expect, though you may need to bear the

species and purpose in mind as well. If you want the log to burn evenly it needs to be split, ideally on all surfaces (to remove the bark), but of course that is not always possible and isn’t too much of an issue. Bark doesn’t burn that well, and is likely to attract moisture, so it might be better to find another use for it, perhaps as a mulch. Very thin pieces of wood, as you would use for kindling, heat up quicky and release volatile gases abundantly, so they burn fast. That’s fine for getting a fire going, but not for a sustained burn. About 10cm (4in) square is said by many authorities to be the right size, balancing volatility and longevity. In reality it’s good to have varying shapes and sizes for getting and keeping a fire going. But slowing down the burn with a large log is likely to be inefficient and lead to condensation and soot build-up. Wood will dry more quickly if it has been split, but that’s not always possible immediately after it’s been cut, so you may have to stack it temporarily, either as cordwood (about 3-4ft long) or as short rings. It’s important to work out what length of log is best for your stove or fire or cooker, and make sure the cordwood is efficiently divisible by that figure. Stacking cordwood in alternate directions, each layer at right angles to the previous one, will stabilise the stack, as will sheets of chicken wire every few layers, but most people stack their logs in one direction. If you do that make sure the stack is supported at each end, that there is a cover (corrugated iron is good) and that there is good ventillation. It is also a good idea to lift the stack off the ground, on bricks or pallets, otherwise the bottom layers will rot.

Log storeThe same is true of a stack of split logs, however it is a good idea to have a permanent roof on such a store because you will be accessing it all the time to bring logs into the house and it soon becomes a pain having to remove a protective sheet from the top of the pile. Inevitably the pile will diminish unevenly and the cover will fall off. Though it might suit your way of living to have one store, many users of firewood will have divisions or compartments so that softwoods and hardwoods can be separated, as can wet and dry wood or for different lengths for different stoves. Drew Langsner, of The Country Workshops in the USA, admitted recently that after years of cutting their logs to differing lengths to suit two stoves, they now cut them all to suit the smaller fire because it has proved more efficient that way.

Firewood

08 The Complete Guide to Woodfuel 2012 www.woodfuelguide.com

Living Woods tested three moisture meters in July/August 2009 (LW05:60). If you don’t want to spend much, and want just a rough indication, then the Westfalia Wetekom EM4806 from westfalia.net is great value for about £10. You can buy similar ones from Maplin, to get you going. If you want to get more serious about monitoring the moisture in your firewood, then Euroheat’s AC101 is fantastic, costing about £46inc.VAT (euroheat.co.uk). It has a neat method for testing battery levels and calibration, and an automatic cut-off when you put the cover over the pins. Perhaps the most accurate (and cheapest) way to measure moisture content is the oven dry test. You put a weighed sample (WS) of your firewood into a warm (but not hot, no more than 103°C), and keep weighing it till the weight stays constant (WOD). To calculate the moisture content (MC) as a percentage takes a simple formula: MC=((WS-WOD)/WOD)x100. Wet firewood may have an MC of up to 60%, and you shouldn’t burn it till it is below 20%. A set of fine scales help (below), from eBay.

Identifying the species of wood dumped on your drive by your local firewooder can be a challenge. It is, however, important to learn what you are buying. The more you know, the less likely a

supplier is to fob you off with wet wood or wood that doesn’t burn so well. By knowing what you have you can also choose to burn the softer woods to get a fire going and the harder species to keep the stove alight for longer. It’s all about density. In theory, all species burn at about the same rate by weight, although we all know that 1kg of ash will burn more quickly than 1kg of horse chestnut. Actually, horse chestnut, which was traditionally never rated well for burning on an open fire (because it is very slow burning) performs well in a stove, with higher temperatures and greater control of airflow. It’s still a terror to split, though. To generate enough kW of heat to warm a room or house, you need a specific quantity of dry wood. You will need a larger quantity of softwood than hardwood because the latter species are generally more dense, though there are notable exceptions. Ash, apple and hornbeam are considered the best firewood as they season easily and burn evenly and well. Oak and beech tend to be slower to dry, but will give you a long burn. Sycamore dries relatively quickly, but also burns quite fast. Willow may spit in an open grate, but is good for getting a stove going if you can keep it dry during seasoning so that it doesn’t rot. The list goes on. So how do you tell one from another. It’s a challenge, especially when the wood is split and you don’t have a finished surface to study. You look at the ends of the log. You look at the way it’s split. You look at the grain pattern and colour, and you search for any medullary rays (flecks) in the grain. You study the bark, and maybe even smell the wood and the dust, if there is any. Experienced woodsmen are likely to be able to distinguish one wood from another blindfold, just picking up a dry piece and judging it by its weight and size and shape. Here are some identifying clues.

Species to look for• Ash. Look for long sharp edges and splinters, and for straight lines of grain, and a pale colour. Some split pieces are likely to be obscure shapes, often triangular and pointed because it splits so easily.• Beech. Look for a smoother cleft surface than ash, and often rather squarer shapes and pieces. May have a very slight pink hue, and darker flecks about 5mm long. Likely to feel heavier than ash.• Oak. Study the ends for thin golden lines running at right angles to the growth rings. These medullary rays are found in other species but are most distinctive in oak. Oak has a strong smell.• Softwoods. Pine and firs will feel lighter than other species. They may have splinters, and more knots. If you think it’s a softwood, but it’s heavier than hardwoods, it’s probably wet.

Moisture Identifying speciesHow to tell ash from pine

The Complete Guide to Woodfuel 2012 00www.woodfuelguide.com

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Splitting and Storing FirewoodTips for stacking, storing and moving logs

Ash (right) is easy to identify. Notice the straight grain and the angular shapes, and the scaly bark. The blue stain in the ends is typical, though not always present. Pine or fir is likely to have more knots, a silkier surface and often a resinous smell. It will be lighter in weight

Laurie Buckingham with his amazing Woodstation, for bulk cross-cutting logs (above) using a chainsaw. For smaller quantities, the Log-Loc (below) makes cross-cutting safer and faster

The Logmatic (above) is ideal if you don’t like using an axe or maul for splitting. An inner rod slides inside an outer sleeve to create a hammer action for less stressful splitting. It is best held vertical

The Stylish Way to Bring a Home to Life Woodburning stoves are not only more and more efficient, but they look good in modern and even urban homes

T here are a few key decisions to make when it comes to choosing a woodburning stove. Size is obviously critical, but first you have to work out if you want to produce

hot water and heat radiators around the house while warming one specific room. Boiler stoves, as they are known, are available with outputs from around 4kW (which will provide your hot water and a little heat as well), up to around 30kW. Above this level you need to consider other options or, of course, you could link two stoves together. “The traditional free-standing boiler stove is still the most prevalent, but inset stoves, which are built into a wall or chimney breast, are becoming more popular,” says Sune Nightingale, of Stoves Online. “The boiler usually forms the fire chamber in the stove so that the whole firebox is surrounded by water. This is called a wraparound boiler. Some boiler stoves have heat transfer tubes running over the top of the fire to help extract even more heat, and others may have a tube-type boiler above the fire, but the basic wraparound design is still the most common. You can get clip-in boilers for some stoves which can be retrofitted. You remove a firebrick in the stove and replace it with the boiler. Clip-in boilers do not give a big output, so are good if you want to contribute to heating and hot water, but not if you want to warm the whole building.” As Sune says, a boiler stove is not an automated boiler. You cannot just switch it on and off at a whim and, although you can shut the stove down by turning down the air inlets, it will still be giving out heat. A heat leak radiator is a way to get rid of that


Stove Design

heat. This is a radiator with no valve or thermostatically regulated valve (TRV) on it so that water can always flow. You run wide-bore pipes to it which always rise so that heat can get to it by thermosyphoning which is the tendency of the hot, less dense water to rise and the colder, more dense water to fall. Often you would use a towel rail as your heat leak radiator as this is a place where you will usually always want some heat. If, for example, your stove is going and you suddenly have a power cut then the heat from your stove can dissipate through the heat leak radiator and the whole system doesn’t start to boil. Some boiler stoves are thermostatically controlled which means that the air vents start to close if the stove starts getting too hot. Others comprise a load unit which gets the water up before opening the flow, so that the stove is hot enough to work efficiently. This also means that the hot water allowed out into your heating and hot water system is at 60ºC or over. When you are heating your water tank that means that you have usable hot water very quickly.

Judging the sizeEstablishing the right size of boiler stove to suit both the room and your heating needs can be a challenge. Smaller stoves, and those with clip-in boilers, can be used to supplement an existing gas or oil system and to reduce bills and fossil fuel needs. But if you want to fuel all your central heating with a boiler stove you are going to need a larger unit, which might be too big for your room. Boiler stoves over a certain size will produce too much hot

Stovax’s Riva Vision Stove (top) and the iPhone app for studying their brochure

A free-standing, single door stove from Arada, set into a fireplace (left) and the Riva Studio 2 inset fireplace from Stovax (above)


Wood • Multi-fuel • Gas • electric • Boiler stoves

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water, at too high a temperature, for a standard hot water tank or leak radiator to cope. They will need a dedicated system, but that may mean you have to have the stove on all the time to maintain your hot water supply. Alternatively you will have to look at a more complicated combination of heat sources, which will up the price.

Selecting a size & shapeWoodburning stoves are one of the few items that’s best bought smaller than you need. At least it certainly isn’t wise to buy one too large. Wood burns best when it’s very hot, rather than smouldering, and a cavernous fire chamber will need a lot of logs to get up a full head of steam. That said, some of the newest stoves are so efficient and have such clever airflow that they can burn a single piece of wood at a time. “It’s all about airflow,” says Matt Beckenham of Stovax, who produce their own Yeoman, Gazco and Kensal stoves in Exeter, and also distributors for the Rocal, Dovre and Wamsler ranges from mainland Europe. “You need to look for high efficiencies, of 75% or above, and those that are clean burning.” There are many stoves on the market that are also suitable for use in Defra smoke-controlled areas, so woodburning need not be the preserve of rural dwelling. Matt says that there is growing demand for boiler stoves allowing complete home heating from a stove. There are a few formulas offered to estimate the size of stove you need for a room. According to whichstove.com and Stovax’s advice on choosing a stove (stovax.com) you divide the volume of the room (in metres) by 14 to find the kW output you need to buy.

Styles of stoveStoves can either be free standing or built in to a fireplace or chimney breast. Arada produce four ranges of stoves, all produced in Axminster, Devon. They have Stratford boiler stoves, starting at 5kW for their EcoBoiler 7, and going up to 16kW for the EcoBoiler 20, with the measure relating to output to water rather than to the room. “There has never

been a better way to use natural renewable energy in your home,” says Arada’s Jo Holmes. Their Villager and Hamlet ranges are traditional, with the Arrow stoves their premium, contemporary brand. Some traditional stoves have double doors, though demand for single doors is growing with more dynamic styles and because users want to see an unrestricted view of the flames. “The favourite Villager stove has double doors,” says Jo, but sales are pretty much equal between singles and doubles.

Stove Design


Linking in a boiler stove to your heating and hot water system can actually be pretty simple, writes Sune Nightingale of Stoves Online. At its most basic you plumb the boiler stove in as if it were a radiator and add in some non-return valves to stop hot water from your conventional boiler being pumped through the stove when it is not lit. An improvement to this is to plumb the hot water pipe from the stove into the cold return pipe to your conventional boiler. The heat from the stove now enters the system at the same place as the heat from the conventional boiler which means that you do not affect how your radiators are balanced. If you want to add in, say, a second boiler stove then I would advise using something called a ‘centraliser’. It is essentially a compact, insulated metal box with multiple pipe connections. It forms a central point to which you connect all your heat sources like your conventional boiler and your boiler stove(s). They then heat the water in the centraliser which then in turn is used to provide hot water and heating. On top of the centraliser are two thermostats that measure the water temperature inside. When you light your boiler stove it heats the water in the centraliser but it is not until the water in the centraliser reaches, say, 50ºC that any heat is allowed to leave. This means that if you have a centraliser then you do not need to add in a load unit. At this point you start to move heat from the centraliser into your hot water tank. This gives you what is called ‘priority to hot water’. When the centraliser reaches, say, 60ºC, water is then allowed out to your central heating system to heat the building. The centraliser itself doesn’t care where the heat comes from so you can have various boiler stoves and/or your conventional boiler coming on to heat it at any one time.

Linking

Small stoves, like Salamander’s Hobbit (above), produce a surprising amount of heat. More contemporary styles include an inset stove from Stoves Online (right) and designer stoves by Sense 3D (below right)

A load unit (right) gets your boiler stove up to temperature fast and then keeps it there. A centraliser (see boxout, left) does a similar job and can be used to replace a load unit

Centralised HeatingWhile pellets and chips suit institutions, log gasification boilers are proving to be popular for anyone who has access to their own firewood and extra buildings to heat

Some readers may well own a woodland and have a supply of wood large enough to centrally-heat a home. Log gasification boilers come in outputs from around 16kW

up to around 120kW. They can be a convenient way to provide your heating and hot water. Essentially a log gasification boiler is a very efficient boiler that you install in an outbuilding. Typically there is a fuel chamber at the top and then a gasification chamber below with the hot flue gases running through a tube type boiler to extract as much heat as possible. The wood heats up in the top chamber and the released gases are conveyed to the lower chamber via a vent or slot. As the gases pass through this slot a fan blows in a supply of air which allows those gases to burn fully. Open up the lower door when

the boiler is in full swing and you will see a very intense jet of flame being roared into the lower chamber. Typically the efficiency of log gasification boilers is around 90%. You connect the boiler to a large accumulator tank which lets you run the log gasification boiler flat out and store up all that heat for later. These boilers

usually have huge fire chambers so you can really get a lot of wood in there and it is important to make sure that this is the case if you do choose this type of heating. You would typically be loading and lighting the boiler twice a day in the depths of winter and perhaps once every two or three days in the height of summer. The other advantage is that you can use longer logs which makes for less work cutting and chopping. The big accumulator then supplies all your heating and hot water but, because of the huge size of the tanks with these systems, you might have another smaller solar-enabled hot water tank in the house which is then heated by the larger tank. Equally the accumulator tank can be linked into an existing oil or gas system.

Room for woodThe challenge, says Mark Weatherlake of Dunster Heat (who distribute and install Vigas boilers and Akvatherm accumulator tanks) is not so much installing the boiler, but organising your wood supply to make feeding the chamber easy. Typically, his customers have their own wood supply and either want to heat a single detached home, and often a farmhouse, or install a larger boiler for a number of properties to claim the Renewable Heat Incentive grants that are only currently available to businesses. A four-bedroom, well-insulated house may only need a 25kW boiler, while a ‘leaky’ five bed might need a 40kW model. As a rule of thumb

Log Gasification Boilers

you divide the kW of the boiler by two to find the tonnes of wood you’ll need in a year. The 20 tonnes you’ll have to store to fuel a 40kW boiler takes some management and thought. “The first year is the most difficult,” Mark explains. “Often they’ve been lowering the thermostat on radiators to match the rising price of oil, but 99% of our customers like burning wood and don’t like burning oil. They will often say that they’ve got their house back.” Most of Mark’s customers have a free or cheap source of firewood, probably their own. “Space for logs is the main thing,” he says, adding that owners come up with ingenious methods of storage. “The boiler is the easy bit. I focus on managing their woodfuel. One customer built a cage from building site or crowd control fencing, 6ft high, with the front lower and a tarp over the top, and dumped the firewood straight in from a processor. Others fill potato boxes (or make their own 6x4ft slatted chests) and stack them with the front loader on a tractor. Hiring a contractor with a firewood processor, for perhaps £300 a day, is an effective way of getting a year’s supply of wood cut and split in no time. The smaller boilers take 0.5m lengths of wood and larger ones 1m logs, so you can process a large quantity very quickly.

Dry woodObviously the wood has to be well dried before it can be burnt, down to at least 20%. But boilers can burn pretty much any species, hardwood or


Heating

Case study: Bore Place

Bore Place - Wood fired boiler package

Commonwork is a group of organisations based on at Bore Place organic farm and study centre, working towards sustainable solutions in farming, the environment and education. The organic conversion of the farm was completed between 1996-2001. 335 hectares are farmed in total, including 147 rented from neighbouring farms to increase self reliance in terms of feed stuff and to allow stock numbers to be kept up to around 260 cows. The history of the manor house goes back to medieval times; a Tudor building was later incorporated into a Jacobean mansion, parts of which remain, with seven-teenth and twentieth century additions. Together with the ancient walled garden it is listed Grade II. It has 12 bedrooms (sleeping up to 23 persons), 4 meeting rooms, and a large kitchen and dining space.

Wood chip

In a bid to find an alternative to fossil fuels, Commomwork has chosen Biomass as the renewable source of energy to heat the facilities of the Education Centre, utilising wood chip produced from there own land.

The Bioenergy Fully Automatic wood chip boiler has the following features for minimum operation and maintenance:

• Auto Feed • Auto Start • Auto Clean • Auto De-ash • Auto Adjusting with Lambda control • 92% Efficiency

energy by nature...

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Bore Place boiler house, showing the rear storage area and the transporting of the wood chip to the boiler:

Case study: Bore Place

Dunster Heat install Vigas log gasification boilers (above). A log boiler and accumulator tank installed by Eco-Angus (above right). Fitting companies are now offering packages to house as well as install the boiler, with integral storage for firewood

Bioenergy Technology have recently installed a wood-fired boiler package at Bore Place (left and above) in Sussex. The woodchip boiler they have installed has auto feed, auto start, auto clean and auto de-ash, inside one of Bioenergy’s boiler houses and wood store

Living Woods recently reported on the founding of the country’s first wood-based community ESCo (Energy Supply Company), Woolhope Woodheat. An ESCo will install a boiler (normally burning woodchip, but potentially pellets or even logs), accumulator and piping for free, paying the client a nominal rent for housing it. This is what Woolhope are aiming to do at Canon Frome Court (above) as soon as they’ve raised the seed funding. The client pays for the metered energy, guaranteeing the ESCo a minimum demand per year, the cost of which is likely to be less than oil or gas. The ESCo claims the RHI for the installation and running costs for up to 20 years, but is responsible for running and maintaining the boiler, so the onus is on the ESCo to provide quality fuel at the lowest cost possible, ideally from local woodlands. It is a neat system, communities encouraging local woodlands to be managed and provide fuel.

VATIf you have a dedicated biomass boiler supplied and installed by a VAT-registered installer then the VAT rate that applies is 5%. This covers the materials and labour for the job. It is really simple and a significant saving. So it is often worth sourcing the biomass boiler through your installer. The boiler must only be able to burn wood, pellets or woodchip .

RHIThe Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is a grant scheme which will support the installation of renewable heat sources. Eligible biomass boilers must be on the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) list and are either pellet boilers, log gasification boilers, or woodchip boilers. Boiler stoves are not eligible. Unlike the FIT (Feed In Tariff), which is funded by adding a bit to all our utility bills, RHI is centrally funded. It has been delayed and then delayed again, and then finally split into two phases. Phase 1 only applies to commercial installations and started early in 2012. Biomass heating systems receive a payment per kWh up to a certain cut-off

point when the payments drop. This is quite a neat way of discouraging people from burning far too much fuel to gain more grant. According to the Energy Savings Trust, the domestic RHI (Phase 2) is likely to be introduced in summer 2013. A payment is made per kWh of heat generated but you will probably also have to sign up to insulation and efficiency measures offered through the Green Deal scheme. This is actually a really sensible approach as there is really little point in grant aiding lots of renewable heat installations into draughty, poorly insulated houses. In tandem with RHI is the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) scheme. These are a one-off payment towards domestic installations available on a first come, first served basis. The second stage of this scheme runs till 31st March 2013, subject to available funding. Biomass installations get £950 and then can also apply for the RHI Phase 2 grant when it comes in, and if all the criteria are met. When the first round of RHPP closed at the end of March 2012, 7253 vouchers had been issued, worth nearly £5.5m, of which 5369 vouchers had been redeemed.

Incentives for installationsBusinesses can claim grants for boilers

“Space for logs is the main thing. The boiler is the easy bit. You have to focus on managing the woodfuel effectively”


softwood, and are very easy to get going with firelighters or a blowtorch, and some can be lit automatically once they’ve been stacked. The size of the accumulator tank has to match the boiler. A 25kW boiler needs a 1500 litre tank, and a 40kW boiler calls for a 2500 litre tank. The water comes out of the boiler very hot, at about 85°C, and stays in the tank until you need to use it to heat radiators or your hot water tank. It is so hot that a valve, called a Thermamatic K, is fitted into the system to blend the steaming hot water from the accumulator with cooler water returning from the house. Though Mark has installed a few boilers within homes, the majority are in outbuildings, and installers are now offering special sheds and shelters for boilers, tanks and wood as part of the package. Hot water is distributed in insulated pipes, which add about £25-30 per metre to the price.

District heatingA district heating scheme is where two or more buildings are powered by the same heating system. They are common in Scandinavia and are starting to catch on here, indeed since the introduction of the RHI, Mark Weatherlake says that commercial 60kW, 80kW and 100kW have become his most popular products. You have a large boiler and associated accumulator tank to provide the heat, and the hot

water is then pumped round a heating main. This is usually the heavily-insulated underground pipe, running past each house or building. Heat is then taken from the heating main by each house as needed, potentially with the energy metered at each point. The advantage is that you only have to install the one big log gasification boiler, pellet boiler or woodchip boiler to run it all. Often you would also include a backup oil or gas boiler just in case the main one breaks or you run out of fuel. Woodchip systems are typically much larger and require a large, dedicated boiler house and fuel store. For big systems, woodchip is probably the cheapest in terms of fuel costs if you are buying in, but the initial outlay can be considerable. A woodchip boiler, whilst more automated, is usually dealt with in much the same way as a log gasification boiler. Pellet boilers provide a much more compact solution, with the pellets either blown into a hopper from a truck/trailer, or tipped in from bags. Such a boiler can even be located inside a house, office or workshop, but pellets are more expensive, especially if you are able to produce your own logs or chips. However, they are also the most automated, and hence suit particular situations. For instance, Stephen Owen installed a pellet boiler when he built the woodland classroom at Cranleigh School recently. It’s a case of horses for courses.

Log Gasification Boilers


Accumulator tanks can be used for boiler woodburning stoves in the house as well as log gasification boilers outside. Wood is best burnt fast and hard, but if you do that then you can end up with an overheated house when your stove is going, and a freezing house when it is not. Step into the breach the heat accumulator tank or heat store. An accumulator tank is a big, heavily insulated water tank and forms the heart of your heating and hot water system, all provided through the one tank. All your heat sources are connected directly to the accumulator tank. Just as for boilers, with boiler stoves an accumulator tank lets you dump all the heat from your stove into the tank for use as and when it is needed. On a cold day with a correctly-sized system you should expect to be able to burn your boiler stove for around four hours of an evening to heat your house and at the same time heat up the whole tank. Come the morning the tank is still hot and your heating can automatically switch on, using the water in the accumulator to heat the radiators, and you will have hot water even though the stove is not lit.

A typical accumulator tank, courtesy of Stoves Online

Heat stores


Central Heating Log Boilers& Accumulator Tanks

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Vigas Boilers: 16-40 kW premiumpayment and RHI eligible

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Dragon Heat have been producing biomass boilers (above and left) for more than 30 years. They can be used to burn straw, timber, packaging and even broken pallets, with no need to chip, pack or process any of it

Forest Fuels have been operation Landowner Partnerships for nearly two years with woodland owners to help them benefit from demand for woodfuel without the risks and commitment. They have hubs around the country and link suppliers of woodfuel (left) with users (above)

Makita EA3201New blue chainsaw good for firewood

Y ou don’t necessarily need a big chainsaw for firewooding, as long as you aren’t having to convert large, mature trees,

particularly hard species like oak, beech and ash. If you want to keep your costs low, and perhaps only have a woodburner to feed, then Makita’s new EA3201S will do the job very nicely. We’ve used a fair number of Makita’s cordless and mains chainsaws, and have generally been impressed. This is our first go with a petrol version, and it’s a neat little saw. The controls are very simple and well positioned, and the brake is easy to knock on and pull back. The tool-less chain adjustment works well, and saves a lot of hassle with a wrench.

Considering EA3201S might be bought by first-time firewooders, the instructions are good, and relatively comprehensive, but it is disappointing not to find a chain file in the box, and it is quite difficult to work out from the instructions which file you need to use. The sharpening advice is otherwise excellent, and hopefully new users will take the saw into a local dealer for some advice and the appropriate sharpening kit. The saw did pretty well cutting a stack of firewood in Oregon’s firewood cage, using the full length of the 35cm bar. It only

began to stall when the logs collapsed, and it was running a bit hot. For £200 it’s nice and light and easy to handle, and would be a great saw for firewooding and for chucking into the Landie for light work.

Details Makita EA3201S: 35cm bar; 32cc 2-stroke petrol engine; 1hp; 0.3 litres tank; 4.1kg; 0.2 litres oil tank; max chain speed 18.9m/s; sprocket pitch 3/8in/0.050in; 4mm file to sharpen; c£200inc.VAT; makitauk.com.

18 The Complete Guide to Woodfuel 2012 The Complete Guide to Woodfuel 2012 19www.woodfuelguide.com www.woodfuelguide.com

New ProductsNews of products that will make firewooding easier

The advantages of our retort over a ring kiln are:

* Short burn time - typically 4 hours from lighting to shut down.* Fully transportable - trailer mounted option.* Can pyrolise any type of wood - logs to twigs.* Cleaner in operation - up to 75% fewer pollutants released.* More efficient - 100% of wood is pyrolised. No ash or waste.* * Temperature Readout - Integrated digital thermometer.* Large retort chamber - 1.8 cubic metres.* Easy access - retort & firebox doors at both ends.* Easy to operate - no special skills required

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The retort was carefully designed & computer modelled to ensure that it burned off harmful particles & emissions by ducting the hot gases around & back into the retort. This has resulted in zero visible emissions once the retort enters the pyrolysis stage.When the subject wood is first heated, it enters the endothermic stage. This is where external energy (combustion in fire box) is required to start the process.During this stage, steam is given off. As the temperature rises, wood gases becomes mixed with the steam. This ‘dirty’ stage only lasts approx. 30 minutes. When the temperature reaches 375ºC, the steam has reduced & the gases, when diverted into the firebox, ignite.firebox, ignite. This is referred to as the exothermic or retorting stage, where the ignited gas jets are sufficient to complete the process of pyrolysation with no additional external energy.By using a combination of adjusting the gaps of the firebox doors & the chimney butterfly valve, the temperature is kept below 500ºC during the retorting stage.

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The fastest and safest way of cutting logs with a chainsaw (and no logs under your feet!)

Three models aVailaBleThe Garden model: a four-leg model for use with 35-50cm (14-20in) bars (pictured).The midi: a four-leg model with tipping ‘basket’ for easy moving of logs.The Cordwood: This six-leg model and the midi can be used with bars up to 60cm (24in).it is possible to cut and load a pick-up in 25 minutes with the Cordwood model.

buckingham.1/2cgw02.indd 1 20/08/2012 23:38

Efficient firewooding is all about reducing the handling. Throwing logs into a trailer or pick-up is generally easy, especially when they’re conveyed there on a belt from a processor. But unpacking is a real pain, which is solved by the Loadhandler. Available in two sizes, to suit your vehicle, this has a strong mat that unwinds and winds across the bed to ‘pull’ the load out and onto the ground. Depending on whether you stack or dump, you should be able to reverse the trailer up to the store, and either stack from the tailgate at a convenient height, or ‘eject’ the wood into a pile (organised or otherwise). The Loadhandler fits to the tail of your pick-up or trailer with brackets and straps, semi-permanently. You could remove it in a couple of minutes, but it should be able to stay put for a fair amount of time. No screws or bolts are needed, so you don’t have to compromise your tailgate. The 42in wide LH2200M model we tried costs £110+VAT, can take a load of 1000kg, and will certainly save you considerable time and hassle. It is available from Galbraith Bros (loadhandler.co.uk, 01732 763637).

Loadhandler

New Products


Oregon have launched a lightweight, folding version of the logging cage, made from tubular and pressed steel. Most woodland equipment is built sturdily, to cope with heavy materials. The advantage of Oregon’s device (referred to as just the 542653), is that it can be picked up and moved easily. You lift it by the central support to fold the sides together, so that it can be transported more easily. It is light enough to be carried by almost anyone on their own. This is likely to be a significant advantage to woodland owners who might want to process cordwood into logs either in their wood or at home. It also means that after a session of cutting you can pick the Oregon up for better access to the logs that have fallen to the ground beneath the supports. The panels front and back are marked for popular log lengths. This helps, but users will probably work out their own system, cutting the cordwood to a consistent length so that there aren’t too many odd bits overhanging at the ends. Using it speeds up firewooding immeasurably because the wood is stacked (to a maximum load of 160kg), which also means the logs don’t spin. Sometimes cut logs will compress and jam the chain. When that happens you have to be careful not to push down hard as there isn’t much clearance between the V-shaped supports and the pressed steel panels, and you could hit the metal with your bar. Quick braking is essential, and it might be an idea to fit a wooden strip along the top edge of the panels to protect your chain. You also have to get used to not being able to see the bar all the time, as you cut down through the stack. The saving in time and effort using this is significant. You could build a permanent version from wood (with no threat to your chain), but it would be more difficult to move around. For about £87+VAT it is pretty good value, and appears to be well made.

Oregon Firewood Cage

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32cc Chainsaw: EA3201S35BEngine: 2-Stroke, Bar Length: 350mm,Chain Pitch: 3/8”, Chain Gauge: 0.050”,Fuel Tank: 0.3L, Weight: 4.1kg.

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Wood Fuel.indd 1 02/08/2012 16:03

Micro TrucMoving logs in the woodlands or at the yard just got a little easier

Handling wood is continual problem whether it’s for health & safety reasons, difficulty with access, care for the land

or just fatigue. The compact, low ground impact Micro Arb Truc has been developed for anyone working with loads of wood. “With its many attachments it has been honed and tuned to resolve access issues, ground impact, operator fatigue and cost of moving materials,” says Keith Douglas, “and whether you are a tree surgeon, forester, firewooder, national park/estate ranger or woodland owner we have the solutions to most problems.” The Micro Arb Truc is a 4x4 wheeled, low ground impact, narrow access micro mover, just 28in (0.7m) wide, powered by a Honda GXV160 engine running on standard unleaded petrol. It comes as standard with a skip which can carry 365kg (8cuft), approximately three normal wheelbarrow loads, and the tyres are filled with OKO slime to reduce puncturing. The Micro Arb Truc base unit is ideal for loading and shifting small lengths of timber, logs, rings, stump grindings, chippings etc... To further enhance the volume the extension sides can easily fit to the skip increasing this volume to 11cuft. The range of attachments now includes the trough with back plate, armchair, trailer (hitched or hand pull), power lifter, extension sides, tow ball hitch, loading ramp, dual front wheels, A snow plough, grit/salt/fertiliser spreader, sprayer and flat bed have been developed for other purposes. The Micro Arb Truc can be upgraded to have its own 12v DC supply to power other attachments if required. Keith Douglas says that it takes seconds to fit the trough instead of the skip, and it also has removable and

reversible bolster arms for stabilising the load. The bolster arms also come with hooks for holding a builder’s bag with the four looped handles, perhaps for chips in a confined space. It can be used for handling timbers of 1m and 2m horizontally, and longer logs can be stacked on an angle. You can also attach a trailer, similar to the trough but on wheels. It can be supplied with either a drawbar for connecting to the Micro Arb Truc for handling longer lengths of timber and brash or you can have it with a hand pull bar, this can also have a free running pneumatic castor wheel to make manual use much easier as a rolling load. The tow ball hitch is fitted to the front of the skip and is ideal for moving a chipper in narrow access areas or even for ‘skidding’ trees, and the two-piece loading ramp can be used for loading the Truc or a load into open-back vehicles, trailers or skips. The armchair is fitted with a hand winch and is designed for handing a builder’s bag of logs. A power lifter is powered from its own battery pack and comes with either a baseplate or small

forks, to allows the operator to lift from ground level large, heavy trunks.The extension sides offer increased bulk/volume, and the dual front wheels can be added for stability and traction.

Details For contact the Micro Arb Truc Company on 0845 3731 832 or visitmicroarbtruc.co.uk.

Woodlands for FuelManaging woodlands for woodfuel means planting, thinning, harvesting and processing your wood efficiently

We are often asked by landowners and woodland owners which species they should plant for heating their home. Lots of ash, is the simple answer. It

grows well in most conditions, regenerates easily, coppices if you want to harvest it on a rolling cycle, and the timber is valued for a range of uses. However, the recent discovery of Chalara fraxinea dieback in ash at a car park in Leicestershire is a reminder that we’re unwise to put all our forest eggs in the same woodland basket. “It is rarely advisable to create new woodland with only one objective in mind,” says Jude Walker of the Small Woods Association. “The length of time to maturity (even if planting coppice) is such that governments, policies, technology and materials will almost certainly have changed and moved on before the trees you plant today are harvested.” It certainly makes sense to balance one’s objectives, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t plant woodlands with woodfuel as your primary aim. The alternative is that you end up with such a broad mix that it performs no single function. “A 20-year rotation of mixed hazel and ash with oak or ash standards will provide an excellent resource for woodfuel combined with the production of high quality timber for furniture or construction,” explains Jude Walker, “and it is a woodland form that can be easily adapted or altered through management for a

wide range of purposes. It provides habitat for many rare or endangered species” The advantage of traditional coppice species is that you cut them back to the ground (or pollard them at about 6ft), and wait for them to regrow with multiple stems and harvest in up to 20 years, rather than having to wait for them to reach maturity. The disadvantage (or advantage, depending on how you look at these things) is that coppicing is labour-intensive, though of course that might change if new types of harvesting equipment are developed.

Choosing speciesYou can at least look to species that are certainly good for burning, and have other purposes. Ash is probably the most versatile of all woods. Oak burns well, but is slow to grow, and is arguably too high in value to be planted specifically for the fire. Hazel thrives beneath ash and oak, and is superb for burning and wildlife, but there is relatively little demand for the timber, beyond the rustic woodcraft sector and for charcoal making. Sycamore and lime will coppice and grow well, but the market for their timber is very limited. There is a little bit more demand for beech, for floors and work surfaces, and for furniture in Scandanavia and Germany, but there are concerns that it won’t cope well with climate change. It also has a habit of shading out almost all other species, and can dominate a

Woodland Management

woodland in the right conditions. Hornbeam is one of the finest of burning woods, but there’s not much call for the timber and it is relatively slow-growing. Sweet chestnut is in high demand for fencing and building, being Britain’s most durable hardwood, and wild cherry is excellent for both fuel and furniture making. Birch grows well, and is a native pioneer species, but it is far from durable, and needs to be processed quickly and kept under cover for firewood or it will rot. And there’s very little market for its timber, as is the case for poplar and willow, though they will grow well in wet sites and can be burnt in a stove. These fast-growing species may become more popular with time for larger boiler installations, or for chipping for biomass. Alder is also fast growing, and reputedly only good for clogmaking, but it will help you establish a woodland and anecdotally the logs are good for burning. Don’t discount softwoods. Woodburning technology is changing, and many of the traditional maxims relating to species choice for fires were founded before woodburning stoves were as common as they are today. Horse chestnut, often pilloried for providing nothing but conkers, is actually an ideal species for a stove because it burns slowly and cleanly. Unfortunately its twisted form makes splitting hard and a large proportion of specimens are succumbing to pests and disease. Planting a conifer like western red cedar amongst oak or ash can help to nurse the broadleaves by drawing them up to the light, and then be used as fuel logs or chips when they are thinned. Any that are left to mature can eventually be harvested for shingles and lightweight cladding. In Scandanavia they burn almost only softwoods, and as long as the wood is dry enough and the chimney is lined there shouldn’t be a problem. In fact mixing softwood logs with hardwood can be a valuable way of balancing fast and slow burns.

Managing woodlandsWhen it comes to planting new woods, the Forestry Commission and Woodland Trust can help with plans and grants, and you might find funding through local authorities and other conservation groups. If you have an established woodland you


Harvesting

At the most basic level, a splitting maul (above) will make firewooding much simpler than an felling axe, which has a shallower bevel and is more likely to get stuck in the rings you are trying to split

One approach to firewood, practised at Harebushes Wood near Cirencester, is to let local people forage for logs once a year for a weekend

PHOTO: CERTAINLY WOOD

Large commercial contractor companies will use harvesters to clear woodlands, often taking the thinnings and waste for woodfuel. With a value to the thinnings for chipping or logs, woodlands are more likely to be thinned so that the best trees can grow up for timber, and new ones can be given space. The same is true in essence for smaller scale contractors, like the team at Longer View Forestry (right), but they will do more of the work by hand using chainsaws (Photo courtesy Matt Kenyon)

Living Woods contributor recently met up with Steve Cave (LW21:33), who had decided to set himself up as a firewood supplier, part time. He bought a Japa firewood processor from Fuelwood (above), and had some training from them. Then he had bags printed with his logo and details. You can buy nets from the likes of Medallion and Bag Supplies (see Directory). He then traded in his BMW and bought a pick-up to deliver loads of logs, buying in the wood from merchants for conversion in his yard. Steve wants to achieve £10,000 of sales a year. “It’s a nice secondary business,” he says, “and if you don’t mind repetitive physical work it’s fun. Log burner sales are booming, but the sales window is short.”

Kit for supplying firewoodWhat you need to start a woodfuel business

may be able to apply for a Woodland Improvement Grant (WIG) for woodfuel production. This will be conditional on the writing of a management plan, for which you may also be able access a grant. A WIG can be used to buy processing equipment, to improve access or to thin the trees.

Processing woodFirewood processors come in many forms, with the largest effectively small factories, producing cut, split and bagged logs almost automatically. If you choose to buy a processor, combining the two key operations of crosscutting and splitting, the first decision you have to make is whether to go for a machine with a circular saw or a chainsaw bar. The circular saw is more expensive to maintain (because it is difficult to sharpen yourself), and when you switch the machine off, the blade continues spinning for longer than a chain. The plus point is it has a narrower cut and therefore you do not waste as much of the log, and there is less sawdust. You also have to consider that circular saw blades will normally have tungsten carbide teeth (TCT), which cope far better with abrasive materials than chainsaws. A circular saw may need professional sharpening, but it will stay sharp longer, and won’t need the regular adjustment of a chainsaw bar. The blade on a circular saw processor is likely to take up more room than the equivalent bar model. There are many other features to consider. Some processors will have two-speed splitters, so that easy to split logs can be worked quickly, while tougher stuff might need more torque. The Hakki Pilke 2X is so named because it has a dual ram system to speed up operations because you don’t have to wait for the first ram to return to its ready position before the next log can be cut. You can buy a model with automatic or manual splitting, with the efficiency of a machine being measured in cubic metres per hour, at anything from 2-20m3/hr. Processors can be powered by 3-phase electricity, diesel or petrol motors, or by a PTO on a tractor. You can buy mobile models that are road legal, at either 25mph or 50mph, to suit operators who need to move just round the corner or a fair way, though most owners seem to prefer to set up

in a yard, permanently. Some machines will have a grapple or crane to load the processor, while smaller models like Just Saw’s Badger have a winch to insert logs. The length of the bed determines the length of log you can use in the processor, while the length of outfeed elevator is critical if you want to feed split logs into a large trailer or a store. The elevator on the Norwegian Dalen 2054 can swing 20° either way, which gives you yet more flexibility for the positioning of a trailer or boxes or bags. Many elevators are about 3.5m long, with options for a 4.5m conveyor if you need greater length. An interesting new development, but very much for the ‘big boys’ are cone-shaped splitters designed to break up huge lengths to make processing easier. JAS Wilson have these from Lasco, and they can be mounted on the arm of a forwarder, tractor, trailer or JCB.

Simpler solutionsOf course most woodland owners won’t need a full processor to harvest firewood for their own use, though you’d be surprised how much you need for a year’s fuel. There are mechanised solutions, like a dedicated Posch crosscut circular saw for cutting logs to length, or hydraulic splitters for reducing the size of ‘rings’. These can be powered by petrol, a tractor PTO or by electricity, depending on whether you are working out in the woods or back at the yard. They are vertical, horizontal or interchangeable. The smaller ones tend to be horizontal, sitting low on the ground, and you pay more for vertical splitters, which are much easier to use, requiring less bending. Some of them are supplied with wheels for easier transport. Use our Directory at the back to contact suppliers and find out more.

Woodlands for Woodfuel


A recent development for serious woodfuel production has been the introduction of Lasco cone splitters by JAS Wilson, who were launching them at the Arb Show in June. The idea is that a spinning, threaded cone, a bit like the tip of The Mole in Thunderbirds, pulls itself into large logs so that they can be split for processing. Small versions of the Lasco cone can be fitted to tractors, JCBs or to a trailer or forwarder. The tip of the cone can even be removed as it is the only part that wears. If that wasn’t enough, Unseld Technik in Germany have developed a baling press for wood chips. The Biomass Press can produce 30-50 bales an hour, looking like round hay or straw bales. These can be left out in the open to dry for six months, ready for collection. At the other extreme, few British woodlanders will have come across the Timberline Sharpener (below). Living Woods heard about this a few months ago, and have now had a go (see September/October issue). This is an extraordinary piece of kit that holds a carbide sharpening burr at the appropriate angle, and guarantees that each tooth will be sharpened to exactly the same length.

Sci-fi forestry


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Net sacks / net bags.For logs and kindling.Plain or with printed

band.1-3 day delivery to

anywhere in the UK.For the best quality,service and prices.

Contact Bill, Ian or RobertMEDALLION NET CO LTD

Unit 1 & 2 Lark Hall Farm, Cavenham, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP28 6DD TEL: 01638-750955. FAX: 01638-751052 FREEPHONE: 0800 783 4018

EMAIL: [email protected] WEBSITE: www.medallionnet.co.uk

NET SACKS / NET BAGSNet sacks / net bags.For logs and kindling.Plain or with printed

band.1-3 day delivery to

anywhere in the UK.For the best quality,service and prices.

Contact Bill, Ian or RobertMEDALLION NET CO LTD

Unit 1 & 2 Lark Hall Farm, Cavenham, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP28 6DD TEL: 01638-750955. FAX: 01638-751052 FREEPHONE: 0800 783 4018

EMAIL: [email protected] WEBSITE: www.medallionnet.co.uk

NET SACKS / NET BAGS

Net sacks / Net bagsFor logs and kindlingPlain or with printed

band1-3 day delivery to anywhere in the UKFor the best quality, service and prices

Contact Ian or Robert

medallion1/8.cgw.indd 1 08/12/2011 13:31

Tel/Fax 01359 268923 Email [email protected]: www.log-loc.co.uk

Tim FogdenMeadow Farm, Coney Weston Road, Sapiston, Bury St.Edmunds, Suffolk IP31 1RX

®

FTN0612A Log-Loc_Layout 1 29/05/2012 09:43 Page 1

At the top end of the scale, Fuelwood have processors that are self-contained firewood factories (above). Big processors can split logs many ways (right)

Working with DustAs dry and concentrated forms of energy, pellets and briquettes may not be as romantic as logs, but are valuable players in the woodfuel game

A dvocates of woodfuel point to the benefits increased demand is having on woodlands, bringing more of them back into management because the trees have

a value at last. However, burning logs and chips presents a number of challenges when it comes to heating urban and suburban homes and institutions. Though woodchip boilers are automated for easier operation, you need a lot of covered space to store the fuel. To reduce transport costs and the use of fossil fuels, you have be relatively close to the source of your material because chips are bulky. Much the same is true of logs, with the added complication that inexperienced users find them difficult to burn, often not being able to judge moisture content and species type. Automating log-burning stoves and boilers is more difficult. One solution is to use waste wood. Pellets and briquettes are produced by compressing wood dust and chippings, the high pressure melting the lignum in the wood long enough for it to bind the dust into a new shape. Pellets are produced by being pushed through a mesh of holes, like a mincer, while briquettes are made by a ram forcing the wood into a cylinder.

Making briquettesThe briquettes are produced in a machine that will cost a joiner or furniture maker from about £10k, made by companies like Rojek (axminster.co.uk) and Weima (fercell.com). You fill a hopper with dust and shavings, which need to be dry (less than 18%), and a screw drives them from the bottom of the hopper into a chamber, where they are compressed with the pneumatic ram. They then pop out of a tube, straight into a carousel of bags. The compression is remarkable, making storage far less space-hungry, and the briquettes can be used to generate heat in your own workshop or sold on garage forecourts, or straight from the factory door if you have the time. Bruce le Gros from Fercell says that briquette machines are being bought by joinery factories and by farmers with small sawmills or with wood businesses on site. He says that many of them will get a woodburning stove one year to use up the offcuts, then purchase a briquetter then next, and finally buy a shredder to produce the chips need for making briquettes. When the briquettes can be used to fuel a boiler a business can apply for the Renewable Heat Incentive grant. Chipboard and MDF don’t briquette well, but as a barrel magnet can be used to remove any metal from the shred wood, discarded pallets do often get used for

making briquettes. Fercell, who now boast 950 Weima applications in the UK, also sell carousels for bagging the briquettes so that they can be stockpiled during the summer.

Heat retentionWoodburning stoves are notoriously difficult to hold overnight. You can stock them to the hilt, clamp them right down and hope the core heat will survive. It’s very inefficient and leads to build-up of soot in your stove and in the flue. Or you can give a small stack of fuel a very fine draught of air, and hope it doesn’t burn out. It’s hard to find a solution, especially with logs so inconsistent in shape, density and moisture content, and some retailers will say that’s it’s not worth trying, and you should start afresh each morning. Briquettes, in contrast, are consistent in shape and density (in theory), and are dry. It is much easier to keep them glowing, with far less ‘exhaust’. In theory briquettes should be made by a local joinery firm that’s making doors and windows and lots of waste. They don’t know what to do with their dust and chippings, indeed they may have to pay for it to go to landfill. That’s the case with Cuff & Sons in Sherborne, Dorset. “We can sell all that we make in the winter,” says David Cuff, “but summer sales and storage are a slight problem. We are trying to find outlets who can buy now at a discount and store till winter. Interest is growing every year.” When we did some research into briquettes a couple of years ago, the only garage to stock them in our market town was Tesco, where we found

Briquettes & Pellets

round briquettes from CPL, stocked amongst the kindling and logs. Cyril Austin’s, our local country store, which is known as a coal supplier and sells woodburning stoves and woodfuel kit sold us two imported types, but once again you’d have to know about briquettes to ask. Our local Countrywide store normally stocks Blaze Away heat logs, but hadn’t started stocking them in mid-October. To find out more about briquettes and heat logs we rang up Corinium Stoves, possibly the best known specialist woodburning stove supplier in Cirencester. They didn’t stock briquettes, didn’t know of a supplier, and didn’t even recommend them as an alternative to logs. Fifteen miles away, in Wroughton near Swindon, Alison Davidson of Ridgeway Stoves was far more helpful. Customers buying stoves have very rarely heard of briquettes or heat logs, but roughly 80% return for more once they’ve tried them. She likes to promote them because the results are much better than wet logs, and so new users of woodburners don’t end up blaming Ridgeway’s stoves. The wood in briquettes and heat logs is dry, and there’s far less chance of smoking up the glass in a stove’s door. You’re also more likely to be able to keep the stove warm overnight. That’s not to say they replace normal solid wood, but are mixed in for specific purposes. We’ve been approached by a number of woodworkers wanting to make a low cost briquette machine so they can use their own dust, and indeed one reader was making crude briquettes with a car jack and a length of tubing.


Recycled Woodfuel

The woodland classroom at Cranleigh School in Hampshire has a pellet boiler with a hopper because it makes heating the studio so simple

Harvest Wood Fuels (HWF) are based in Farnham, Hampshire. They produce about 1500 tonnes

of hardwood pellets themselves a year, using an Italian T-Systems hydraulic press, which forces sawdust from sawmills and chips through a grid of holes, like a mincing machine. The pressure heats up the wood particles to such a temperature that the lignum in the wood liquifies, and then hardens without any additives to glaze the pellets and hold them together. There is more lignum in softwoods than hardwoods, hence hardwood pellets tend to be crumblier. Harvest also supply softwood pellets from Verdo Renewables at Andover, who can produce nearer 55,000 tonnes a year and have a bagging facility. A pallet of 96 10kg Verdo pellets from HWF will cost you about £260, including £47 for delivery and 5% VAT, and weighs a little less than 1 tonne. James Little of HWF explains that 1kg of pellets equates, roughly, to 5kw/hr of heat. So 15kw boiler will use about 3kg/hr at full tilt. One bag will last roughly 3.3hr, so there’s an obvious advantage in convenience by having the pellets delivered in bulk. Harvest Wood Fuels charge £2.20 per mile for delivery by lorry, to have the pellets blown into the hopper, so the cost effectiveness is limited to a local area. As a result, HWF is looking to open small-scale plants across SE England, perhaps next in Kent, to supply customers within a 20-mile radius. Currently, 80% of the pellets they supply go to big boilers (larger than 50kw), using as much as 300 tonnes a year, but 80% of their customers use 3-10 tonnes per year, with half receiving bags and half

bulk deliveries by lorry. They are looking to introduce re-usable bags, with a deposit and returns policy. The Renewable Heat Incentive is already having an impact on HWF’s business. “Our customer base has increased by 30% this year,” James Little explains, adding that the warm winter has meant that this boost has served to keep sales level. The market for pellets, he says, is very competitive in the UK, with pellet prices 20% lower than on the Continent, and though prices are being kept artificially low and are likely to rise a bit, it will not match oil and gas.

Supply and demandThe market is obviously chicken and egg. Until more pellet boilers are bought there is limited demand for pellets, and the network of local suppliers can’t develop, to the eventual benefit for local woodlands which will need to be managed to extract enough wood. Finding local suppliers of pellets is not simple. The Biomass Energy Centre has a map of suppliers (biomassenergycentre.org.uk), which is very pretty, but the colour coding is confusing, and when we called Cotswold Wood Fuels (our local supplier on the map) the operator had never heard of pellets, and the number for the next operator was no longer working. You could try logpile.co.uk, but their list of pellet suppliers is alphabetical, and 94 screens long, so finding your local producer may take you a while. As a result, we have started a directory of pellet factories on our website (living-woods.com/pellet-makers). If you know of other factories please email us details so that we can update the list.

The case for pellet boilersInstitutions love pellet boilers for ease

Pellets need a delicate balance of wood types and moisture content, says Andrew Wilkinson of Duffield Wood Pellets, a local producer/supplier near Ripon, Yorks. Originally a sawmill, the company started producing pellets to use up their own waste, but now most of the timber they sell is bought in, and so is the wood to make pellets. They can use relatively low-grade wood, but it must be neither too wet nor too dry, and ideally there is a mix of hardwood and softwood. It is sourced locally. For more details visit duffieldwoodpellets.com.

Local pellets

DirectoryUse our growing directory of woodfuel contacts if you need to buy kit or want more information


A boiler from Farm 2000 (left) and woodburning stove from Charnwood (right)

Southern Wood Energy blowing chips (far left), a stove from Axminster (left) and GBT’s mobile splitter

The Badger processor from Just Saws (left), Pressvess’s charcoal retort (above) and a Rayburn woodburning cooker (right)

Woodfuel Guide Useful Contacts

StovesThis list covers most brands of stoves and boiler stoves; whichstoves.co.uk has some more.

Aarrowfiresandstoves.com

Broseley Firesbroseleyfires.com

Ceramic Stove Co.ceramicstove.com

Charnwoodcharnwood.com

Clearviewclearviewstoves.com

Dunsley Heatdunsleyheat.co.uk

Esse Stovesesse.com

Euroheateuroheat.co.uk

Evergreen Stovesevergreenstoves.co.uk

Firebelly Stovesfirebellystoves.com

Franco Belgefrancobelge-stove-specialist.co.uk

Hamletaxminster.co.uk

Hase & Tonwerkfireplaces.co.uk

Hetawoodstoves.co.uk

Hunter Stoveshunterstoves.co.uk

Jetmasterjetmaster.co.uk

Jotuljotul.com

KP Stoveskpwoodburningstove.co.uk

Morsomorsoe.com

Parkrayparkray.co.uk

Relaxthehotspot.co.uk

Saeysaeyheating.com

Salamandersalamanderstoves.com

Sense3dsense3d.com

Stovaxstovax.com

Stovemasonstovemason.com

Stoves Onlinestovesonline.co.uk

Stratford & Aradaarada.uk.com

Tigertigerstoves.co.uk

Town & Countrytownandcountry fires.co.uk

Villagervillager.co.uk

Wamslerwamsler.co.uk

Windy Smithwindysmithy.co.uk

Yeomansyeoman-stoves.co.uk

CookersWoodburning cookers are mostly log-fired, but there are some pellet-fuelled.

Esse esse.com

Rayburn/Agaagarangemaster.com


Modern Stovesmodernstoves.co.uk

De Manincorstovesonline.co.uk

Lohbergerlohberger.co.uk

VikiStoves World on ebay

Wamslerwamsler.co.uk

Boilers & EnergyWe would like to say we’ve found all the makers

of wood-fired boilers, but are sure that’s not the case. Here’s a list of suppliers and manufacturers. Do please email us if you know of others for the next guide.

Ashwell Biomass Solutionsashwellengineering.com

Bio-Boxbio-box.co.uk

Bioenergy Technologybioenergy.org

Byworth Boilersbyworth.co.uk

Dragon Heatdragonheat.co.uk

Dunster Heatdunsterheat.co.uk

Dunster Biomass Heatingdunster.biz

Eco-Angusecoangus.co.uk

Fair Energyfairenergy.org.uk

Farm 2000farm2000.co.uk

Hovalhoval.co.uk

Talbottstalbotts.co.uk

Windhager UKwindhageruk.com

Workshop StovesThough you can use almost any woodburner in a workshop, here are some that are either small, or designed for waste.


KP Stoveskpwoodburningstove.co.uk

Relaxthehotspot.co.uk

Greenheartstovesonline.co.uk

Woodwaste Heaterwoodwastetechnology.co.uk

Bruno Workshop Stoveworkshopstoves.co.uk

Charcoal RetortsExeter Retortcarboncompost.co.uk

Pressvess Retortpressvess.co.uk

Biochar Kiln 1carbongold.com

Coppice Stoveblackmountainwoodfuels.co.uk

Firewood ProcessorsHere are the main brands of firewood processing machinery, with locations for a demo.

Posch: JAS Wilson, Dalbeattie, Scotlandjaspwilson.co.uk

BGU: Perry Plant, Devonperryplanthire.co.uk

Binderberger & Dalen: Marshall Agricultural Engineering, E.Sussexmarshalllogging.co.uk

Gandini: Chippers International, Warkschippersinternational.co.uk

Fuelwood & Japa: Fuelwood, Warksfuelwood.co.uk

Hakki Pilke: M Large, Belfastmlarge.com

Multitek: Seram UK, Mid Glamorganseramuk.com

Palax: Caledonian Forestry Services, Perthshirecaledonian forestryservices.co.uk

Riko UK: Alpine Tractors, Hampshirealpinetractors.com

Badger: Just Saws, Surreyjustsaws.co.uk

SplittersMany of the companies that sell firewood processors also sell splitters and crosscut saws.

Scheppach & Woodsternmatools.co.uk

Axminster Tool Centreaxminster.co.uk

Oxdale Productsoxdaleproducts.co.uk

Arbor Eaterarboreaters.co.uk

Makitamakitauk.com

GBTuniversalbingham.com

Ryetecryetec.co.uk

Nets & BagsVentillated nets or bags are a good option for anyone planning to sell firewood, or store it for

future use, because they keep the logs tidy but allow air to circulate for better drying, though a covered wood store is just as good for seasoning, if not better.

Bag Supplies07798 723040 bagsupplies.com

LC Packaging01406 362511 lcpackaging.co.uk

Medallion Nets0800 783 4018 medallionnet.co.uk

InformationHere are some private and public contacts. West Mids – Heartwoodsheartwoods.org.ukNE England – Northwoodsnorthwoods.org.ukEast England – Woodfuel Eastwoodfueleast.org.ukSE England – SE Wood Fuelssewf.co.ukSurrey Hills Wood Fuelsurreyhills.org.ukSouth Yorks Forest Partnershipsyforest.co.ukWoodlands for Sale firewood.co.ukNational Biomass Suppliers Databasebiomassenergycentre.org.ukRenewable Heat Incentiveofgem.gov.uk/rhiWoodheat Solutionswoodheatsolutions.eu

Scotlandforestry.gov.uk/woodfuelscotland

FC England RegionsNE 01669 621591NW 01524 565800Yorks & Humber 01904 382300E.Mids 01623 821474W.Mids 01905 532200East 01842 815544SE 01420 23337SW 01626 890666

Information about the Woodfuel Woodland Improvement Grant (Woodfuel WIG) is available from forestry.gov.uk/ewgs-wigwoodfuel.

Applications for the Farm and Forestry Improvement Scheme (FFIS) should be made through your regional authority (like Woodfuel East) or to the Forestry Commission. Information on the FFIS can be found at defra.gov.uk/publications/2011/11/10/pb13678-ffis-guidance/.

Earning with WoodfuelWe discover two businesses that have benefitted from a burning boom

W hen Robert Lodge installed a log burning stove in his farmhouse near Tankersley, Barnsley, he could hardly imagine what would happen next.

First the local pub and then other local asked him to help them find hard-to-source logs for their new stoves and fires. So adept did he become, that an inkling of an idea began to form to diversify his farming business. Five years later, having spent £30,000 on timber processing machinery, 90% of his time is spent on his new timber-based business, rather than in the fields of his 400ha family farm. It’s still hard work, but Robert’s order book is bulging, which is music to the ears of the Forestry Commission, who believe that woodfuel could be a major growth area for businesses and woodland owners in South Yorkshire. With a presence on eBay, Googlemaps and Facebook, he’s taken to cyberspace to connect with soaring numbers of customers who want to come home to a real fire. “I never had any intentions of getting into the firewood business. The number of people installing woodfuel boilers and log fires is really amazing. There’s a feel good factor looking at a log fire and using an eco-friendly fuel.” Robert recently joined a fact-finding mission to Austria organised by the FC and South Yorks Forest Partnership, and funded by the EU. “The trip made me more optimistic, but we need to get more woodlands producing timber in South Yorks. Most of my supplies come from the Midlands, but there are lots of neglected woods here that should be put back to work.” South Yorkshire has 11,465ha of woodland (9% of land area), but forest chiefs estimate that about half remains an untapped

resource. A third of the 300,000 tonnes of timber produced in Yorkshire a year comes from Forestry Commission woodlands. “Austria is still far more advanced than we are,” added Robert, “and have lots of biomass boilers, but we are moving in their direction as oil prices keep on going up.” Rudie Humphrey of the FC said: “Robert’s experience shows the two sides of the story. Woodfuel is an opportunity to create profitable rural businesses and employment, but we need more raw materials coming out of local woods. We also had woodland owners on the trip to Austria, and the message is getting through.”

Earning with Woodfuel


A pub in Norfolk, encouraged to convert to woodfuel by the local council and Woodfuel East, has been so impressed by burning wood that they now sell briquettes to local customers. The 15th Century Mermaid Inn in Elsing was one of 15 properties to share a £50,000 Norfolk County Council grant fund to install a wood-fired boiler. “We decided that a woodfuel heating system could meet our aims of saving money, substantially reducing our carbon footprint, while maintaining a traditional ambience and using local resources. The boiler fits in really well into the traditional surroundings and our customers have commented on how the pub feels warm and welcoming.” The move proved so successful that the Mermaid started selling 10kg sacks of briquettes, produced in Norfolk. Referred to as Fire Logs, the briquettes cost £4.75 a sack, or £3.75 if you buy more than 20, which also qualifies you to free delivery within 15 miles of Elsing. Collections are during opening hours only, but as the landlords suggest: “Grab a bag and grab a pint.”

Mermaid Inn

Robert Lodge never considered when he installed a stove that within five years he’d be supplying logs

the complete guide to woodfuel

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