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[Rog-from-Bix]

OT I know but how does the banning of coal worry anyone? ( I am sure we are too sensible to burn wet wood through choice) we had a coal fired parkray ? range that was our source of "central" heating and hot water in the last house we lived in and as well as anthracite to keep it in at night all the spitty wood was burned in it  . Will the ban affect anyone on here ?

[Porkscratching]

Not heard of this before, more gesture politics "saving the planet" nonsense no doubt...I wonder how the thought police are going to actually catch me bunging some old damp wood on the fire..!..

[crumbly65]

I don't think it will affect me too much.

My tree surgeon pal told me many moons ago that it was actually illegal for him to supply "green" undried logs for fires and burners etc.  As PS says, not too sure how it was (is ) policed.  Maybe through Local Council Environmental Officers...?

So I've always been supplied with well seasoned logs from his farm's stock.  I've also used (rarely) smokeless briquettes - similar to old-fashioned coke I think - when I needed the stove to burn whilst I was out of the house, or overnight.

I suspect many of this forum's users will be similar.  There's a fund of good old common sense on here......

[rustylandrovers]

Coal smoke is horrible dirty stuff, and wet wood is *&%^$ anyway. That's why you process firewood a year or two in advance.

Overall verdict: a bit fat 'meh' from me.

[kev]

Well if they can't be bothered to police bonfires that ruin peoples washing on lines, they won't have a chance on this one...

[linesrg]

Good Morning All,

It is like a great many things where the public have to be steered in different directions and mindsets changed.

It's like our next door neighbour replacing an old oil burning boiler for a newer one rather than going down the route of an ASHP...... and they'd have gotten a grant and RHI payments. Mind they are still using LPG for cooking rather than going all electric.

Lots of entrenched attitudes to change.........

Regards

Richard

[oilstain]

I did see this on TV and wondered what is wet wood
I know a chap who cuts down trees, cuts it into logs, stacks the wood outside and then burns it when 'dry'
To be dry does it have to be strored inside/under cover/just outside/ or kiln dried
And with any of the above, how long for
But as said who will check

[crumbly65]

I think it’s about a year to season wood “dry”. Dry, meaning of course, dry of resins that prevent good combustion.
Well seasoned wood will not be too bothered by being stored outside, even given the amount of rain we’ve had over this winter. Once brought indoors in the log basket and kept near the fire/burner, it will soon be dry of moisture enough to burn well.
Don’t see the point of trying to burn unseasoned “green” wood. It smokes rather than burns, has a very poor heat output, gums up the flue and messes up the glass on burners. A merry crackling open fire, or hearty burner, on a cold, wet and windy day is a lovely thing.

[Porkscratching]

Ha! Supposing it HAS to be 'kiln dried" think of the heat / energy and infrastructure required to do that, so much for saving energy / pollution etc... a bit like the electric vehicles thing, the generated power still has to come from somewhere..

[Rog-from-Bix]

Ha! Supposing it HAS to be 'kiln dried" think of the heat / energy and infrastructure required to do that, so much for saving energy / pollution etc... a bit like the electric vehicles thing, the generated power still has to come from somewhere..

The piece I read said wet wood was wood with a moisture content above 25% what that means in practice I am not sure.

[mick2388]

Most if not all coal fired power stations now burn wood chip biomass i believe its called. There is a lot of green or wet wood going in to them but we cant complain the government make money from us all as we have to pay the vat on your fuel bill.

[Genem]

Blooming EU. ….Oh.

 
 

[martinrh]

I don't think it's a bad idea.
Don't know about coal, but the the wood bit makes sense.
Nothing to stop anyone sorting out their own firewood, but if you do that you likely know what you are doing.
I think it's to stop garages and dodgy wood suppliers selling nets of wet wood.
These will burn, but very badly, giving of loads of smoke which pollutes.
This protects the less well informed new log burner owners from disappointment, and the rest of us from pollution.
The only downside is the registration and inspection regime is onerous on small suppliers who should be encouraged.

[gvo416j R.I.P.]

the government make money from us all as we have to pay the vat on your fuel bill.

That is another subject in this brexit era.

I can remember back to when VAT was introduced as my father ran a business and it directly affected us immediately.

For most of a generation, until the majority of youngsters knew no other system, the politicos of ALL PARTIES told us endlessly that vat was an EU tax and they had no option but to collect it and send it to Brussells, and had only minor wriggle room on what the rates could be.

When are they going to tell us that vat has been discontinued - or is that where Boris will get all the money he is intending to throw about without raising direct taxes  - a simple take-over of the money which used to go to the EU ? now that only a few of the oldsters who were around at the time remember the introduction of vat

[Porkscratching]

Vat was originally for "luxury" goods, now it applies to virtually everything,  gradually add on more over the years and no one will notice..
..governments apply typical drug dealer / protection racket ethics to screw as much as possible from every corner....there's no way that's going to change..