Show us: your log burners and open fires

[rogerzilla]

Wood stoves should be run with the secondary air wide open and the primary air only used for lighting up. If you get overburn with the secondary air wide open, you put too much wood in.

Heaping up stoves with fuel, closing the air inlets and letting them smoulder overnight is the worst thing you can do for pollution and your chimney.

 

[raleighnut]

Mine has an airflow control but less sophisticated. Mine's also "approved" for the smokeless zone we live in and is wood only. The shop guy actually talked me out of getting the multi-fuel upsell - and he was right, particularly as I've scavanged all the wood I've used from skips and the like. We only use the proper smokeless coal on our upstairs open fire shown upthread

Likewise I burn a lot of scavenged wood that would end up in landfill or be burnt on bonfires etc. but we do buy in logs sometimes from a local Hardware store.

 

[MrGrumpy]

Wood pile dryng out , a fair bit of eucalyptus tree but got my hands on a fair chunk of oak!


That’s a pic from last Christmas when it was installed.

 

[welsh dragon]

My stove is an Essse and has an airwash built in as well. Also 2 vents 1 on top and 1 bottom.

 

[MrGrumpy]

Likewise I burn a lot of scavenged wood that would end up in landfill or be burnt on bonfires etc. but we do buy in logs sometimes from a local Hardware store.

My neighbour and I cleared a huge sycamore branch that had fallen from a huge still standing dead tree. Shared it between us, he has the chainsaw I have the trailer . Filled one of my wood stores with it. Might need to go buy another bag to keep in the other store. Current wood pile still needs more drying.
Our log burner is not the primary heat source for the house but it does help cut out a bit of cost for heating.

 

[figbat]

We burn whatever the mixed log delivery comprises, plus anything we have cut from the garden. A few years ago we took an old cherry tree down, then a couple of years ago our two huge sycamores got a severe pruning. Also a while back we had some tree surgeons in at work and a few large trees were felled and logged; there was almost a queue of cars piling wood into their boots, me among them.

Our fire is a Charnwood C4 with only one air control; it has three positions and we refer to it as the choke - full out for starting then gradually pushed in when warmed up. We do get quite a lot of ash and charcoal left over though, which I’d like to try and fix.

 

[raleighnut]

My neighbour and I cleared a huge sycamore branch that had fallen from a huge still standing dead tree. Shared it between us, he has the chainsaw I have the trailer . Filled one of my wood stores with it. Might need to go buy another bag to keep in the other store. Current wood pile still needs more drying.
Our log burner is not the primary heat source for the house but it does help cut out a bit of cost for heating.

Yep, ours is not the primary heat either but when we had the boiler changed we couldn't replace it with another back boiler as the Chimney is in the centre of the house so nowhere for the 'condensate' to run off, we could have replaced it with a gas/electric fire in the front room but a woodburner gives a much nicer 'focal point' to the room. It also has reduced our reliance on 'fossil fuels' for heating.

 

[raleighnut]

We burn whatever the mixed log delivery comprises, plus anything we have cut from the garden. A few years ago we took an old cherry tree down, then a couple of years ago our two huge sycamores got a severe pruning. Also a while back we had some tree surgeons in at work and a few large trees were felled and logged; there was almost a queue of cars piling wood into their boots, me among them.

Our fire is a Charnwood C4 with only one air control; it has three positions and we refer to it as the choke - full out for starting then gradually pushed in when warmed up. We do get quite a lot of ash and charcoal left over though, which I’d like to try and fix.

To reduce the charcoal left in the grate there's an easy trick, when you leave the fire to go out open the air vent up again when it is beginning to die out, nowt you can do about the ash left in the pan though but if you have been burning untreated wood it makes good garden fertiliser, just add it to the compost bin.

 

[rogerzilla]

I find ash leaves very little ash (the English language, eh?). Only need to empty the small ashpan every 3 weeks or so. Oak and eucalyptus leave more.

I remember a family cottage with a coal fire...that seemed to produce about the same volume of cinders as the coal that went in!

 

[Bonefish Blues]

I've been running our fire most nights for a month, from empty (newly-swept & vacuumed). I still don't have a full grate (c14"x14"x2"). Because very very dry wood indeed.

 

[Adam4868]

Burn these heat logs a lot lately,especially if no dry wood.I think there about 2,50/3 quid for 6.Nice and clean and burn well.

 

[Gunk]

Waitrose sell logs made out of used pressed coffee grounds, I haven't tried them yet but I'm intrigued, so will have to buy a bag.

 

[Notafettler]

that makes it a Defra approved 'Exempt Appliance' suitable for use in smoke controlled areas

The problem with this is they also set a maximum for water content ie seasoning. As if someone was going to come round and check. If they did you would just say I am not burning that wood I am saving till ....fill in the rest yourself!

 

[Adam4868]

Waitrose sell logs made out of used pressed coffee grounds, I haven't tried them yet but I'm intrigued, so will have to buy a bag.

Seen them at b and q but I think about 7/8 quid a bag.Ill stick with cheap and put the kettle on

 

[Notafettler]

Waitrose sell logs made out of used pressed coffee grounds, I haven't tried them yet but I'm intrigued, so will have to buy a bag.

They are made
Combine with molasses and candle wax in your bread pan. ...
Heat the mixture for 30 minutes at 260F.
Not for me
The new way of making paper logs looks interesting. 50% saw dust and a bit flour.
The original ones were dire. Huge amount of Ash and bugger all heat.
I collect coffee grounds. My own are used sparingly in the compost bin. The ones I collect from the coffee shop i will save till next year and put them under the borlotti beans. Hopefully it will stop the slugs eating the tops of the plants. I don't put them out till there a foot high but thats what they go for. Basta***