Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
The Natural Philosopher writes:
|
| Don't bother with the willow - it's trash. It won't keep going until
| completely dry, and then it burns to nothing in next to no time.
|
| It will if its hot enough and ewortks well enough in a stove.
| Its useable. Not brill, but useable.

The OP referred to a grate, not a stove. It's ghastly in a grate.

| How many tons of wood you you have? You can split wood with a couple
| of hand axes, but buying a couple of wedges and a maul or club hammer
| will probably cost you less than hiring a functional mechanical device.
| Anything that works is likely to be large and heavy.
|
| Yes. You can split a ton in an afternoon , but thats a lot of work.

And how much wood do YOU burn? :-) I would guess that few people would
need to spend more than an hour every couple of weeks, even assuming
they use wood for all heating.


In winter, a couple of hours a week. I fill the back of an old off the
road landrover with it. It makes a useful covered motorised wood shed.
Probably around 1/2 ton if the wood is dense, less if its not.

Except that this winter hasn't really BEEN a winter..

As to what you need for heating a whole house..well as a kid it was
coal. A ton of coal did NOT last a winter, although we nearly always
made it last a winter, and I still have the memories of near hypothermia
and ICE *inside* the bedrooms, and perpetually feeling cold ..

I guess it came to around a hundredweight every couple of days with
about half the house kept at least above freezing.


A ton of coal or wood is probably not far off 1000 liters of heating oil
in terms of heat output. I can easily get through that in 6 weeks here
if the weather is ultra cold. And its a much better insulated house than
that 50's cavity brick one was.