Heat wave

[nomadpete]

Bugger, good luck with that Peter. Raining now too.

My back is still stuffed from being on the saw most of Sunday. Well, not from the chainsaw, more from throwing the chunks uphill to the trailer.

Well, Marty I know how strongly you oppose coal fired electricity, but there's no need to go right back to the cave Man era - burning trees to keep warm?

 

 

[Marty_d]

You've got me there, my principles go out the window when it comes to heating our house. We just installed a reverse cycle a/c (which of course runs on hydro power, being as we are in Tassie) - but the heat is nothing like the wood stove and doesn't heat the whole house.

 

 

[kgwilson]

Yes there is nothing like the radiated heat from a real wood fire. Watching the wood burn is better than anything on TV. Convection heating from a reverse cycle air conditioner is an efficient means of transferring the heat but is not an aesthetically pleasing method.

 

 

[nomadpete]

You like the cave man comfort of a fire!

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

we have 3 wood burning stoves and central (I think it is called hydronic in Aus) heatingWell... and in winter the place is still bl00dy cold! And, yes.. the burners have logs alight in them and the heating is on at max (oil fired.. drinks the stuff)..

 

BTW, it was 32 where we were yesterday... The bloke who runs sheep on our property was complaining of the heat.. My remark was it is still a little cool to call hot and while the grass is brown, is still nice and thick.. (a bit like me, really)

 

 

[old man emu]

The trouble with the firewood in England is that it is too soft, and too damp. It just sits in the grate and smolders. What you need to heat an English hole is a good trailer load of seasoned eucalyptus blocks.

 

 

[willedoo]

Hard to beat narrow leaf ironbark anywhere in the world.

 

Another good firewood, if you have enough supply, is she-oak. Splits like a dream, burns nice and hot, and has those coals that clink when they tumble down, in the same manner as gidgee and mulga. Burns a bit quicker than the hardwoods, though.

 

 

[Marty_d]

we have 3 wood burning stoves and central (I think it is called hydronic in Aus) heatingWell... and in winter the place is still bl00dy cold! And, yes.. the burners have logs alight in them and the heating is on at max (oil fired.. drinks the stuff)..

At least over there you know how to properly insulate your houses - proper double (or triple) glazing, thick wall insulation etc.

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

The trouble with the firewood in England is that it is too soft, and too damp. It just sits in the grate and smolders. What you need to heat an English hole is a good trailer load of seasoned eucalyptus blocks.

Have a look at photo 15 of 21... It is not too dissimilar to what we have - a big log store full of dried logs over about 10 years - they burn well and with the air-vents cloed once they warm up, are toasty and keep going for ages. Unf, we have 12' high ceilings everywhere, and I am thinking of putting in mezzanine levels so in winter we can get the benefit of the heat...

 

My place is 2' thick stone walls that eventually transmit the cold through.. We have triple glazing and roof insulation, complimented by a layer of bat poo, as we are not allowed to move them without excessive expense. But because of new regs, all rooms with stoves have big-mamma air vents that if you sit within 10' of them, your middle bits shrink and your voice increase in pitch by about 4 octaves.

 

 

[Bruce]

Jerry, I recommend breaking the law. A lot of regulations are there to protect the 1% most stupid from themselves. As an example, bathrooms here legally have big vents. If you block these vents, you can regulate the temperature better BUT you must remember to open things up when you have finished, or you will get mould.

 

On the subject of saving the planet, I would love to do this but can't afford it. So in a place with unlimited firewood I don't even have a water-heater coil around the flue. The cost of a green system compared to bottled gas was just too much.