What do you burn in your stove?

[Robbo]

9 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

 

Humans in some form have been around for about 2-3 million years. 

 

Our current version Homo sapiens has been around for about 300,000 years. 

 

Mains electricity has been common in homes for about 100 years. 

 

We seem to like it so much that we're willing to destroy ourselves to have it.

 

The reality is that renewables can produce all the power we need but certain provisos need to be met:

 

1.  We stop wasting mains electricity on stupid things.

2.  We look at ways of gradually reducing the overall human population.

Remember electricity is only one area that uses oil based fuel, heating and transport are really the main areas.

[doratheexplorer]

18 minutes ago, Robbo said:

I hardly use electric in the summer as I’m refitting the boat and cruising usually provides my electrical needs so I’ve not installed any yet.  They are on my shopping list.

It was a pathetic attempt at humour

12 minutes ago, Robbo said:

Remember electricity is only one area that uses oil based fuel, heating and transport are really the main areas.

Aha yes, but we're being encouraged to adopt electric alternatives for heating and transport with no clear idea how the additional electricity will be generated.  If we all bought electric cars overnight, the national grid would go into instant meltdown.

[nb Innisfree]

58 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

 

Humans in some form have been around for about 2-3 million years. 

 

Our current version Homo sapiens has been around for about 300,000 years. 

 

Mains electricity has been common in homes for about 100 years. 

 

We seem to like it so much that we're willing to destroy ourselves to have it.

 

The reality is that renewables can produce all the power we need but certain provisos need to be met:

 

1.  We stop wasting mains electricity on stupid things.

2.  We look at ways of gradually reducing the overall human population.

World population is already beginning to stabilise as global wealth spreads which reduces child mortality and encourages less reproduction. 

[nb Innisfree]

41 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

It was a pathetic attempt at humour

Aha yes, but we're being encouraged to adopt electric alternatives for heating and transport with no clear idea how the additional electricity will be generated.  If we all bought electric cars overnight, the national grid would go into instant meltdown.

It would in the very unlikely event of everyone doing that overnight, anywayThe National Grid claim to have the capacity to cope but it will take some time to rearrange. 

Edited October 4, 2018 by nb Innisfree

[Onionman]

On 02/10/2018 at 17:49, mark99 said:

I got a little stash of Prunus (wild plum - Mirabelle) that I'm looking forward to burning.

 

Also just felled (well the pro's did) a holly tree - but that's not meant to be good burning. It's being seasoned.

I'm pretty sure holly is great burning - it's the highest calorific content per kg of any common wood (Courtesy of the book "Norwegian Wood").

 

And for an excellent guide to where your electricity is coming from at this very moment, look at http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/  (Some of the percentages are very surpirising)

 

Very nerdy for a first post but there'll be plenty more.

Edited October 4, 2018 by Onionman

[Robbo]

1 hour ago, nb Innisfree said:

It would in the very unlikely event of everyone doing that overnight, anywayThe National Grid claim to have the capacity to cope but it will take some time to rearrange. 

The peak time for electricity usage is evening when everyone gets home from work and morning when everyone gets up.   Most people have the heating set to come on for when they arrive home and although theirs better technology out their when using electricity for heating most places will probably use those storage heaters if gas wasn’t an option.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, nb Innisfree said:

It would in the very unlikely event of everyone doing that overnight, anywayThe National Grid claim to have the capacity to cope but it will take some time to rearrange. 

I seriously doubt that claim. The whole of our village had to be effectively rewired and connected to a different part of the grid after a fire in a local substation was attributed to it being caused by it being overloaded. I wonder how many similar weak points in the system exist?

[RichM]

I burn anything in my stove it it can be burned, i.e. not plastic or anything toxic. Useful for getting rid of waste!

[nb Innisfree]

3 hours ago, MJG said:

I seriously doubt that claim. The whole of our village had to be effectively rewired and connected to a different part of the grid after a fire in a local substation was attributed to it being caused by it being overloaded. I wonder how many similar weak points in the system exist?

Quite a few few probably which will need addressing. 

[canals are us?]

Oxbow red for me last year.

 

Quite a good all rounder and reasonable cost. 25KG for £10.50

 

Sometimes buy the odd seasoned log or the wood briquettes.

 

James.

[bizzard]

I slept like a log last night, woke up in the fireplace.

[canals are us?]

2 minutes ago, bizzard said:

I slept like a log last night, woke up in the fireplace.

I bet you had to dust yourself down when you got out!

 

James.

[Jess--]

23 minutes ago, bizzard said:

I slept like a log last night, woke up in the fireplace.

Probably needed a poke to get going again

[bizzard]

1 minute ago, Jess-- said:

Probably needed a poke to get going again

No, but I grated my teeth when I discovered where I was,

[blackrose]

I haven't had time to read this entire thread.Does anyone use Supertherm ? Is it any good?

 

Thanks

 

 

[Dr Bob]

4 hours ago, blackrose said:

I haven't had time to read this entire thread.Does anyone use Supertherm ? Is it any good?

 

Thanks

 

 

I dont like it. Far too much ash for my liking and it has a very nasty pungent smell from the smoke after you restoke the fire. I prefer Excel or homefire ovals.

[Jerra]

On 04/10/2018 at 14:17, nb Innisfree said:

Nuclear is great until the core is exposed, then it's a total nightmare, can it resist a meteorite impact for instance? Or a missile strike? 

Of course three mile island and chernobyl never happened did they?

 

Also Calder Hall (now known as Sellafield) was the first UK nuclear station and as yet they have not found a safe way to dispose of the waste.

[Robbo]

12 hours ago, Jerra said:

Of course three mile island and chernobyl never happened did they?

 

Also Calder Hall (now known as Sellafield) was the first UK nuclear station and as yet they have not found a safe way to dispose of the waste.

Even with those accidents which both happened due to poorly designed plants the number of deaths for the amount of electricity produced is lower than any other source.   We don’t dispose the waste we store until safe, with other sources we pump into the air or have no real method of disposal (solar).

Edited October 6, 2018 by Robbo

[Horace42]

Wasn't there talk of shipping nuclear waste by rockets and dumping on the Sun ?

23 hours ago, bizzard said:

I slept like a log last night, woke up in the fireplace.

....and from comments by others this is only hearth the story...

[ditchcrawler]

27 minutes ago, Robbo said:

Even with those accidents which both happened due to poorly designed plants the number of deaths for the amount of electricity produced is lower than any other source.   We don’t dispose the waste we store until safe, with other sources we pump into the air or have no real method of disposal (solar).

I thought Chernobal was 100% human error

[BWM]

22 hours ago, blackrose said:

I haven't had time to read this entire thread.Does anyone use Supertherm ? Is it any good?

 

Thanks

 

 

I'm not a fan, as Dr Bob said lots of ash and black goo. Stoveglow is a better fuel, all bar one on our mooring use it.

[Robbo]

4 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I thought Chernobal was 100% human error

It was a poorly designed plant and wouldn't happen on other plants even in the same scenario.   Fukushima defences weren't as good as the other plants that also got hit.

 

These accidents were mainly out of poor design, Hydroelectricity has had major accidents due to poor design that have effected more people but you wouldn't say don't build anymore, they are unsafe.

[Dr Bob]

1 hour ago, Horace42 said:

Wasn't there talk of shipping nuclear waste by rockets and dumping on the Sun ?

 

Didnt the do that in one episode of Stargate and it put the sun out?

[Horace42]

31 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

Didnt the do that in one episode of Stargate and it put the sun out?

.... that was because they did it during the night

[alan_fincher]

1 hour ago, BWM said:

I'm not a fan, as Dr Bob said lots of ash and black goo. Stoveglow is a better fuel, all bar one on our mooring use it.

Stoveglow is no longer sold as a smokeless fuel, (it changed a few years back), so you are not comparing like with like.

The "new" non smokeless Stoveglow has itself been singled out as filling chimneys and baffle plates with "goo".

Also, we are now using Supertherm, and I can't see that it makes more ash than other types.

 

To me seems there is not a consistent standard with things that are given a particular brand name.