Thread: Firewood Consumption in Australia

Originally Posted by watson

Exactly!!!!
Through an accident we have regenerated several thousand 2-300 year old trees on our property, so we are in front as far as carbon credits are concerned.........

.....Woodburners of the world unite!!!!

Regards,
Noel

Absolutely. We have about 5000 E.nitens planted for firewood by the previous owner. Woodburners are good. Freezing cold is bad. Power charges are to be avoided.

Originally Posted by ciscokid

I walk the woods looking for standing dead. I drop this and pull it out of the woods with chains and my tractor and cut it up for firewood. I figure that, by clearing these dead trees out, I am making way for new growth and making best use of natural resources.

Hear Hear! A small percentage of E.nitens tend to die after a while - mostly they just stand there getting dry. Knock'em over and tow them out like you say Cisco. We will coppice the others and most of them will regenerate.

Over here you can buy a load of logs that would otherwise be headed for the MDF mill. It is radiata, grown fast for pulping and it burns pretty fast when dry. They drop a big load in the paddock and the idea is to cut them into 12 - 14" rings then open them up with the log splitter - worm thing that runs off the tractor PTO. 3 - 4 months in our NW wind and they are ready for cold nights......

Originally Posted by ciscokid

Here in the States, we have the same issues. I have several patches of woods on my farm and, every year about this time, I walk the woods looking for standing dead. I drop this and pull it out of the woods with chains and my tractor and cut it up for firewood. I figure that, by clearing these dead trees out, I am making way for new growth and making best use of natural resources.

Well actually that brings up issues with the nutrient cycle and habitat destruction but I wont go there this morning.

When I supported banning wood burning fires I was referring to urban areas not rural.

But I have to ask the question - don't you country folk have electricity yet? You sure do it tough. Must take a lot of peddling to keep that puta runnin.

However when your in your home with the fire nicely blazing away - when your all cozy and warm, you don't notice the plume of smoke coming out of the chimney.
If you live in suburbia your neighbors do. My son suffers from asma as do I so we hate winter as the neighbours on both sides burn wood.
Were a bit elevated, I'd hate to live in a valley.

Wood can be one of the most environmentally friendly methods of heating your home.

2 things you need to do.
1. Get a good quality slow combustion heater. After quite bit of research, I chose a Clean Air heater. Once it is alight, there is almost no visible smoke from the flue. Some heater have an efficiency of only 40% and other are up over 70%. The Clean Air is on of the later.
2. Do what the first post Dadpad said to do.

Wood burning is carbon neutral. As the tree grows it absorbs carbon, when it's burn it releases it.

Good point, the CleanAir is one of the best wood heaters around and it is made in Victoria (Sunbury). Ours has given us good service for the past 6 years, as long as you burn well seasoned wood there is hardly any smoke, and it will burn overnight, which most wood heaters these days won't do.

Originally Posted by Bleedin Thumb

But I have to ask the question - don't you country folk have electricity yet? You sure do it tough. Must take a lot of peddling to keep that puta runnin.

However when your in your home with the fire nicely blazing away - when your all cozy and warm, you don't notice the plume of smoke coming out of the chimney.
If you live in suburbia your neighbors do. My son suffers from asma as do I so we hate winter as the neighbours on both sides burn wood.
Were a bit elevated, I'd hate to live in a valley.

Bleedin

Have you seen what they charge for electricity. My last bill was $250.00/for a 1/4 and that is after I had negotiated a cheaper rate with Country Energy because I was approached by another electricity company offering cheaper rates. Now that maybe cheap by what some are paying but bear in mind I heat my water by solar and slow combustion stove I don't have any electricity sucking air conditioners I heat the house in the winter with (cough, cough) a wood heater.

Basically all the electricity I use is lights, refridgeration, small water pumps, TV's and computers and a bit in the shed nothing substantial.

Now I know that might not seem much of a financial burden but when your on a pension with fuel costs in the country and no access to public transport it all adds up.

Mind you I wouldn't trade the lifestyle of the country for yours in Sydney. I spent the first 40 years of my life down there and that was during the good times. The best part is I don't have any annoying neighbours here and I am not an annoying neighbour to any one else.

electricity would be the worst way to heat .to generate electricity you must burn fuel (well mostly)the rate of transer of energy is low
with a wood heater (a good one) the energy transer is higher with heat being the main product

Not only that, but it is a bit of a NIMBY (not in my backyard) argument, ie the people in the LaTrobe Valley can have the stinking brown coal smog so that I can run my humongous a/c or heater!

It's real simple the cost of burning wood is that it destroys habitat and polutes the air.

So the question is.......
Is this cost acceptable anymore?

Coal fired power-plants do pollute but it doesn't stop you from owning a refriderator, dishwasher, washing machine - very inefficent things.

Grunt you claim that burning wood is carbon neutral - can't argue against that but I thought we were trying to capture carbon.

And Barry yeh I've even got electricty connected to my house so I know that its not cheap.

I use an oil filled electric heater that heats the whole home . (I have a reverse cycle aircon in my office but it only gets short blast well i try to most of the time ).

The extra cost of running the homes heater all through winter is about $200-$300 max.

How much is a tonne of timber delivered in suburbia these days $90 ( a guess) how much do you use a year. So its not that more to use electricity in suburbia at least.
In rural areas Ok you dont pay for your timber but as I stated in the first line it does have a cost.
If you add to the cost of habitate destruction and particle pollutin in the air the cost of green house gas emissions and its related costs as well as health costs etc..

So it may not be that cheap after all.

I've lived in the country so I'm not naive enough to think anyone is going to stop warming their homes with wood.

Except when the Government says you have to. That will happen.

I'm not going to buy into this one except to say that:

1. I heat my house during winter with timber as a fuel
2. My timber fuel is sawmill waste - never dead and down or espescially felled
3. My house is well designed and insulated so doesn't need much fuel to keep it warm
4. I don't take the ability to burn timber to heat my house for granted.....

Recent research I've participated in has shown that hollows in dead trees where the entry was no bigger than a human index finger were adequate breeding hollows for insectivorous micro-bats......which are known to be critical components in balanced ecosystems.

Like every resource we exploit it seems that it is a human pre-condition to regard that ability to exploit as a natural born right rather than as a privledge. The inverse of that right is the right of reply from whatever aspect of Mother Nature your belief system is prepared to support.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

Not only that, but it is a bit of a NIMBY (not in my backyard) argument, ie the people in the LaTrobe Valley can have the stinking brown coal smog so that I can run my humongous a/c or heater!

SO TRUE LOOK AT WIND TURBINES it will spoil the veiw bloody hell no one went out there on sth gippy coast anyway to windy
90 buck a T l wish

Originally Posted by SilentButDeadly

Like every resource we exploit it seems that it is a human pre-condition to regard that ability to exploit as a natural born right rather than as a privledge. The inverse of that right is the right of reply from whatever aspect of Mother Nature your belief system is prepared to support.

Well said.

I feel that to some of these fella's burning wood in their fires is like masturbating.

"Ive been doing it practically all my life,
It feels so good
Why stop now?"

Then the man from the government comes round and says

"Stop that its no good
Its bad for your health
It will make you go blind."

But will they stop?

But will they stop? <!-- / message -->

I wonder what the calorific content of a fully fueled and oiled chainsaw is compared to the equivalent mass of freshly felled dead timber.....

And I hope that Wally with the chainsaw thinks a bit before he starts slicing firewood out of my timber home (I'd be fairly about losing a few joists and bearers to some fools fire).....same as I'd hope anyone collecting firewood would also think about the other 'values' of dead timber before they hook in.

I say again, "I don't mind burning timber for warmth" but I encourage one and all that do the same to do so with the wider implications in mind and the constant question of "have I done enough?" to minimise the impact of what I do on others outside my sphere of self interest.

Yet another example of "The Gumment" forking out oodles of OUR loot to some air headed drop-out to enable him/her to come up with a report that any five year old could have done out of his head.

More wood burned in Tassie than Qld? Go on!....Really? Who would have guessed that?

Most of the wood burned in SE Oz? Wouldn't have anything to do with most of the population living there would it?

Stop feeding these "research" parasites and they may eventually die out.