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Self-Sufficiency in Style 

The Wood Burner  - Part One

The fuel and the chimney

It seems so simple - a wood burner, the elegant answer to rising fuel bills and insecurity of supply .

Choosing a wood burner, what it will burn, what it is expected to do, and what happens in an emergency is one of those decision trees that would drive a normally patient and rational man to dither and drink.

We will, however, attempt to make the complicated a little less complicated.

We survived that, by managing to keep the old one going without water heating, and open fires until we could  obtain an early  replacement. An incident reminding us of the necessity of back up systems, however basic.

Tonight we are expecting temperatures of minus 7 degrees Celsius, and the dispute between Russia and the Ukraine is cutting off half of Europe's gas supplies.

The sails have fallen off a nearby wind-turbine and the failure is being blamed on UFO's.

The greens are driving everybody mad with conflicting arguments about the environmental benefits of dozens of obviously unworkable and uncompetitive schemes.

Let me try to add a little sanity to the world, by discussing peat and coal in conjunction with wood.

So we should perhaps think of a wood burner, potentially as a solid fuel burner rather than merely a wood burner.

This is not just theory. The burner opposite was operating from 1984 to 1995 in Suffolk, England on wood. It helped heat a large farmhouse, plus all the water and provided cooking via an oven and two large hotplates.

At the same time, exactly the same model was doing the same job in a modern bungalow on the coast in Sligo, Ireland. That was burning peat.

Peat drying in Co Mayo - Ireland

For some peculiar reason my green friends cringe at the idea of burning peat, ignoring the fact that most of their most valued wetlands "The Norfolk Broads" for example, are now known as being created by our ancestors cutting peat for fuel.

Peat is rarely burned in England today, but is sometimes available in Wales and Scotland.

The writer once owned a peat bog in Wales and his mother shared the rights to cut one in Ireland.

The ancient rights of turbary, peat cutting, mentioned on so many old documents of title, were the basis of much common law.

The Irish bog was still being cut and used the last time I was there. The donkey apparently refused his ancient task of hauling the peat back home and a tractor was used.

Even power stations are run on peat in Ireland.

The frequently quoted story that they had no coal, is not entirely true. There might not be any snakes but there is certainly coal in Ireland and associated power generation, from a coal mine in the Arigna mountains.

Even today, peat is widely cut and used, sometimes in the form of peat blocks.

Peat is, however, a poor fuel, burning with more smoke than heat in an ordinary grate, but better in a closed burner.

Even today, old Irish people will refer to a "good" coal fire, with the emphasis on the "good" and making a firm distinction between bought coal and home cut peat.

However the characteristic smell of an Irish townland owes much to the peat, and is the smell of home to many an expatriate.

 These lakes, although natural, on the Roscommon - Sligo border are in peat cutting country and close to coal mines.

The faint aroma drifting in summer and winter will be of peat, sometime mixed with wood.

So, we are going to discuss practical heating sensible solutions for the self-sufficient, not some airy fairy, get rich quick scheme dreamt up by a wannabe green.

Control freaks come in many guises and plenty of them claim to be saving the universe from anyone making a harmless way in life. They always seem to be doing it from a centrally heated accommodation or the kind of abject poverty that only a masochist would appreciate.

Peat and coal are not off limits here. Many of the readers live in remote places and able to use resources unavailable to the great majority.

Coal and smokeless fuel may not be a fuel of choice, but it can serve a very useful backup, given open fireplaces or suitable burners.

Bought in coal and its derivatives, can provide a very useful efficient back up when the going gets tough, either through breakdown or shortage of wood or peat.

You won't need your own coalmine: a few bags or a coal bunker will provide a final reserve, that will probably remain unopened for years.

In England, things are pretty easily divided into types of house. That tells us the nature and location of the chimneys.

1. Victorian and modern.

2. Traditional - farmhouses and cottages predating the Victorian era.

3. Very modern houses.

4. Conversions, especially barn conversions.

That does not mean that you can't have a solid fuel system.

Barn conversions are ideal for solid fuel burners, for all kinds of very good reasons.

Victorian and modern (ish.) houses usually have multiple fireplaces including bedrooms.

Traditional farmhouses and cottages usually have huge chimney breasts in the principal rooms.

This wood burner has its own metal chimney and is suitable for barn conversions and some modern houses.

Modern Britain 1970

This typical 1970's picture was the result of bad modernising of a real gem.

An Edwardian House, it won the National House of the Year award in 1904, typically having a fireplace in every room, including the bedrooms.

The fire surround has been lowered and modernised but the small chimney breast is typical of almost all British houses built during the Twentieth century.

Servants were kept to keep the fires burning. This has been converted to a gas fire. The first gas was imported to Britain less then a mile away in 1967 from Texas by sea.

You can convert a house like this to a wood-burning system, with care.

Here again is a typical small 20th century chimney, designed for coal burning with a small grate. The brick facing is purely decorative.

Many similar fireplaces were converted to include a back-boiler in the 1950s and 1960s to give the house hot water.

Once again a chimney like this can be converted to take a wood-burner.

The kind of fireplace that graced every medieval farmhouse, once they abandoned an open fire in the centre of the great hall and a hole in the roof to let the smoke out.

Take away the basket and the hood and you can almost see the Yule Log burning on the bricks.

This is the place to start when planning a new wood or peat heating system.

The chimney breast is massive. Another similar fire backs onto it and the two major bedrooms above also have open fires.

Similar fireplaces will be in the kitchen area, once fully equipped with spits and cranes to handle cooking over an open fire.

Many older houses all over Europe have similar fireplaces, not least in France.

The alcove to the left is a day wardrobe, the space on the left, accessed by a door from the corridor was the famous "Imelda Marcos" shoe cupboard.

The fine wood carved fire surround was supposed to be Queen Anne.

This was part of a long gone farm system where quite a small house would have a dozen to twenty residents, ample to feed fires in the bedrooms.

The best thing to do with such a fire is to ignore it apart perhaps from some dried flowers.

In the next episode, we will continue to build on what you have, rather than what you wished to have. All will become clear, promise.

January 2009

FORWARD TO PART TWO

...turning to wood

- at Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner.