How much land?

The_Bullman

Reading the Gasifying wood log boiler thread got me thinkin.

How much land would you need to supply your own wood to keep you in heat for the year? Or is it feasible at all?

I've read that willow is fairly aggressive growing and its used to wood pellet production. Is it any good for log burning? How many years head start do the trees need?

Has anyone any experience with anything like this? Or any thoughts on it?

Thanks in advance

bbam

I've been told it takes 8-10tonnes of dry timber to heat a 2500sq foot house for a year.

This requires a large area of managed willow... 5 acres I think it was..
No return for about 5 years either

I contacted a supplyer in the UK that supplies the ultra fast type willow...
Here's the link..

http://www.bowhayestrees.co.uk/willows1.htm

I think we'll get some in but never enough for self sustainability..

s2sap

Have a look at this website. I am nearly convinced about doing this. However there is an awful lot of work involved in felling and logging sufficient fuel to be truly self sufficient. The website is dedicated to hybrid poplar, which is better for logging than willow. Willow when coppiced after 4-6 years regrows with multi stems, poplar regrows with an even thicker single trunk - better for logs. Willow is better for chipping IMO

http://www.frysvillefarms.com/independence.htm

I have posted on other websites for info about anyone doing this but there is little info coming back. You need to research on your own. Let me know if you need more info I have done an awful lot of research ( the term anorak regularly springs to my wifes lips )

Good luck with whatever you do.

Mellor

bbam wrote: »

I've been told it takes 8-10tonnes of dry timber to heat a 2500sq foot house for a year.

I'd be surprized if it was that much for a modern house tbh

CJhaughey

I saw a calculation once for hybrid poplar, basically you plant an acre with trees in 6'x6' grid.
The first year you plant, the second year you cut 20% of the trees on the S side the stems will be 25mm or so these can be chipped or burnt, the third yr same again with the next lot of trees these will be 40mm or so, 4th yr harvest will be 60mm or so, and the 5th year should be 70mm+.
Then the cycle repeats but the first years trees have regrown and have 4 years of growth.
Hybrid poplar is a lowish quality fuel wood, saying that it is still a lot better then trying to burn willow!
Build an efficient house and it would take very little to heat with wood. Last year I think I burnt around a cord of wood for the winter, this year we may try and go the whole winter just on wood alone.

bbam

CJhaughey wrote: »

Last year I think I burnt around a cord of wood for the winter, this year we may try and go the whole winter just on wood alone.

Mother of god !!
We've burnt about 3 tonnes of seasoned timber a year plus 3 fills of oil for the last number of years.. (I'd guess 2 cords in 3 tonne). 12 year old bungalow ~2100 sq feet.

Our new abode (3200sq feet) should be ready in November.. Our goal was to get down to 6 tonne (~4 cords) + 1 fill of oil.

what is your plan for timber alone?
.....what area are you heating
.....what type of stove have you got
.....how well insulated
.....no oil for the early mornings ?

bbam

Mellor wrote: »

I'd be surprized if it was that much for a modern house tbh

I did a quick search on-line...
1 cord of popular = ~3600lbs or 1.5 ton
5 cords as quoted on that website would be ~7.5ton of timber to replace 750 galons of fuel

We've been using 3*1000l fills of oil per year+ about 2 cords of wood...

However I take your point and indeed am hoping that insulation out the ying-yang will enable us to use as little as possible..

CJhaughey

bbam wrote: »

what is your plan for timber alone?
.....what area are you heating
.....what type of stove have you got
.....how well insulated
.....no oil for the early mornings ?

1.I am heating 157m2--99m2 GF and 57m2 Upstairs
2.Morso Squirrel great stove but a bit of a pain to cut wood for as it is so small.
3.House is 3 yrs old Scanhome Baltica easy to heat and has MHRV system
4. No oil full stop, there is UFH in the house, Devi heating cables 2 x 5kw runs 1 to Nth and 1 to Sth.
House holds heat well, put a roast on and you need no heating!!
Temp drops over night from 25 to 21 deg
This time of year house is averaging 23 deg with no inputs and the Heat recovery set to Bypass mode(no heat recovery).
I think I may have to do some alterations in the room with the stove to improve the movement of warm air to the HRV extract in the kitchen but that will be a fairly easy job. Just to make some holes in a wall above a door to allow the heat to flow along the ceiling.
I have a lot of timber, from windfalls etc so I cut and split all my own timber and dry it onsite.
You can buy a lorry load of timber from Coillte for around 4-500 euro if you want to cut and split your own stuff.
I have a mix, Beech,Oak, Alder and Pine.

bbam

Great to be able to ditch the oil altogether....well done :cool:
What type of timber is supplied from Coilte?
Do you have a contact or any idea which office to contact ?

We've been buying from a local supplier... €320 for a 3 ton load, sawn, chopped and dropped where required, well seasoned and a mixture of stuff..

thanks
bam

The_Bullman

bbam wrote: »

I've been told it takes 8-10tonnes of dry timber to heat a 2500sq foot house for a year.

This requires a large area of managed willow... 5 acres I think it was..
No return for about 5 years either

From s2sap's link they say that you can get 3 cords per acre for the first year and 5 cords per year after that. So if you take a cord as weighing 1.5 ton then that's 7.5 ton of poplar for the second harvest on.

So does that mean that it would only take 1 and a third acre of managed poplar to keep a home in heating a year?

Or am I missing something? American acre is different than Irish one? Or maybe poplar grows much quicker in the american climate?