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Are you still using turf?

[Deleted User]

You can't move on the country by-roads, this time of year, without being stuck behind a Ford 4600 pulling a load of turf.

This year, for the first year since we got off Cromwell's boat, the Miltiades family have no turf. I will miss the turf this year, the sweet, damp smell of it in the house, and wafting up the lane. I'll miss the crumbly, craggy feeling of handling it, the great heat out of it, turf as a topic of conversation for visitors; turf mould for the garden beds. We will never find a use for all these empty 10,10,20 bags.

The Department and the EU habitats directive have finally closed-off the bog at home, it's strictly for the skylark, the grouse, and the meadow pipit, now. It's only fair I suppose, but it's sad to face into a winter with no turf.

Are you still bringing home the turf?

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Pkiernan

I always thought it short sighted and unintelligent to literally burn your own country.

Sooner it stops the better.

cgcsb

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

But turf is so much cheaper. Cost really should be considered when discussing efficiency.

Not wanting to split hairs, but that chart is really about efficacy, not efficiency.

You're literally comparing 1 tonne of turf to 1 tonne of oil, while ignoring cost -- a huge factor.

bet those cancerous growths on the lungs of Tullamore residents aint cheap

cgcsb

Edgware wrote: »

Our family have cut turf for over 200 years, even under the British landlords, so our E.U. landlords and the Green Party gob****es can piss off if they think we are going to stop now

Thankfully such ignorance is dying out with education.

cgcsb

_Brian wrote: »

Are they still using peat to generate electricity?? If so essentially we’re all using turf.

Well... it uses more power than it creates but it's primary purpose isn't creating electricity, it's creating employment in a region that is otherwise destitute.

Bullocks

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

My brother still takes turf from the family plot. I don’t take many bags, but I will head down there some weekend to make a few bottles of poitín with himself.

Gas or turf for the stil?

Graces7

Deleted User wrote: »

300 plus time and labour saving it, tending the fire, cleaning out ashes to heat a single room is cost efficient vs 500 to heat the rest of the house with no effort?

here, a solid fuel stove, that heats the water and the radiators. cooks my food.. and so little work attached with turf as it is light and cleaner than coal.

[Deleted User]

Yeah burn timber we cut ourselves and turf.

I’m building a new house with heat pump, underfloor heating etc but still going to put a solid fuel stove in the living room with back boiler and burn turf and timber, a living room just isn’t the same or cosy without it. Also on cold winter evenings it can be taking the load of the heat pump (expensive electricity) and doing most of the house heating with timber (free) and turf (cheap).

Graces7

whisky_galore wrote: »

It has less energy released per tonne when burned compared to coal.
A tonne of coal and a tonne of turf is still a tonne. Bulk is irrelevant.

Thank you; that was what I was asking.

Turf for me always as my neighbour cuts and delivers it ... coal has to be bought in from 30 miles away then over on the ferry then to the house... Turf ash is fine too. I am happy with it .

LithiumKid1976

when we built our house 10 years ago, we went down the geothermal, AIr tightness route. Dont know why we put in a chimney cause its never used.
house is warm enough with out.

father still cuts it, but now this year. but i'm going with the brother on sat for a rake of loads of turf.

i dont mind going now, probably cause i know i dont have a bog, dont mind helping out.

its slowly being phased out, we have HUGE areas of blanket bog beside me, which no one is allowed cut on, which is probably right really, giving that the technology is there to make houses warm with out burning anything.. .

also, a lad down our way has the finest ash pile from turf. he must be dumping it in the same spot for a bout 40 years.
its about 5 foot high, and 12 foot long...

The skylark won't have a bog to sing in if ya keep cutting at current rates.

Home home house still a turf centric heating system. Nothing else would work as cost effectively. Stone house, solid fuel range in the centre of house. House is even cold in the summer when there's no fire on.

New house beside it is air to water, no turf. Little bit of timber in a wood burning stove the very odd time.

JohnnyFlash

Bullocks wrote: »

Gas or turf for the stil?

Turf for the still. And we use malted barley as well. Not sure there’s many still using turf when brewing the crathur, but it’s a family tradition for us.

Neames

I used to live in the city and there was something great about gas, flick a switch and the heat comes on.

Now I live in the countryside. I don't cut, buy or burn turf myself. I buy briquettes for our living room stove and oil heats the rest of the house. So I can't take the high moral ground on the carbon footprint. If there were decent supports available I'd convert to a more modern set up.

Carbon footprint aside, one trivial thing that really bugs me is the amount of talk about the bog where I live. I helped an older neighbour bring home and throw in turf. We went to the pub for a drink and there were turf monsters in the pub talking sh1te about footing turf and then they started showing each other photos. Ffs...head melt.

El Tarangu

Edgware wrote: »

Our family have cut turf for over 200 years, even under the British landlords, so our E.U. landlords and the Green Party gob****es can piss off if they think we are going to stop now

My family were poor subsistence farmers for countless generations; I work in a nice comfortable office with aircon for (what would be for them) vast sums of money.

Progress is great.

topper75

This year is alright, but 2018 was a particularly good vintage.
*presses fingertips and kisses them*

There are those who would try tell us that Irish people using the resources of Ireland is wrong. Is bodhar iad mo chluais rompu. Las an tine.

d8491prj5boyvg

topper75 wrote: »

This year is alright, but 2018 was a particularly good vintage.
*presses fingertips and kisses them*

There are those who would try tell us that Irish people devastating the resources of future Irish generations is wrong. Is bodhar iad mo chluais rompu. Las an tine.

FYP

Bullocks

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Bullocks wrote: »

Gas or turf for the stil?

Turf for the still. And we use malted barley as well. Not sure there’s many still using turf when brewing the crathur, but it’s a family tradition for us.

Propane is fuel of choice here, sure you would want an awful reek of turf to keep her lit

suicide_circus

i burn turf and eat giant panda for dinner

golfball37

We brought in 3 trailers worth over the weekend. A great tradition. My youngest lad aged 2 loved it, the whole loading barrows and feeling part of things.

Tabnabs

Great memories as a child out in the forests where my father and friends had bought the right to harvest timber in a private forest and all the kids would tag along and help out or just play in the woods.

They say that timber will heat you four times, once when you cut it, once when you process it, once when you stack it and once when you burn it. It is certainly a labour intensive fuel, but the noise of a crackling fire and the heat from a proper stove on a cold winters night is magical, certainly nothing a heat pump will ever replicate.

cgcsb

Tabnabs wrote: »

They say that timber will heat you four times, once when you cut it, once when you process it, once when you stack it and once when you burn it. It is certainly a labour intensive fuel, but the noise of a crackling fire and the heat from a proper stove on a cold winters night is magical, certainly nothing a heat pump will ever replicate.

There's your next business venture, faux crackling false fires.

Tabnabs

cgcsb wrote: »

There's your next business venture, faux crackling false fires.

Ain't no computer monitor going to put out over 6kW of heat at the same time!

[Deleted User]

whisky_galore wrote: »

It has less energy released per tonne when burned compared to coal.
A tonne of coal and a tonne of turf is still a tonne. Bulk is irrelevant.

Cost isn't irrelevant though.

I always assumed that when people spoke about the inefficiency of turf, they had factored cost into the equation.

It seems not to be the case. Cost is a huge factor. If you can get 100 mj out of a kilo of oil, and only 70 out of a kilo of turf, but turf is a third of the price, then there's simply no contest.

Rural people can be accused of many things, sometimes rightly and often wrongly -- but they are not foolish with money.

[Deleted User]

suicide_circus wrote: »

i burn turf and eat giant panda for dinner

Good. Those lazy bastids do absolutely nothing but sit back on their arse all day and eat bamboo.

Get a job you lazy fcuks.

I'm all for socialism, but pandas take the piss. They are the ultimate welfare queens.

Graces7

El Tarangu wrote: »

My family were poor subsistence farmers for countless generations; I work in a nice comfortable office with aircon for (what would be for them) vast sums of money.

Progress is great.

and yet many choose to return to simpler ways.

Graces7

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Cost isn't irrelevant though.

I always assumed that when people spoke about the inefficiency of turf, they had factored cost into the equation.

It seems not to be the case. Cost is a huge factor. If you can get 100 mj out of a kilo of oil, and only 70 out of a kilo of turf, but turf is a third of the price, then there's simply no contest.

Rural people can be accused of many things, sometimes rightly and often wrongly -- but they are not foolish with money.

Indeed yes. and in winter when the turf solid fuel stove is lit, my ESB bill is almost non existent.

d8491prj5boyvg

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Cost isn't irrelevant though.

I always assumed that when people spoke about the inefficiency of turf, they had factored cost into the equation.

It seems not to be the case. Cost is a huge factor. If you can get 100 mj out of a kilo of oil, and only 70 out of a kilo of turf, but turf is a third of the price, then there's simply no contest.

Rural people can be accused of many things, sometimes rightly and often wrongly -- but they are not foolish with money.

It's only a third of the price when you inherit a unique ecosystem for free and then proceed to destroy it. I don't blame anyone for burning their own bog, but where's my bog?

El Tarangu

Graces7 wrote: »

and yet many choose to return to simpler ways.

That's great, and more power to them.

But I imagine that the people in days gone by, out footing turf on the bog, were doing it for survival rather than by choice; and if you offered them central heating at the flick of switch, they would throw down their tools and be off the bog in a shot.

realdanbreen

Gerry G wrote: »

Add permanent markers to that list

And Glue.

RiderOnTheStorm

Mr & Mrs Rider still use turf. We dont go to the bog for it, as we are blow-ins and still townies at heart. We buy a ton bag from a local guy. A 1 ton bag lasts a year or more. We burn it in casette stove in fire place. Add a bit of wood or coal and they burn each other up very nicely, with minimal waste. Good heat out of turf n coal mix too.

[Deleted User]

Caroline Obedient Rivalry wrote: »

It's only a third of the price when you inherit a unique ecosystem for free and then proceed to destroy it. I don't blame anyone for burning their own bog, but where's my bog?

Actually if you inherit a bog you'll probably get your turf for free from the contractor. Which makes it even cheaper.

I'm half-kidding by starting this thread
Of course we need to protect our Habitats. They are not just a carbon sink but a vital resource for biodiversity. But we're still allowed to be sad about not having turf anymore. For a phrase that is so clichéd, it actually is the end of an era.