Are you still using turf?

d8491prj5boyvg · 09-07-2019 6:50am

Graces7 wrote: »

This contributes to the island economy. Keeps the money here which benefits us all .

Also the cost and "carbon footprint" of bringing (Polish) coal over by ferry is high. Tried that last winter, and no more. and the cost of electricity by comparison...

.

Lining the pockets of those lucky enough to inherit a bog. Where's my bog?

Carbon footprint of local turf is greater than imported coal. This says it all. As you rightly point out, coal carbon footprint is very high.

Coal is responsible for a lot of deaths. This is never talked about.

Graces7 · 09-07-2019 8:16am

Caroline Obedient Rivalry wrote: »

Less heat produced per quantity burned compared to any other fuel.

Measured how? Quantity I mean. Turf is more bulky than coal so that is not a fair comparison.

whisky_galore · 09-07-2019 8:28am

Graces7 wrote: »

Measured how? Quantity I mean. Turf is more bulky than coal so that is not a fair comparison.

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.

09-07-2019 8:59am

glaswegian wrote: »

I find it very cost efficient,E300 for 300 yards = 220 bags,more than enough to heat the living room stove for the year, E500 of kero for the rads,job done.

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?

Greyfox · 09-07-2019 9:06am

Ive never held turf before and I've never sat beside a turf fire...feel like i'm really missing out

beauf · 09-07-2019 9:14am

Greyfox wrote: »

Ive never held turf before and I've never sat beside a turf fire...feel like i'm really missing out

Kinda hard to explain how you stand beside a turf fire for 5 mins and everything you own smells of it for weeks after.

Only ever used it on holidays. The old man used tell stories about cutting it in the 50s and old stories about the teams out cutting it and hearing banshee on the bog. A bit like working at thrashing. End of an era definitely.

I will miss it, and coal. Nothing like an open fire. But both were back breaking work and filthy. I remember the smog back in the day. Like Victorian London some days.

Still waters · 09-07-2019 9:15am

I used cut turf but it just doesn't pay me to give the time to be in the bog, my time is more valuable than that, even if its walking the beach in fanore with the dogs i can't justify spending that much time at turf, its easier ring the local suppliers and they'll deliver coal when i want it

mad muffin · 09-07-2019 9:21am

As a city slicker I prefer heating at my finger tips.

BeerWolf · 09-07-2019 9:44am

No, but I take others' claiming their turf.

El Tarangu · 09-07-2019 9:46am

beauf wrote: »

Kinda hard to explain how you stand beside a turf fire for 5 mins and everything you own smells of it for weeks after.

...

I will miss it, and coal. Nothing like an open fire. But both were back breaking work and filthy. I remember the smog back in the day. Like Victorian London some days.

We used to have a coal fire when I was a kid - indeed, it was dirty work setting the fire, and then cleaning it out afterwards. Plus, the amount of space you need to store the stuff (and whatever space you use as a coal shed will never be able to be used for anything else ever again, I imagine).

Had a fireplace in my last place - would never live in a place with one again. For the few times a year that you'd use it (when it makes your house stink of smoke), the rest of the time it makes your house colder.

Also, a fire in a fire place is an an extremely ineffective way of heating the house (most of the air used for the fire is cold air drawn down the chimney, making the room colder), and is associated with higher risks of various forms of cancer.

So yes, happy enough with my thermostat, anyway.

Pkiernan · 09-07-2019 9:52am

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

Sooner it stops the better.

cgcsb · 09-07-2019 9:55am

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 · 09-07-2019 9:57am

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 · 09-07-2019 10:01am

_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 · 09-07-2019 10:14am

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 · 09-07-2019 10:29am

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.

09-07-2019 10:31am

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 · 09-07-2019 10:33am

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 · 09-07-2019 10:38am

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...

rn · 09-07-2019 10:45am

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 · 09-07-2019 10:46am

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 · 09-07-2019 10:50am

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 · 09-07-2019 10:52am

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 · 09-07-2019 12:42pm

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 · 09-07-2019 12:47pm

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 · 09-07-2019 12:57pm

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 · 09-07-2019 2:28pm

i burn turf and eat giant panda for dinner

golfball37 · 09-07-2019 2:30pm

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 · 09-07-2019 3:30pm

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 · 09-07-2019 3:42pm

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 · 09-07-2019 3:48pm

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!

09-07-2019 3:52pm

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.

09-07-2019 3:56pm

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 · 09-07-2019 3:59pm

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 · 09-07-2019 4:01pm

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 · 09-07-2019 4:30pm

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 · 09-07-2019 4:45pm

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 · 09-07-2019 4:49pm

Gerry G wrote: »

Add permanent markers to that list

And Glue.

RiderOnTheStorm · 09-07-2019 4:58pm

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.

09-07-2019 6:06pm

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.

glaswegian · 09-07-2019 7:04pm

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?

That all depends on how you define time and labour.My definition,which is shared by a lot of people,is a day on the bog is time well spent,your in the fresh air and getting plenty of exercise,and saving your heat source for the whole winter,if you find cleaning out ashes is hard work then the bog is certainly not the place for you.

Capt'n Midnight · 09-07-2019 8:39pm

cgcsb wrote: »

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

Too late, even the Tesla has a Romance Mode, fireplace app thingy, and it's a car.

Pissartist · 09-07-2019 8:44pm

If the japs stop killing whales I'll stop burning turf.

Capt'n Midnight · 09-07-2019 8:47pm

beauf wrote: »

I will miss it, and coal. Nothing like an open fire. But both were back breaking work and filthy. I remember the smog back in the day. Like Victorian London some days.

Ah the smog, where you couldn't see the fourth street light.

gone forever

bodice ripper · 09-07-2019 9:38pm

It's goddawful that we're still cutting bog. AFAIK bogs are about as rare as rainforest...

EmmetSpiceland · 09-07-2019 9:41pm

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Ah the smog, where you couldn't see the fourth street light.

gone forever

I remember the smog in Dublin in the 80s. Some people even went around wearing those “face masks” you sometimes see Asian people wearing.

The buildings in town got covered in black soot and it had an, incredibly, eerie look. I’m delighted that it hasn’t come back and was shocked to learn that the banned of “smokey” fuel wasn’t extended to the rest of the country.

Obviously, I was aware that some people “down the country” still burned whatever they wanted but I had, at least, expected they’d be liable to get a fine.

It’s pretty shocking, and damning, in this day and age that the burning of non-“smokeless” coal, and other such pollutants, is still perfectly legal.

AMKC · 09-07-2019 10:05pm

Yes I still burn it but not often and certainly not at the moment but maybe once or twice over the winter I will.

09-07-2019 10:16pm

EmmetSpiceland wrote: »

I remember the smog in Dublin in the 80s. Some people even went around wearing those “face masks” you sometimes see Asian people wearing.

The buildings in town got covered in black soot and it had an, incredibly, eerie look. I’m delighted that it hasn’t come back and was shocked to learn that the banned of “smokey” fuel wasn’t extended to the rest of the country.

Obviously, I was aware that some people “down the country” still burned whatever they wanted but I had, at least, expected they’d be liable to get a fine.

It’s pretty shocking, and damning, in this day and age that the burning of non-“smokeless” coal, and other such pollutants, is still perfectly legal.

Always took you for a culchie, Emmet.

I can't say this hasn't strained my admiration for you.

Didn't it ever occur to blame the smog on the cars, and not our God given turf?

Honestly, Emmet. I expected better. Tell us a toilet tale and all shall be forgiven.

09-07-2019 10:40pm

glaswegian wrote: »

That all depends on how you define time and labour.My definition,which is shared by a lot of people,is a day on the bog is time well spent,your in the fresh air and getting plenty of exercise,and saving your heat source for the whole winter,if you find cleaning out ashes is hard work then the bog is certainly not the place for you.

I had to do it for years and figured out turf wasn't for me long ago.
Still enjoyed going for a walk in the bog yesterday.
I do recognise the attraction to people - only cash spent is to contractor.

ToddyDoody · 09-07-2019 11:04pm

My grandparents had a pile of turf in the barn-like shed. You could see into the neighbours elaborately planted back garden by climbing the pile. The Jack Russell got sent to said shed when granny had enough of him, or he wouldn't drink his bovril. They burned it in an old stove which was used for cooking.

It was what it was. I wouldn't get too romantic about it.

Are you still using turf?

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