It's funny what pops up in your Facebook Memories. The other day this photo appeared and the one below, it made me go back and read the blog post that they were originally on.
It's HERE if you're interested.
I read a few of the other posts around it, and I had to laugh because only a couple of days earlier I had been saying how good I was getting at chopping wood with an axe!!
A post all about logs and kindling ... which seems very apt at the moment as we hope to be able to have a log burner in our new bungalow. Although we won't have a barn to store all the logs and kindling in, so we will have to be a lot neater.
We are going to be all electric with solar panels, so with the rise of power cuts over the last few years we think it might be a bit prudent to have an alternative heat source as well ... and of course a log burner is lovely to sit in front of and to look at on a cold Winter's night.
I might not be writing so romantically about it once I have to actually chop wood, or even just keep getting up and down to put another log on the fire. 😄
Sue xx
As soon as I went outside this morning I could smell our neighbours log burner in the frozen air. I think you are wise to have another source of heat and it will be so pleasant to sit and read beside it. Catriona
ReplyDeleteThere's something very lovely about the smell of wood smoke in Winter isn't there. 😀
DeleteOur log burner (actually multi-fuel) warms our house beautifully. The dogs collect branches in the woods!
ReplyDeleteWell that settles it then ... we also need to get a dog. 😄
DeleteI love making plans...
ReplyDeleteDo does Alan!!
DeleteI'm in the been there done that, thankfully won't ever have to again. Living in a village the pollution from people burning stuff is awful. It's hard to imagine that we still allow it when they know how much health damage is caused by the particulates.
ReplyDeleteWe are lucky enough to be on mains gas, but even if we weren't I wouldn't be burning anything.
There is are new sodium batteries available now which you can charge up from solar, or overnight on a cheap tariff. That would be my route.
We're lucky enough to have solar - 12 panels and a 13.5 kw battery. Although we have gas central heating everything else is electric - including our shower and cooker. In the 3 years since we have had the system roughly a third of our electric has come from the grid. The rest is directly from the panels or the battery. We aren't in the best position - halfway down the valley - but we have consistently generated 4MWh per year and look like we will get to 4.5 this year.
If we were looking at a system now I'd be looking at having the stackable sodium batteries that you can add to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1h5U8OADdI
We used to have 45 solar panels and a battery backup system at our Welsh house, along with a log burner, so we have a good idea of what we want. Obviously a lot fewer panels for a two bed bungalow in a small town. 😄
DeleteWe don't want any gas.
You will notice a huge improvement in the panels and the associated technology. Plus, all the energy companies being more creative with their tariffs. When our gas boiler needs replacing we will go all electric. There are some encouraging developments on battery storage boilers that link with solar.
DeleteThat sounds good. It's amazing how things move on even in just a few years isn't it. 😀
DeleteOur eldest son installed solar panels on his roof this fall and he has a fireplace in his basement that keeps that area extremely comfortable.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
That sounds very well thought out. 😀
DeleteThat's a wise move to have solar panels installed. X
ReplyDeleteI think it's sensible, and future proofing our final years a bit Gosh, that sounded a bit gloomy. 😄🤣
DeleteI had to burn logs on an open fire when I was first divorced as I couldn't afford to have the heating on for long, my sons collected and chopped the wood, it was ok but our clothes smelt of wood smoke!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was with my first husband I remember burning anything I could find late one night, in a bid to stay up a bit later to watch the end of a film. I had managed to keep the fire reasonable until the boys were in bed, and I had one shovel full of coal and a few logs for morning, so I couldn't use them. Husband was at the pub, so once I had used anything made of wood, I burnt one of his trainers .. they burn well. 😄
DeleteExciting plans there! I don't envy all the building work to come though. I don't think we could cope with it now. I'll just enjoy all your posts to come instead!
ReplyDeleteAngie
I'm not looking forward to it, but Alan loves all the planning, and this time he will be there for the project management instead of leaving it to me. 😀
DeleteAlways good to have another way to get warm and woodburners are just so cosy aren't they? I'm sure I'll have mentioned before, but I've often heated water and even cooked a meal on the top of a woodburner when the need arose!
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
Yes, that's our plan. We always had a kettle of water on top of both the Aga and the wood burner when we lived in Wales, and during any power cuts we would add pans too. Potatoes well wrapped in foil cook wonderfully inside a wood burner too. :-)
DeleteI have gas heating, but, there is an unused fire place in the living room. I've never used it because I'm afraid of setting fire to the house! The chimney probably needs to be repaired before I could use it, but, it would be good to get it checked. I do keep a bundle of firewood in the garage as part of my emergency provisions, just in case I need to make a cooking fire if there is no electricity or natural gas.
ReplyDeleteWe've not had an open fire since the days these photos were taken. So much of the heat just vanishes up the chimney, so we changed to log burners once we moved house. It's always sensible to have a back up though isn't it. 😀
DeleteI absolutely love our wood burner. Charnwood, great British Brand.
ReplyDeleteI've heard of them, I'm doing some research today so I'll take a look. 🙂 Our last one was an Aga wood burner, but it far too big for what we need now.
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