Thedreamer

I've heard of many wind turbines which are now being taken down despite the turbines working efficiently, as they are now being replaced with even larger ones, for the simple reason of making more money for investors. A lot of turbine blades still go to the landfill. https://www.vestas.com/en/media/company-news/2023/vestas-unveils-circularity-solution-to-end-landfill-for-c3710818 Depends where you are, if you are in the middle of London, not so good, when you commute for 15 miles and often see no cars on the way to work, it does not matter.

Just glad I built my home when I did! Been heating with just home grown wood since the summer of 2020. I have spent less than a tenner on heating since then. All the wood burned has been grown meters from our door. Every tree removed has been replanted and more, with lots of coppicing. An added benefit is that I have used the by products from this way of life to transform my garden soil (chips, leaves, biochar) this is now rich and being enjoyed by all on my property from woodcutter to worm! A unique situation, but works just fine. Everybody is in good health. I am still unsold on some other forms of renewable energy, (what happens to solar panels when they decrease in efficiency? where do wind turbine blades go likewise?, where do batteries come from, is it sustainable? My supply chain is simple, the technology is simple.

@flanagaj the cladding is batten and then attached to the timber frame kit.

Looks the same as my c4.

I have been heating the house with just a stove, three 1/2 years in now, and, an electricity bill for heating of £10 since June 2020. Just needs the right house design and the right location.

I'm coming to the end of my original fix after moving from the self-build product at the end of 2020. I have a range of choices from my lender but my question is whether when you agree on a new product are you able to make an overpayment between the old product ending and the new one starting? My aim is to be mortgage free as soon as possible after turning 40.

Some folk like me have control over the fuel. I have my wood burner on tonight and if you monitored the air outside any PM would not be to a level that would be classed as causing any damage to your health.

I agree with all of these points and in the vast majority of locations in the UK they would be cause for concern. But my area in the Highlands, it's very remote and PMs in the external air will not cause any negative effects outside. On the CO2 emissions, there were no trees here and now there are many. One spruce tree, after using the trunk for firewood still has a lot of carbon remaining. The branches and small parts can be either chipped or made into biochar both to be incorporated into the soil. New trees are planted or regrown via coppicing. I'm probably adding more carbon into the soil then the majority of UK residents.

In a sparsely populated area, where I have close home-grown wood. Why is a WBS not suitable in this setting for my self-build? I can understand that you feel solar would be a more efficient option, but on the topic of WBS why is this not the right setting?

There are plenty of projects on buildhub where they work well. Like mine. The purpose of this forum is for individual self-builders and renovators to exchange ideas. Most of the time those with wood burners share practical advice on how these can work well in the right setting.

I don't have this one, but an earlier Joule model called an Aero. Just does our hot water and acts as an MEV system. Works well for us, it was significantly cheaper than that price.

This would not work for me as the solar panel energy would not be sufficient in the winter to heat the house when I need it. Those energy storage methods would not keep the heat long enough. I'm not a big fan of batteries as I don't understand the supply chain. With wood, I can store energy more easily. I don't view the trees as a crop. It shame when one comes down or needs to be removed to allow others to thrive. When they do come down every part is utilized, if fire wood is not possible, branches too big to be chipped or made into biochar, smaller sticks, and leaves are made into mulch. No trees existed here or maybe one or two. There are now probably a thousand trees. How is that not carbon stored? When they come down new ones are already a few years old and are planted. ? Combustion can't be recycled but I can plant another and repeat the cycle. I agree, but it's not practical here. I've never seen more than a few panels on a roof. No need, per my comment earlier. I will do this. True it costs a bit for a good quality wood stove. Investing in a good wood stove is worthwhile in terms of efficiency and lifespan. It does not however compare with the cost of installing underfloor heating, plumbing, hot water storage, and panels. Plus I have quite a bit of south-facing glazing on my roof space which provides free solar energy in the summer to heat the house and does enough when I need it.

I can grow a plant from seed for free. I can't grow a solar panel. The installation is nice and easy, you can plant a lot of trees very quickly. I can dig a hole but I can't wire or installed electric/solar panels. I can store energy more easily with a tree. I can't do that with just a solar panel. 100 years seems a long time for harvesting trees. Conifers can grow to a large size in thirty years. We harvested alder trees a few years ago and by coppicing, this could be done again in ten years. Trees capture carbon, solar panels do not. My limited understanding is that solar panels become less efficient over time. How would a thirty-year old panel or in hundred years perform? Where do old panels go, can they be recycled? My energy supply chain is easy to understand with trees. No idea where the panels have come from. Why have a resource come all the way from China or Korea, thousands of miles when I can control the energy I use, meters away from my house? Trees provide a place for wildlife to thrive. If I put down just panels nothing would benefit from this but me. You can buy significantly more land in some areas of the UK than in others. We have at least 100 times the space of an average garden. There are more resources than just firewood from trees, branches, and leaves provides a great resource to the garden. In my location, it is probably more efficient to have a few wind farms which would provide my electricity energy rather than having loads of land for domestic individual solar production. Just to say, I am not anti-solar panels and I would consider them in the future (assuming I can understand where they have come from and how they can be recycled). It was 2 celsius outside when I left the office at 7ish, the house was 18.5 celsius when I came in and I have burned this evening a single round of spruce and probably a single smallest branch from an alder tree. I have heated the house to 22 celsius with this. It's cost me nothing. A big external heat pump would probably have cost me a couple of quid at least to heat the house this evening.

Heating exclusively with wood is working just fine for me. I finished our self-build in 2020. Solar panels are going to be more cost-effective in say Kent compared to my location in the Hebrides. Growing trees for biomass heating is going to be more cost-effective in the Highlands than in Kent. Building regulations should allow flexibility for buildings to be designed to suit the environment in which they are going to be located. Blanket bans are a terrible idea. I burn a small trug of logs in the winter evenings mostly from wind-blown trees or from coppicing. In the summer my south-facing glazing is my heating source. With the rebate of £400 and a further one of £200 expected from being off the grid from gas, I will have free energy for 8 or 9 months.

Is that the Bosch AX25? I picked up that model a couple of months ago for £100 on a local facebook page. I am using it to make various paths in the garden. There is plenty of good resources associated with home cut firewood.