It's not easy being green ....

[Hazell B]

..... and warm

Now we've gone over to just a log burner to heat the house, I've had to get out my calculator and work out how much wood we need to burn each winter to stay warm. It's shocking reading.

To use the burner to heat a small house takes about 400 YEARS of wood growth each winter - and that's a very conservative estimate.

That's forty, ten year old trees or twenty, twenty year old ones. One four hundred year old tree wouldn't do the job, but as even I don't expect to live long enough to grow one, it doesn't matter :

To be carbon neutral for just my heating, I need approx 160 square yards of land each year, for ten years, just to produce the wood. I also need extra trees to cover the carbon from trips to the land to collect the wood, room to store it a year before it's dry enough to burn, yet more trees planted to cover emissions from cutting tools being made and/or used and fertilizer production.

In short, by my pen and paper calculations, to make a carbon neutral heating system in the UK each house will need a minimum of two acres of woodland, planted a the person's birth and maintained thoughout their life.

I think we're going to need a bigger country if government targets are to be met

[Eki]

Just buy a thicker sweater.

[Dave B]

There's a wood near Brands Hatch which grows quite quickly...

[CarlMetro]

I'm left wondering if she included the paper she used whilst doing the calculations in the calculations :

[Hazell B]

There's a wood near Brands Hatch which grows quite quickly...

Yes, it's warmer darf sarf. And of course the stupid are more easily fooled down there, too

Thanks for pointing that out Carl. I'll have to plant another ruddy rowan, now

[jim mcglinchey]

Ms B, I think you're confusing being green with saving yourself money. OK you might be able to get the wood free, but burning it isnt very green. Were in our house 13 years and this year for the first time, Ive lit a log fire because oil is so bloody dear.

[Hazell B]

Burning is carbon neutral. No other normal heating is. Can't get much greener

The tree's growth and it's death each take in/give off exactly the same chemicals (well, important ones like carbon anyway) and burning in a tree's early years allows faster turnover of carbon (they grow slower as they age).

Oil, coal, etc took more wood to make than they appear, so to heat with them uses far more years of growth, plus they've already given off the majority their carbon as they decay and alter. At least, that's what I'm told, but I'm no oil and coal-ologist :

And the nasty part is it isn't saving me money at all. Farm land isn't exactly free you know. I hear they stopped making it some time back :

[bowler]

and I thought this was about Kermit the Frog's song

"it's not easy being green"

which makes more sense than carbon credits.........

[cosmicpanda]

Burning is carbon neutral. No other normal heating is. Can't get much greener

well, there's the sun.

[Daniel]

Burning is carbon neutral. No other normal heating is. Can't get much greener

The tree's growth and it's death each take in/give off exactly the same chemicals (well, important ones like carbon anyway) and burning in a tree's early years allows faster turnover of carbon (they grow slower as they age).

Oil, coal, etc took more wood to make than they appear, so to heat with them uses far more years of growth, plus they've already given off the majority their carbon as they decay and alter. At least, that's what I'm told, but I'm no oil and coal-ologist :

And the nasty part is it isn't saving me money at all. Farm land isn't exactly free you know. I hear they stopped making it some time back :

I don't get how burning is carbon neutral

Ok there you've got carbon just standing around in tree form so you cut it down and burn it up and release the carbon that was in the form of a tree. Net result + carbon to the atmosphere. Now if you've planted the tree yourself and then cut it down it is but to say it's carbon neutral is a bit misleading because everything is carbon neutral till you burn it

Plus oil, coal and gas if they do give off carbon in the process of being formed do it regardless of whether you use them or not so counting any carbon given off while they're forming is unfair.

BTW is your fire one of the slow combustion ones? They give out a lot less smoke and are a lot more efficient than fast burning ones.

I love this little gem.