What to do with an oil-fired rayburn

[UndercoverElephant]

I have agreed to buy an entire fallen ash tree, already on site.

https://imgur.com/a/XrUHWHN

Not yet sure if I am brave enough to buy a chainsaw and cut it up myself...

[kenneal - lagger]

We got a load of softwood delivered for free before the gales from a builder who wanted rid of it. There is about two and a half years worth although it all needs cutting to length and splitting. It is not the fisrt lot of wood we have had from him either. It saves them the hassle of burning it on site and the cost of land fill tax to dump it. We also get relatively cheap mixed wood, though mainly softwood from a local tree surgeon. There is wood available if you have the contacts.

[kenneal - lagger]

I have agreed to buy an entire fallen ash tree, already on site.

https://imgur.com/a/XrUHWHN

Not yet sure if I am brave enough to buy a chainsaw and cut it up myself...

Using a chain saw isn't difficult but doing a chain saw course is very worth while. Try Mike Peplar as he's just up the road from you in Rye. I think that he can instruct.

A battery electric saw is a good investment for the future which gets over the problems that you can get with 2-stoke engines long term. There are several good ones available, Mike has one I think. You want one with a 450mm bar if you are going to be chopping up reasonable sized trees. You can cut a 750 thick butt with a 450 bar by attacking it from both sides. Sharpening the saw is an essential skill especially with an electric saw as a blunt blade will reduce the battery life in terms of the amount of wood cut per charge considerably.

[UndercoverElephant]

Thermal store, it's a hot water tank but the water in it, stays in it (and the radiators). Like a battery but for heat, maintain it at 70 or 80C.

When you turn the hot tap on, mains pressure cold water flows through a heat exchanger in the tank and comes out at 40, 45 degrees, whatever you set it at. It's efficient, great to have mains pressure hot water that is drinkable with no risk of legionaries etc.

So you think this is better than selling electricity back to the national grid? Surely that is an attractive option if energy prices are going to go sky high? Why use electricity to produce heat when I have plenty of wood?

[kenneal - lagger]

You don't have to chop and stack the electricity.

[UndercoverElephant]

You don't have to chop and stack the electricity.

I guess this is is fine so long as I have an excess of (free) electricity. I am guessing my access to free wood is going to be a lot less restricted than my access to free electricity.

[Catweazle]

Chainsaws are great for use in the field, but the chains need a lot of sharpening and don't last forever. A large circular saw driven from a tractor PTO will last for years and can be bought cheaply from farm auctions. They are dangerous, but safety guards can be fabricated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmeSiB8nUKI&t=5s

[UndercoverElephant]

I would kill myself with one of those. I am also unlikely to own a tractor.

[Catweazle]

I would kill myself with one of those. I am also unlikely to own a tractor.

Electric circular saws are available, fully guarded. Trust me, sharpening chainsaw blades soon gets to be a chore.

A small tractor is incredibly useful, in a world where hip replacements will be a distant memory saving your joints will be a priority. Remember, when people did physical work their hearts were healthier but their joints were worn out.

You don't need to buy a tractor now though, you could spend your money on diesel ( when the price goes down ) so that after the crash when nobody else has fuel you can pick up a tractor for peanuts.

[clv101]

Why use electricity when we have an almost limitless supply of wood, and plenty of time?

Plenty of time? There's never enough time! The wood may be limitless - but it takes significant time and energy to process, space to store, time and energy to move, ash to clear out etc... Electricity is brilliant in comparison. We have effectively unlimited wood, couple large ash have blown down this winter - but we still use relatively little wood due to the time and effort involved.

[eyeswide]

I would recommend a wood burner, with oven and water boiler - passive (gravity, no pump) to a large (400L+) thermal store. Specifically La Nordica, an Italian company have an excellent range putting (banking) the majority of heat to water. Into this same thermal store have immersion heaters driven by solar.

I'd also spend ~£5-8k on an off-grid PV system, dumping all its power into water should basically maintain the thermal store temperature for ~8 months a year. With this also a modest Li battery store. Could hook this up to lighting circuits for example or one circuit around the house - mitigate some power consumption and provide power cut resilience.

Hi Chris,
Thank you for this - I hadn't heard of a thermal store but this definitely sounds like a good idea.
I notice you said an off-grid PV system. Can I ask why off-grid?
Thanks,
Cathy (Mrs UE)

[Tarrel]

Hi UE. Worth investigating if the Rayburn was originally solid-fuel, which was converted to oil (a lot were), in which case it should be possible to convert it back. I don't think an originally built oil one is convertible to solid fuel.

Just a reminder of our setup:
We have a wood-fired Rayburn (technically - although it will actually burn anything!) feeding into a thermal store along with our oil boiler (recently replaced, and much more efficient than the old one). Thermal store feeds the existing microbore CH system via a coil in the store. Hot water is mains fed, heated via a heat exchanger in the store.
The Rayburn is great. We've never quite managed to get it up to the sorts of temperatures to do all the fancy recipes in the Rayburn book, but it does slow-cooked stews, soups and meats beautifully. Dries washing, boils the kettle, warms the kitchen. Oh, and dries mushrooms!
We don't bother to keep it banked up at night. Just let it go out and have the oil boiler give us central heating first thing in the morning, although we could if we put in a few kg of coal.

All the best, Tarrel

[UndercoverElephant]

Hi UE. Worth investigating if the Rayburn was originally solid-fuel, which was converted to oil (a lot were), in which case it should be possible to convert it back. I don't think an originally built oil one is convertible to solid fuel.

Just a reminder of our setup:
We have a wood-fired Rayburn (technically - although it will actually burn anything!) feeding into a thermal store along with our oil boiler (recently replaced, and much more efficient than the old one). Thermal store feeds the existing microbore CH system via a coil in the store. Hot water is mains fed, heated via a heat exchanger in the store.
The Rayburn is great. We've never quite managed to get it up to the sorts of temperatures to do all the fancy recipes in the Rayburn book, but it does slow-cooked stews, soups and meats beautifully. Dries washing, boils the kettle, warms the kitchen. Oh, and dries mushrooms!
We don't bother to keep it banked up at night. Just let it go out and have the oil boiler give us central heating first thing in the morning, although we could if we put in a few kg of coal.

All the best, Tarrel

Hi Tarrel. Nice to hear from you after all this time. Thanks for the reply. This all seems unbelievably complicated to me, but I guess I am just going to have to learn!

[kenneal - lagger]

It's not that complicated UE you just have to get the right coils in the Thermal store connected up to the correct inputs/outputs and it all works beautifully!!

[Tarrel]

Hi UE. Worth investigating if the Rayburn was originally solid-fuel, which was converted to oil (a lot were), in which case it should be possible to convert it back. I don't think an originally built oil one is convertible to solid fuel.

Just a reminder of our setup:
We have a wood-fired Rayburn (technically - although it will actually burn anything!) feeding into a thermal store along with our oil boiler (recently replaced, and much more efficient than the old one). Thermal store feeds the existing microbore CH system via a coil in the store. Hot water is mains fed, heated via a heat exchanger in the store.
The Rayburn is great. We've never quite managed to get it up to the sorts of temperatures to do all the fancy recipes in the Rayburn book, but it does slow-cooked stews, soups and meats beautifully. Dries washing, boils the kettle, warms the kitchen. Oh, and dries mushrooms!
We don't bother to keep it banked up at night. Just let it go out and have the oil boiler give us central heating first thing in the morning, although we could if we put in a few kg of coal.

All the best, Tarrel

Hi Tarrel. Nice to hear from you after all this time. Thanks for the reply. This all seems unbelievably complicated to me, but I guess I am just going to have to learn!

Yes, still around. Just pop in to the forum for a look from time to time. Somehow seems to have got very relevant again!