permaculture

[Graham <grahamburnett@blueyonder.co.uk>]

We have just installed a wood fuled Rayburn to do our hot water, central 
heating and cooking into our very urban situated Victorian terraced 
house. Previously we'd had to heat our house in winter using 2 gas fires 
plus some small portable electric heaters, which was fossil fuel based, 
very unsustainable and inefficient. Also we used a gas cooker to do our 
cooking before. The wood we are using to fuel the rayburn is all 
properly seasoned logs cut from local woodlands that for centuries have 
been coppice managed, combined with scrap timber scaveneged from around 
the town from skips (or 'dumpsters' as I believe our US cousins call 
them...), pallets, etc, etc, that otherwise would go for landfill or 
just clutter up the streets making them look unsightly...

Some of the trees in these woodlands are centuries old, having been cut 
on a regular coppice cycle they do not die when cut down, but are 
permanently renewed every 10 to 15 years, depending on the frequency of 
the cutting. If they weren't managed in this way the trees would have 
reached the end of their 'natural' lives proababy after 100 to 200 years 
depending on the species. Some of them are doing so now that coppicing 
as a woodland management techniques has been abandonded since the advent 
of 'cheap' coal fired electricty, gas and nuclear power. So by using 
sustainably harvested wood to fuel my home and provide my cooking needs 
I'm actually actively contributing to the longevity of the woodland and 
individual trees within it.

I'm also helping to maintain the biodiversity of that woodland by 
promoting coppicing, which periodically opens up the woodland floor, 
letting in light so that ground species can flourish in the niche this 
creates. There is a species of butterfly specific to this woodland that 
was thought to have become extinct when the coppicing regime was 
abandoned in this woodland for some 50 years or so following the decline 
of wood as a major fuel in the UK. When the coppicing was re-instated 
recently for 'conservation' reasons (tragically, such coppicing 
practices are still uneconomic as there is still not much demand for the 
timber, so most of it gets chipped for municpal mulch) this butterfly 
re-appeared again after some 4 decades of having thought to have been 
lost forever.

I'm also helping to provide a livlihood for a local person who cuts and 
supplies the wood and delivers it to me. I don't own a vehicle other 
than a bicycle and small trailer, so wouldn't be able to transport it 
myself.

Also, I see my wood pile by my kitchen door diminishing as I use it, 
which makes me think more carefully about how and when I use it. I'll 
put a jumper on before firing up the Rayburn to heat the house. With 
fossil fuels the supplies are invisible, I just flick the switch and the 
power and heat is there on demand, thus I take it for granted and don't 
think too much about how much is getting used...

Our next steps, proabably in the spring, will be to install solar water 
heating panels, and then make the house much more energy efficient by 
putting in double glazing, draft proofing, etc. proabably doing things 
in not quite the right order, but its a question of what and when we can 
afford to get stuff done... It also feels nice coming off of the 
National Grid as far as cooking and heating are concerned...

Cheers Graham



Andrew French wrote:
> Honestly, it seems that urban folks can be overprotective about the
> harvesting of small plots of trees. It's like in the movie, I Heart
> Huckabees, where the main character is protecting that rock at the beginning
> of the movie? Funny. I am urban but spend a lot of time in the rural areas.
> There are a lot of trees that come down in storms, or underbrush that can be
> cleared in a few acres of land. Every habitat is sacred, but so is human
> habitat. I think that once you have  designed your Zone 0 to use passive
> technologies, like mass and solar water, then wood is the next best energy
> equation.
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--
Graham Burnett

Integrated Design for Local Environmental Resources

www.spiralseed.co.uk

www.grahamburnett.net