Yes, over 3 years now and still going strong. Now starting to burn some of the -relatively little – left-overs from building the house which I cut down to size and stacked last spring. The off-cuts from the cladding – rebated Thermowood weatherboard – is particularly good kindling, so it’s just as well that the DWD – the external airtight cladding – does not support flame.
Well, we haven’t had the rain that the northwest – and now the north-east – has been getting but it has been very grey. And, even if mild, this means having to light the log burner to give us hot water. Not necessarily every day because, when it’s mild, the house loses even less heat than it would normally do at this time of year. But no sun, no hot water.
So here is the graph so far. The wood so far has been very good quality (only just started using the lumber mentioned above) so not many barrow loads and relatively short-lived fires – just to generate a little heat and the hot water. It’s a funny old winter so far. Anybody still not believing climate change?
Thanks for the blog, I found it all very interesting. We hope to do a similar project one day (sooner rather than later if at all possible!) I hope you are still enjoying the house.
Good! Yes we are; and even though fuel (especially oil) is a good deal less expensive than it used to be, having negative energy bills remains exceedingly attractive. And seeing/hearing people’s boilers running when the sun gives us, free, all the heat we need (OK, the solar thermal system pump is running!) arouses, well, mixed emotions.