Britain's Aggressive Stance Towards Wood Heatings Demise

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51581817

Seems RMH could be England's savior, any thoughts?

This is easy Mike:   Rocket mass heaters can save the world!   If only we can educate enough folks about them.
Sound's like England is only banning  wet wood sales and coal.  I completely agree about wet wood but good anthracite coal in a hot stove burns nice and clean.  It's the soft cheap coal that burns dirty.
No matter, they are not trying to ban wood burning just clean things up.  
We just need to get more folks across the pond to become rocket scientist's!  That is how you spread the good word!

Not long joined this site, lots of interesting stuff here fer sure!.
Here in the UK, I am not sure if anyone has got into Rocket Stoves. Most seem to be a simple metal pot with a pipe out of the top. Am going to look at Rocket Stoves, sure to have some scrap about the place that i can have a play with. Any suggestions where to get a set of plans from to build one?

mervyn Weaver wrote:Not long joined this site, lots of interesting stuff here fer sure!.
Here in the UK, I am not sure if anyone has got into Rocket Stoves. Most seem to be a simple metal pot with a pipe out of the top. Am going to look at Rocket Stoves, sure to have some scrap about the place that i can have a play with. Any suggestions where to get a set of plans from to build one?

Rocket stove plans are everywhere.  Youtube has a million videos on them.  Rocket mass heaters are not the same thing and are quite a bit harder to build.  That is not to say you can't build one.  Most any able-bodied person that can read and follow instructions well can build one I think, but you can build a rocket stove in about 5 minutes with a small pile of bricks.

Here is a video of a rocket stove you can build for a few bucks:

Hi Mervyn;  Welcome to Permies!

What you will want to look at are rocket mass heaters.  A rocket stove is an integral part of one, but can be built as stand alone stoves with little to no mass.  
Boy scouts and ice fisherman use rocket stoves quite often.

In your case I would think that an all brick bell with a batchbox build style would be a good fit.
As far as plans to build them.  
You can outright purchase specific plans for a J tube style from Ernie and Erica Wisner or you can buy their book "The Rocket mass heater builders guide" , readily available from them or amazon.
Here is a link to their Permies marketplace site )  https://permies.com/f/316/ernie-erica-wisner

Here is a link (rather long but worth it) to a build in England.    https://permies.com/t/43809/Masonry-stove-diy-build-feasible  
Here is a link to the formost batch building site ) http://batchrocket.eu/en/
Lots of red brick available over there and existing chimneys... You could have one as well.

You can also just start by reading posts in the rmh forum.
Enough information in there that a fellow can build his own rmh without specific plans.
Buying the builders guide though, is highly recommended ! It will be money well spent!

Anthracite will not be banned, but there is only a couple of mines in Wales that produce it. We used to buy all of our wood wet.. but we didn't burn it wet, basically they want to make electric the ONLY fuel you can use in the UK, no gas no oil and most certainly nothing like wood or coal.

There are quite a few rocket stoves in operation in the U.K.
I know of four in my area alone and I have seem many featured on Facebook .
Perhaps the best know U.K. builder - developer is “Potty”on YouTube
On a U.K. pizza oven forum there are several builders too.
So yes rockets stoves are being built and used in the U.K. however it is not legal to have one in your house as there are no specified regulations to abide too.
Insurance company don’t have guid lines either.
I know of one man where I live who wanted to instal rocket stove but was told by building control that it would not be passed as safe until he had guideline specifications and he could not see that happening in the near future!

Current plans re wood are just to stop people buying small bags of wet wood, anything over 2m3 is still fine. The idea I think is to stop people burning wet wood, it doesn't stop people stocking their wood store.

It's a bit of a token gesture IMO as there is nothing to regulate what actually goes on your own fire.

on the subject of wet wood, it makes a little bit crazy when I see people with stacked split wood locally with a for sale sign on it and when you call them about they say"oh yeah its dry good seasoned oak and hickory", sure it was probably cut and split a year ago but here where it rains every couple days in the fall and winter the wood is wet and won't burn well or in my stove at all until it is properly dried. they don't even bother to put a cover of some sort over it to keep it dry. put it in a stove full of red hot embers and it just sizzles like a slab of bacon on the grill.
ok now that I got that off my chest, sure I can agree with not trying to burn wet wood and coal.

It takes 15 years to grow a pine (the  fastest burning wood) to cutting stage.
You can expect aproximately 10-12 cords of a 15 ft tree.

How many cords of wood do you need to heat your living winter area for one week.

Oak trees burn longer than pine.
And take about 20 years to cutting stage and you can expect to get approximately 17- 25 cords of a 17 ft oak tree.

Again, how many cords of oak do you need to heat your living winter area for one week.

Then consider your topical view or number of trees you already have that may be anywhere from 25-100 years old.

Guaranteed. You may not cut down trees indiscriminately.

There are more aspects to consider.
Stump removal so you can plant new. (Who wants a field of stumps?)
Land erosion.
And loss of the rain forest effect that enhances better weather.

Undergrowth for small animals to burrow down and food for the carnivorous wild animals in the forests and vegetation if the trees are not too close together (wild berries, wild herbs, etc.).

The amount of wood that I get per tree appears to be different than what you get.

Trace Oswald wrote:

mervyn Weaver wrote:Not long joined this site, lots of interesting stuff here fer sure!.
Here in the UK, I am not sure if anyone has got into Rocket Stoves. Most seem to be a simple metal pot with a pipe out of the top. Am going to look at Rocket Stoves, sure to have some scrap about the place that i can have a play with. Any suggestions where to get a set of plans from to build one?

Rocket stove plans are everywhere.  Youtube has a million videos on them.  Rocket mass heaters are not the same thing and are quite a bit harder to build.  That is not to say you can't build one.  Most any able-bodied person that can read and follow instructions well can build one I think, but you can build a rocket stove in about 5 minutes with a small pile of bricks.

Here is a video of a rocket stove you can build for a few bucks:

Rocket stoves made of concrete are a really bad idea.
moisture within the concrete can turn to steam and make the concrete actually explode. (see explosive spalling)

They will work fine until they don't, so it's a lot like playing Russian Roulette.
https://youtu.be/NxJPX0lssIQ

For the most part, trees grow slow.
And sorry to the young lady suggesting she gets multiple cords from one tree, maybe if it was a thousand year old redwood.
Here is a site that talks of tree to cord measurement:
https://www.hunker.com/13425335/what-size-is-a-half-cord-of-wood
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From the research I just saw on Google, a pine tree of 25-30 years is harvestable.
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The problem with "fast burning wood" is most wood stove users don't want it. They prefer a denser wood, like oak. Oak trees grow slow in the woods, about the same speed as pines in your backyard. That surprised me, I assumed most oak trees were over a hundred years old.
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But I may be confused on whether you are for burning trees for heat, or against. If you follow Paul Wheaton and his Rocket Mass Heater friends, they're suggested uses of burning wood is usually scrap lawn debris, a cord or two per season.
And Ernie Wisener of the Erica and Ernie RMH duo, is experimenting with rocket mass heaters that burn hot enough to use plastic bottles for fuel, without emissions. It's been awhile since I studied his findings, but that sure seems like a great work.
https://www.ernieanderica.info/
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I don't know if I ever mentioned it here on the permies forums, but I was thinking if a inventive sort might use the same, or similar process that is used in the creation of pressure treated wood, but for making a soft wood like pine, a dense wood like oak. Then make it affordable to homeowners, coupled with the efficiency of Rocket Mass Heaters, you would have a great sustainable product.
https://www.treatedwood.com/learn/how-wood-is-treated

Just a small addition, an idea:
Could wet wood be stored in a plastic bag that you could vacuum the pressure down to a point of creating an intentional drying effect?
What I don't know will fill volumes.
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Well I don't know about vacuuming down a industrial sized sweater bag, but I found a couple great videos. There's even solar wood dehydrator videos on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/-I9DygHrLCo
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https://youtu.be/_WT7d8-xsK8
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https://youtu.be/5l7gVj5xap8

If punters are waiting for somebody else to create guidelines for Rocket Mass Heaters, why not start to create some yourself and work as a team to do so?