Dylan asked (in another topic):
Good questions indeed. As a resident of a small country*, the first thing that needs to be understood is that over here, few have the luxury of land, and as a result most people don't have ready access to woodland to cut their own firewood. With acreage hitting between £200K to £1m/acre, depending on location, and rarely dropping below £100k/acre ($200K US), it's quite an expensive country in which to live.
Most homes are, by international standards, both old and poorly insulated. A greedy government has levied tax on domestic fuels - most notably petrol, which is currently sitting at approximately £4.25 per gallon ($8.50US). The vast majority of that cost is tax. This means that, in the UK, we not only get hit by fluctuations in the wholesale cost of fuel in general, we are also 'supertaxed' in proportion**.
What this means is that we have the unfortunate situation of expensive, low efficiency housing stock combined with high fuel prices. The option to build our own energy efficient homes is stifled by the high cost, and low availability, of land. Not to mention very restrictive planning rules which seem to actively discourage the building of more homes (fuelling a housing shortage too).
Taking all of this into account, most people are still sticking with domestic gas, which is available to the majority of homes in the UK. Prices have risen over 100% in the past two years overall, and the 'cheaper' alternative is now more expensive than ever. All of this despite a negative cost of gas due to a sudden glut in supply. Typical, eh?
For my own part, with a moderate sized, Victorian end-terraced house, built in 1900, I have a modern condensing gas combination boiler, supplying radiators in every room. At the moment this is regulated by a programmer (no thermostat) but that will change next week as I have just ordered one. Due to the typical design of the UK home being compartmentalised, it's not always feasible to heat the entire home using a single heat source - at least, without ducting or piping. So, my Morso stove only really heats the compartment in which it is located. I am therefore considering a second stove or inset in our main living room to supplement this, providing at least wood heating throughout the entire ground-floor area.
Where solid fuel is concerned, though, most people in the UK remain using house coal. Though it is often sold in smokeless form as required by clean air legislation. It is possible still to have coal delivered in bulk throughout most of the UK, with reasonably low charges. The same is not true of wood fuel, whose supply tends to be localised and delivery on a smaller scale and therefore expensive. As far as I am aware, pellets are not common as a fuel source here.
My own combination of gas central heating and supplemental wood-fired room heating is the best I can currently do. Sure, there are moves afoot to improve the UK housing stock by means of grants for insulation and so on, not to mention quite strict efficiency requirements for new build properties, but by and large the problem in the UK is the sheer number of older properties such as my own. These are often stone built (as mine is) and often quite drafty.
In terms of wood supplier - I have used a local estate who delivered a ton of hardwood splits back in September. I will try a local farm for next year, and I also scavenge using my own bow saw from a local woodland, but this is slow and hard work, and so I can see myself purchasing the majority of my wood for some time to come.
Hope this is sort of what you were after,
John
* for the purposes of this topic, I refer to 'country' as meaning Scotland, but in fairness, the same applies UK-wide - in fact, land prices are often considerably higher in some parts of England, say, and could top £2M/acre in the south east.
** Which is one reason why we look to the US with envy over your fuel prices.
Good questions indeed. As a resident of a small country*, the first thing that needs to be understood is that over here, few have the luxury of land, and as a result most people don't have ready access to woodland to cut their own firewood. With acreage hitting between £200K to £1m/acre, depending on location, and rarely dropping below £100k/acre ($200K US), it's quite an expensive country in which to live.
Most homes are, by international standards, both old and poorly insulated. A greedy government has levied tax on domestic fuels - most notably petrol, which is currently sitting at approximately £4.25 per gallon ($8.50US). The vast majority of that cost is tax. This means that, in the UK, we not only get hit by fluctuations in the wholesale cost of fuel in general, we are also 'supertaxed' in proportion**.
What this means is that we have the unfortunate situation of expensive, low efficiency housing stock combined with high fuel prices. The option to build our own energy efficient homes is stifled by the high cost, and low availability, of land. Not to mention very restrictive planning rules which seem to actively discourage the building of more homes (fuelling a housing shortage too).
Taking all of this into account, most people are still sticking with domestic gas, which is available to the majority of homes in the UK. Prices have risen over 100% in the past two years overall, and the 'cheaper' alternative is now more expensive than ever. All of this despite a negative cost of gas due to a sudden glut in supply. Typical, eh?
For my own part, with a moderate sized, Victorian end-terraced house, built in 1900, I have a modern condensing gas combination boiler, supplying radiators in every room. At the moment this is regulated by a programmer (no thermostat) but that will change next week as I have just ordered one. Due to the typical design of the UK home being compartmentalised, it's not always feasible to heat the entire home using a single heat source - at least, without ducting or piping. So, my Morso stove only really heats the compartment in which it is located. I am therefore considering a second stove or inset in our main living room to supplement this, providing at least wood heating throughout the entire ground-floor area.
Where solid fuel is concerned, though, most people in the UK remain using house coal. Though it is often sold in smokeless form as required by clean air legislation. It is possible still to have coal delivered in bulk throughout most of the UK, with reasonably low charges. The same is not true of wood fuel, whose supply tends to be localised and delivery on a smaller scale and therefore expensive. As far as I am aware, pellets are not common as a fuel source here.
My own combination of gas central heating and supplemental wood-fired room heating is the best I can currently do. Sure, there are moves afoot to improve the UK housing stock by means of grants for insulation and so on, not to mention quite strict efficiency requirements for new build properties, but by and large the problem in the UK is the sheer number of older properties such as my own. These are often stone built (as mine is) and often quite drafty.
In terms of wood supplier - I have used a local estate who delivered a ton of hardwood splits back in September. I will try a local farm for next year, and I also scavenge using my own bow saw from a local woodland, but this is slow and hard work, and so I can see myself purchasing the majority of my wood for some time to come.
Hope this is sort of what you were after,
John
* for the purposes of this topic, I refer to 'country' as meaning Scotland, but in fairness, the same applies UK-wide - in fact, land prices are often considerably higher in some parts of England, say, and could top £2M/acre in the south east.
** Which is one reason why we look to the US with envy over your fuel prices.
