Many in the Druid community use open fires or woodburning stoves, either in their homes or in other places where they live or spend time - boats, yurts, converted vans and so on. So what is the best fuel to burn?
If you have convictions or ideas, please let us know.
Burning wood
We have a lovely wood burning stove which heats the whole house if we keep the internal doors open. It has an internal 'smoke control unit' which means that it burns incredibly efficiently and has very little in the way of nasty emissions, so it is licenced for use in smokeless zones. We get our wood from local tree surgeons, so it is never felled for fuel, but it comes from trees that were going to be felled anyway and is, if you like, a waste product. We get it as cord wood (very large pieces) rather than logs and do all the sawing and splitting ourselves, which is hard work, but incredibly satisfying. Burning wood is almost carbon neutral as the CO2 which is released when you burn wood is the CO2 that the tree absorbed and photosynthesised during its life.
The Log Maker
http://www.logmaker.org.uk
This is a plastic tube within a tube that allows you to create logs for burning made of normal household burnable waste, such as junk mail, paper shreddings, sawdust, olive pits, nut shells, used coffee grounds, cardboard food packaging, and so on. Put some herbs or magical bits and pieces in to create a sacred or nice smelling log! The kit costs around £30. Is it any good? Tell us ..
(Star) I have found the Log Maker extremely useful and easy to use. I make up logs as and when leaflets and papers drop through my door, resulting in reasonably slow-burning compact paper logs which can be used for hearth fires or chimineas. I bought mine through http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk.
Here are some instructions sent in by Star :
- Basically you wrap a newspaper round the outside of the tube overlapping the end, then tuck the overlapped paper inside the tube end.
- Stand tube upright on a firm flat surface, the tucked-in-end resting on the surface, and compress the tucked in paper with the plunger.
- Remove plunger from inner tube and insert a small amount of paper, replace plunger and compress (works best if you screw up paper).
- Repeat insertion of waste paper, compressing until it is at the full level mark on tube.
- Then slowly push the plunger to eject casing and contents.
- Grip open lose end of log and whilst cupping other end twist and compress the loose end to seal log. Your log is now ready to burn on your fire.
- Once you're used to the process, it takes about 2 minutes to make a log. I use my paper logs to help get my fire going.
Log Maker from Newspapers
http://www.naturalcollection.com/natural-products/Make-Logs-not-Waste.asp
This log brick is made out of newspapers. You soak the paper, squash it into the mould, leave out to dry. One newspaper makes one brick, which burns for about an hour. It costs around £35. Any good? Tell us ...
