Wood: About 2500 kcal per kg
Pellets: About 4500 kcal per kg
Fuel oil: About 9500 kcal per kg
so always going to be more efficient, the temp in the pot will always be way higher than the top of the combustion chamber itself.
Yes of course, thats whats needed for complete combustion. Controlling the diffusion of that heat into the space is the art, no one would really want a lump of steel at 600+C in their room. My woodburner regularly gets to 350C and thats hot as far as woodburners go.
How many kcals from burning people? Asking for a friend, obviously.
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The Lidl tinned pâté catfood (pretty sure it’s Purina) I used to buy at 1,80-2,00 for 4*300g cans last year and the year before, seems only to have a similar product same qty available at 3,25-3,50. Even that not available in every Lidl. Lidl prices on things vary by branch sometimes.
That’s the results of feet-on-the-ground research acrosd three branches this week.
Although it’s nice to be reminded of the words of the hypocritical, contrarian, Donald Trump admiring Johnny Rotten, if the quote was directed towards the relative value of a pellet powered heating system, the answer is very definitely no.
My original post was to find out whether people have theories about why the price has remained high, and despite the fact that more people are using wood to either run a central heating system or to heat individual rooms, what usually creates a price hike is shortage, of which there’s no evidence.
However, despite the now high prices, wood burning in one form or another is, in my view, still the best way to heat a house. Despite factors such energy used, emission levels, the practices of foresters in various parts of Eastern Europe and so on, wood is the only predictably sustainable form of energy. Our system (Froedel) is generally excellent, easily controllable, economical and efficient. Having done endless research on the merits of various other types of heating, wood was the clear winner (pompe a chaleur came second, but it’s very difficult to retro fit in old houses we were told). Even with the price rises running costs are favourable to every other heating system.
The question was, as I’ve mentioned, why have prices gone up, not should I have gone with wood or not. Many thanks to those who’ve given their views on this particular point.
Because word pellets are a manufactured product, heavily dependent on energy and transport. Both of these costs have risen dramatically over the last year.
In my view, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine bears some responsibility, but other actors have used the war as an excuse for, in effect, profiteering.
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When we bought our six hundred year house, eleven years ago, it had four heat pumps on three different floors. Conversely installing the wood burner on the ground floor was unexpectedly complicated and expensive as we were unable to use the original chimneys.
Agreed, but I still think that the manufacturers will use it as an excuse to keep prices high when/if overheads come down.
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I heard there is a worldwide chip shortage …
Ok here till Friday 
Mini split reversable inverter driven air to air is an easy fit and frees up space where radiators were. Low cost to run.
We have 9 fussy cats that like Whiskas and there has been a worldwide shortage of tinned catfood because of the shortage of aluminium and ingredients.
For months now we struggled to get any cans and had to use sachets, Ouchan, E.leclerc, Super U, Carrefour were all the same and the local shop could not get any of there own brand either, it has started to get better, but you still struggle to get the 8 packs.
We usually keep a 90 tin stock but that is much reduced now.
cats get better six packs when they are made to go find their own food 
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They do , never has a farm been so vermin free, one was even stalking a cow the other day until told to behave itself 
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Totally agree, that’s what we bought, warm in winter, cool in summer with the old cheminee standing by with plenty of wood in the garden, in case of power cuts. As I said before we did consider pellets but, as it would have meant ripping out the old fire we would have been left with no backup. I had no idea that the price of pellets would become an issue though.
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Sanctions are to blame, non?
I like the suggestion in that article to use “marc de café” instead of pellets - though I don’t think I could drink enough coffee to keep a wood burner going! 
Coffee logs aren’t great in our experience and need other fuel around them.
Bitiba (zoo plus appear to be a connected company) have tins. I have used them in the past with no issues. >>
Can dried cow dung be used as fuel in a fire? I only ask because the story went round at school that in Denmark they smoked it in their pipes. 
