[DebF_EONNext]

@retrotecchie every day is a school day when you and @meldrewreborn are around!
@ANN8619 thanks for sharing that link it was interesting to read a bit more about smart thermostats as you say though it would be interesting to hear form someone who actually has one installed.

[retrotecchie]

@DebF_EONNext

I have a smart thermostat but it's 'smart' in the sense of effective rather than 'smart' in the sense of 'WiFi connected'. It measures both indoor and outdoor temperatures and uses the differential temperature to control the boiler.

Bearing in mind I have biomass and oil heating, it reduces my heating costs by around 20% compared to a standard stat. And with my heating costs already about half of what gas would cost and a quarter of what any form of electrical heating would cost, it saves even more money and reduces my carbon bootprint significantly 👍

[DebF_EONNext]

@retrotecchie that sounds like a great set up! I wish we had something like this in our property. We are similarly heated by the baby dragons and in the dark ages we have no boiler (still an immersion heater) here and we have a multi fuel stove that heats up the radiators and the underfloor heating in the kitchen.

The only draw back is that if we run out of wood/coal then we have no heating as they don't come on without the fire 😏 It can also get costly at the moment we pay almost 60p - £1 a kg for coal (depending where we buy it) we are a smokeless area so it also needs to be smokeless coal which is more expensive and of course coal's not so great for the planet but then those logs don't come cheap either!

[retrotecchie]

@DebF_EONNext

Depending on the grade of coal, you get about 6 to 9kWh of energy per kilo from coal so worst case scenario works out at about 15p per kWh and best case is about 7p. Which isn't too shabby and a lot cheaper than electric heating. 7p per kWh is on a par with gas once you figure you are saving on the SC. So yes, it seems expensive if you buy half a tonne in one go, but per kWh it's not outrageous at all. Dirty, polluting and inconvenient maybe, but not a financial disaster by any means.

[DebF_EONNext]

@retrotecchie That's good to know I have never thought to break it into kWh before to compare - I think I would happily pay the same in gas just for the convenience alone of not having to empty the fire on a cold icy morning though 😆

[retrotecchie]

@DebF_EONNext

There is that. For me, de-ashing the wood burner, cleaning the glass and then laying it up ready for the evening is just part of the daily routine and the wood ash is a useful addition to the compost bins. The carbon balances the excess nitrogen from the chicken litter. Wood Ash is very handy around the garden too. But never use coal ash as it contains heavy metals and other toxic nasties.

Coal ash does have two uses which is why I used to keep it at my old place. Coal ash is gritty so in very small quantities it is useful on concrete paths or drives in icy conditions.

Coal ash, if finely sieved to remove lumps can be used to replace up to 30% of Portland Cement when making mortar or concrete. So called 'pozzolanic cement' takes a bit longer to set than regular concrete but is much more durable and significantly more water resistant. Cement manufacture is a very energy intensive process and generates huge amounts of CO2, but the carbon footprint of pozzolanic concrete is half that of regular. You've already had the benefit of the energy by burning the coal, so being able to use the 'arisings' as a lower carbon building material does make it slightly more environmentally friendly. You are also locking up those toxins in the concrete and even in adverse conditions, those toxins don't leach out again. So pozzolanic cement is an environmental win, compared to just dumping the ash. 👍

When I first moved to Wales, we replaced a compacted mud floor in a barn with a four inch layer of concrete. We saved an entire winter's worth of coal ash from the furnace and saved ourselves seventeen bags of Portland Cement by using the ash in the mix. Hardstanding for a tractor, dumper truck, minidigger and all the smaller machinery. No more muddy barn, £100 saving on the cost of the floor and getting the most environmental result possible from coal-burning. Winner winner chicken dinner 😇

[DebF_EONNext]

@retrotecchie That right there is genius I never would have thought about using the coal ash in anything, we do save our wood ash for the compost but never the coal. I might give it a bash - My Grandad has an old concrete outhouse in the garden but the floor is just mud as the slabs were re purposed elsewhere in the garden. It would be a great place to experiment out of sight where no one can see if it goes wrong 😅

[meldrewreborn]

@DebF_EONNext @retrotecchie

My contribution to this debate is that cigarette ash can be used as a fine metal polish - not that i wish to encourage smoking!

[DebF_EONNext]

@meldrewreborn I'm not a smoker and didn't know that was a thing either!

I used to have copper cooking pans and one of the tricks for keeping them polished and shiny was the cheapest tomato sauce you could buy - the acidity in it brought them up a treat - my friend walked in on me one day smothering my pots and pans in tomato sauce and thought I was having a moment 😂 she was shocked when she seen the results though!