Coppicing

[julio]

Hello,

I am carrying out a study on sustainable housing, and I am looking into a project hat uses an area of coppiced woodland to provide all the space heating and hot water for a two bedroom cottage in Wales. I was wondering if anyone knew how much woodland would be required for there to be an effective and sustainable amount of coppiced wood for the dwelling to use. My email is [email protected] I would really appreciate a quick response. Thank you

Best wishes

[tracy]

Hi Julio

We should be able to tell you in a year when we have heated our own home!

I think you would need to know the tree types, stove efficiency and the insulation on the home to begin to find out....

[jillybean]

Tracys right. a well insulated house with solar gain, thermal mass and a good modern boiler system can run on a quarter of an acre of coppiced chestnut per year, but it depends on Many factors, Insulation being the most important one, I believe.

[Darren]

Not to mention of cold winter is. I would say at least 6 acres. Depends on species of tree, soil conditions and which way our woodland faces i.e south grows faster than a north face. Lots of variables I'm afraid.........

[woodbodger]

Bearing in mind the previous I would hazard a guess at 4 acres of semi mature woodland where that is on the less favored land ie not suitable for horticulture. I think this is a conservative estimate since we have a five bedroom house that we heated with wood all last year and 42 acres of wood from which I thinned from less than a tenth, Given good ongoing management I am confident that this figure would be halved, so 2 acres when set up and running for twenty years!

[splodger]

it would certainly make a difference what wood was been used / coppiced and at what state the copse is in - and whether you have a full felling licence or was just using your right to fell the maximum number of tree(s) per year (for personal / fuel use only)

we only have just over 5 acres of chestnut copse - although there are other species growing here and there - and it is mature - so there is no danger of running out of timber (well not in my lifetime)

i don't know if others do this - but we tend to keep dead wood standing (assuming that it is not in a dangerous state) and this can be cut without permission at any time - and is an instance source of perfectly dry wood - ready for burning immediately

as others have said - the build specs re insulation etc are key as are the burners /kilns / ovens used etc etc

[julio]

Thank you all very much for your replies and inputs. They are all very useful. Of course the level of construction is hugely important when looking at the amount of coppiced land that will be required. I am just doing an initial study into the subject and your words and advise have been very useful. Many thanks..

Julian

[DaveTaz]

Our 4 bed semi in cheshire has a wood fuelled rayburn for all hot water, heating and cooking. The house is insulated to modern building regs standards and is double glazed through out. I reckon we go through about 10 cubic metres of wood fuel per year. Our fuel comes from felling 50yr old beech and pine. Don't know how many acres of coppice you would need to produce 10 cube of fuel though.

With regards felling licence, in any calender quarter (JFM, AMJ, JAS, OND), you can fell up to 5 cubic metres without a licence if no more than 2 are sold on. You can also (with out licence) carry out

any coppicing under 15cm diameter @ 1.3m above ground level

any thinnings under 10cm diameter @1.3m above ground level

any felling under 8cm diameter @ 1.3m above ground level