Chat about Novel Coronavirus - 2019-nCoV - COVID-19

Wood burner (that also heats hot water) and a newspaper brick press thing. He and his wife collect 30-40 free papers each day on their commute to/from London. Wet and press them into bricks and store them to dry and then be burned.

Saves them ~£500 a year on fuel bills they claim.

Put the bill in their name.

Interesting! Gotta look up that press

Isn't newspaper paper + the paint quite toxic when you burn it though? Or will a modern efficient wood burner take care of that?

Let's say the extra hassle takes them 20 minutes per work day - about 30 seconds per paper for collection and brickification - so conservatively 50 hours/year. That's saving £10/hr of effort, which is okay. Then add the cost of storing the bricks, the potentially carcinogenic fumes, the additional local PM2.5/10 source, the depriving of commuters of reading material, the manhours and expense incurred in the additional newspaper production/transport (passed on to commuters?), the weird looks you'll get, and it doesn't really seem like a good idea overall

I bet they still pay the gas standing charge too which is a sunk cost and half the monthly bill in my case

Yeah but then your friends, friends, friend won't mention you on a cycling forum.

Or will a modern efficient wood burner take care of that?

Isn’t wood/coal burner going to get banned in half a decades time?

After a really bad night’s sleep during which I had to get up and drink two pints of water to sate a raging thirst, I have a temperature, aches and a dry cough.

I am staying at home and have rearranged meetings to video calls.

No reason to suspect Covid 19 but don’t want to cause concern.

Should I take paracetamol, drink fluids and rest or call 111?

Should I take paracetamol, drink fluids and rest or call 111?

all of the above, but maybe hold off calling 111 as it doesn't appear they can offer much in the way of treatment

NHS guidelines

Treatment for coronavirus

There is currently no specific treatment for coronavirus. You will die

Antibiotics do not help, as they do not work against viruses.

Treatment aims to relieve the symptoms while your body fights the illness. Develop an opiate habit

You'll need to stay in isolation away from other people until you've recovered. Netflix/pornhub4dayz

#prayforclive

Nope, you can still have a burner, and burn whatever - if you can get it. According to the Sun (sorry... but their article popped up first, and I'm copying it here so you don't have to go there):

• Sales of all bagged traditional house coal (through retailers, supermarkets and DIY stores) will be phased out by February 2021

• Loose coal sold direct to customers via approved coal merchants will end by February 2023

• Sales of wet wood in units of under two cubic metres (such as at DIY stores and garden centres) will be restricted from sale from February 2021

• Wet wood sold in larger volumes will need to be sold with advice on how to dry it before burning from this date

• Manufacturers of solid fuels will also need to show their products have a very low sulphur content and only emit a small amount of smoke

• These regulations will apply in England only

their commute to/from London.

£££.

Heh, I don't really care but I think the total amount of time spent over analysing things on a cycling forum needs to be considered too.

From memory (these came up before where I've mentioned it elsewhere), it's a decent woodburner designed for the purpose, supposedly no different to burning logs, they don't have gas so there's no standing charge (house heating is all electric), time is nowhere near 30 seconds per paper and it's dead time at the end of a commute (just walking through the train collecting discarded papers that the train cleaners would be gathering for recycling anyway), they don't give a fuck how they look when they get to heat their house for free, they also live outside London so storage is effectively free.

If I see the friend of a friend again I'll pass on your concerns.

Basically restricted rather than banned, which is good news, I like a good wood burner but very concern about how bad it is for the environment.

(Thanks for quoting the article).

Yeah exactly. To be honest, my personal reasoning on this would go something like this: in principle, heating with a wood burner is CO2-neutral(ish), so that part is good. It is however polluting, so the impact of that would depend on where I live. If I'm in a city, that's where it'll compound the overall problem with particulates in the air. If I'm somewhere out there in the low-density countryside, it'll most likely disperse well, partially get filtered by trees, and be fine overall - apart from the direct impact on you yourself, as you sit in front of the wood fire.

Just working through the implications for the average person out of interest, not criticising your friend of a friend. Sorry if it came across too severe.

If you use a wood burner (rather than an open fire) the fumes go straight up the chimney.

We are surrounded by woodland that we manage in a sustainable fashion, so I don't feel any great qualms about burning well seasoned wood - ours is all air dried for 2 years or more.

they don't have gas so there's no standing charge

Pffft bet their kitchen didn't even cost £30k. Cheapskates!

Just remember to turn off strava auto sync. A small thing but you don't want your colleagues knowing you're actually out cycling.

Yeah that sounds fine, better than using fossil fuels for heating in that case.

Don’t forget to paint a big Red Cross on your door so the wagons know where to visitz

Sure, it's not sustainable if everyone does it, but only a few people do so that line of reasoning is pointless.

(This is a great thread derail though...)

Sure, it's not sustainable if everyone does it, but only a few people do so that line of reasoning is pointless.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

Heal up, Clive!

That doesn't apply here at all though.

It applies entirely to the text I quoted.