Solid Fuel Stoves

.

Solid Fuel Stoves

What's up

This Winter?

I had a brief check on what is moving in the world of multi-fuel stoves for this coming winter. One new comer is the County Kerry made Firebird brand range of high output inset stoves.

While not in the running to win a stove beauty competition, at least on the outside, Firebird have managed to squeeze up to 81% efficiency and a very impressive output from stoves designed to fit into most fireplace openings. 

The Firebird stoves come in two sizes: 16” and 18” with nominal outputs of 12Kw and 16Kw.

The 18” stove has a rated output to water and radiators of up to 12.1 Kw with up to 3.6 Kw of the heat output going directly by convection into the room.

These are very impressive figures indeed for such modest size stoves. I had a very brief look at construction. The boiler is standard steel construction. What impressed me was the door construction and the baffling. The quality of build looks very high with the use of stainless steel in the door.

These impressive performance figures however do not come without a price tag they are priced at approximately €1,350 and €1,650 respectively.

If your budget can stretch, these Firebird inset stoves are worth looking at. Not cheap, and they will require some fittings and a fair bit of work to install properly.

The Blacksmith Anvil 6Kw free standing stove is still on the go, and a favourite. It has stood the test of time. I have owned a Blacksmith Anvil for 3 years and it is as good as the day I bought it. It can pump out the heat effortlessly.

Three years ago I paid €400 for it, today it is just a little more expensive at €455. In the meantime it has had an improved firebox liner fitted which justifies some of the price increase, and since I bought it there has also been a bump up in the VAT further adding to the price.

The Olymberyl Gabriel sold by the same company as Horse Flame offers a quite similar stove to the Blacksmith Anvil at the slight cheaper price of €399. Horse Flame have turned out some nice quality cast stoves.

An inset stove by the same makers rated at 5Kw and nicely cast is the Olymberyl Gabriel Inset costing quite a reasonable €595.

I was looking at these stoves at McElligotts Castleisland Co. Kerry, and the prices I have indicated are as marked in the store on the day I visited - these may have changed in the meantime.

The trend in Ireland is that more and more people are turning to solid fuel stoves as a primary heat source.

.

Ireland Debt Time Bomb

.

Ireland's Debt 

Time-Bomb

The Irish Government is poised to introduce further financial hardship in another coming budget, while at the same time a massive debt time-bomb is ticking. When it goes off it will, no doubt, inflict massive social as well as financial damage.

The time bomb?  Some 20% of mortgages are in serious arrears. Additionally some 20% of personal loans at Credit Unions throughout the country are also in arrears.

I worry for the immediate future.



.

The Graphene Battery Race - is ON

.

The Graphene Race

is

Hotting Up

Monash University in Melbourne have published research on what they describe as a viable graphene super capacitor battery. It has a power holding capability equal to lead-acid batteries. That means size for size, it will hold the same amount of electricity. It will be very much lighter, be able to charge up in minutes, last 10's of years, not go on fire, and cost less to manufacture.

While this super capacitor battery is much less than the storage capacity of lithium-ion based batteries, it represents a really encouraging kick start to development of real-life, as distinct from vapour-ware, viable chemical-based battery replacement.

The MonashDepartment of Materials Engineering say they have developed a completely new approach to making graphene-based super capacitors. The team have created a super capacitor battery with an energy density of 60 Watt-hours per litre, which is about the same as lead-acid batteries.

The team used a graphene gel film sheets and a liquid electrolyte. The graphene gel sheets were made using a method similar to that used in paper making. This makes the process very easy to scale up for industrial production.

The research is funded by the Australian Research Council. Good luck with the development – and good on ya Auz.

.

Electric Cars with Balls

.

New form of Graphene

Developed in Korea

Holds promise for Super-Capacitors

Essentially the research team have found a way of making 3D Buckyballs from two dimensional graphene. The graphene balls can be made more easily and far less expensively than graphene sheets. It can relatively easily be formed into various shaped more easily than trying to deal with graphene sheets.

Above one of the tiny graphene 3D Buckyballs which we hope can be a building block for a range of exciting new materials but especially the development of Super Capacitors.

Super Capacitors, when realised, will fundamentally change the concept of the electric car, They will allow long journeys to be made before re-charging, and recharging with take minutes instead of hours. Also, very importantly, super capacitors will have a lifespan as long or longer than that of the cars in which they are fitted. Also, they are not prone to overheating and going on fire, and they will come in at less that half the cost of current lithium-ion batteries making electric cars much cheaper.

This age, we are now moving into, might yet be termed the Graphene age.

Good luck guys with the development work.



.

Sustainable Cost of Living

.

Austerity 

can 

Cause Death

One of the more recent public statistical figures to emerge, directly linked to the imposed Austerity programme along with increased taxation in Ireland, is that one - in - six cars on Irish roads are running on over worn tyres. Gee - I wonder why that is the case?

Ireland is largely a rural country. Most of the working population has to use private transport to access jobs, simply because efficient public transport is a mere dream or rather a joke! 

Fuel prices have increased some 50% in recent years, Road Tax or MotorTax even for a modest car is over €500 per year or about €10 per week. Insurance costs have risen, and additionally VAT has been increased. Also a household charge or Poll Tax of €200 per year now applies to modest residences, and food and heating costs have increased. All that taking from disposable income while in many cases, actual wages or income has DECREASED.

Perhaps that is why people cannot afford to keep their cars up to full scratch.

I have a feeling that austerity will go down in history as a very bad strategy.


.

Sustainable Life for Men

Yes - I am still here!

Back on the Blog!

This Post is about the

Sustainability of Life itself 

in Older Men

Recent studies clearly show that what we consume, by way of food and drink, has a massive impact on our health and well being.

Another aspect of nutrition is also now clearly emerging from studies. When we eat is nearly as important as WHAT we eat.

The studies concentrated on men in middle age and up. The findings are very interesting.

Guys Take Note:

Men who regularly skip breakfast are 27% more likely to have heart problems.

Men who regularly eat late at night had 55% increase in the risk of heart disease.




.

Crime and Punishment Ireland

.

Criminals should pay damages

And the cost of their imprisonment

The recent case of a young mother being kidnapped and raped over six days by three men in Limerick, has started me thinking about how such crimes should be redressed.

(1) When a crime involves damage to a person or property, the guilty party should be taken to task on behalf of the victim/s, by the states legal system, and full financial, and or other means of redress, be extracted as an integral part of their punishment and atonement.

(2) On the matter of imprisonment, those who are sent to jail place a huge financial burden on society. They therefore should be made liable for the entire cost of their imprisonment. 

In 2010 a year of imprisonment cost the overburdened taxpayer €77,000 per inmate. This burden on society accrues at the same time as the prisoner is housed, fed, has full medical care, and in many instances is educated, more security and comfort than many members of society enjoy.

.

World Press Freedom Day and Obscurantism

.

There are Too Many Examples

of Suppression of Information

and Persecution of the Press

World Press

Freedom Day

Obscurantism: The practice of deliberately preventing the facts or full details of something from becoming known.

Obscurantism has historically been a favoured and frequently used weapon of dictators, tyrants, powerful religious authorities, devious governments, manipulators of people, and all aggressors; business, political, academic, legal, banking and financial.

Obscurantism is in full use still today, not only by dictators and regimes, but by the huge corporations seeking to hide their ethical wrong doings or sell their wares under exaggerated or false pretenses, by churches wishing to escape the fallout of wrongdoings, government wishing to sell their agendas or avoid criticism. Journalists are in prisons or murdered in many parts of the world. North Korea, Russia, and Iran immediately spring to mind in this respect.

Obscurantism seeks not only to hide facts, but to eliminate or limit concepts, human aspirations, and freedom of thought. It takes many forms but here today we consider the censorship and punishment of the press and media in all its forms.

Knowledge is Power

A gift to the world is the Internet, as it is a powerful tool for free speech and the sharing of ideas and concepts. It has triggered the Arab Spring and is currently changing the collective consciousness of the planet. It's power lies not only in the ability to instantly communicate but in the difficulty it presents for the oppressors to completely prevent its use in all forms.

The Press and especially the Internet needs to be protected from interference by governments, Tyrants,  Business, and all other powers that would have it neutered.

Please support Press Freedom, Free Speech, Freedom of Thought, the right to express our opinions.



.

Prime Energy Solutions and Benekov Problems

.

A Benekov  Pellet Boiler

Another Unhappy 

Sustainable Energy Customer

This comment came in recently from Matthew Judge County Laois who is very unhappy with the service he has received on his Benekov boiler. I deleted an individuals name from his comment, and made one other edit, but otherwise it is as received. I give voice here to his complaint, and invite the dealers to answer it:

Prime Energy Solutions?? I bought a Benekov boiler from Prime Energy Solutions Co Cavan and from day one have had a lot of trouble with it. And whats worse is they ( Prime Energy Solutions ) don't seem to care. We were left without heating since Christmas day 2012 and still our boiler is not working. Prime Energy Solutions has been anything but helpful. So I would advise anyone to think twice before dealing with Prime Energy Solutions - Matthew Judge Co Laois on Benekov Prime

Matthew if you feel you have a clear case for lack of care, you might consider the Small Claims Courts, they are a great solution for the small guy in dispute with a big business. The registrars are very helpful and the cost is very small in making an entry.

I have long given up completely on pellet boilers - they are both too expensive and have yet to reach a design optimum.



.

.

April was the Anniversary

of the birth of

Augustin Mouchot

(1825 - 1912) 

Who was the 1st to demonstrate

the industrial use of Solar Power

Augustin Bernard Mouchot

French Solar Energy Pioneer

"One must not believe, despite the silence of modern writings, that the idea of using solar heat for mechanical operations is recent. On the contrary, one must recognize that this idea is very ancient and its slow development across the centuries it has given birth to various curious devices."

Augustin Mouchot (1878).


"Eventually industry will no longer find in Europe the resources to satisfy its prodigious expansion... Coal will undoubtedly be used up. What will industry do then?"

Augustin Mouchot (1880).



.