Making your own logs from Newspaper

Frugal, thrifty and helping the environment

First, the most viewed Log Maker 'how to'

There are many ways of cutting down solid fuel bills, especially if you have an Aga or Rayburn.
These are 'fires shut in', so will burn almost anything and everything in it can be controlled to burn at whatever rate you wish.

Frugally speaking, the best fuel is free fuel ! You can stop your car at the roadside and pick up wood to take home and there's even some good burning materials inside Skips as well!
The good things about the paper log maker is that it has a range of savings...

My Log Maker

1. It saves buying fuel
2. It's recycling your wastepaper (inc. junk mail etc)
3. It's helping to save the Planet!

I won't pretend you could make do with logs made with one of these for a whole winter. You could, but it would take a lot of early preparation during the Summer month's when they will dry much quicker.

They are an ideal supplement to Coal and Wood, simple as that.

That's not saying they are a novelty, they have a sound reason and there's not much more comforting than to know you are playing a part in your families and their's future environment.

There are two types, the 'Briquette' which I have, or the Cylinder type.
Both will do the job just as well and work on exactly the same theory; soaking paper, filling the Log Maker up and drying somewhere warm.
It's your choice, but the few people I know who have them, say the Briquette type seems to be best ?

My own experience is, if it's a nice warm summers day, it's a few hours outside in the garden doing something positive.
A routine type job, yes, but I find a lot of those good. It gives you time to think, just like wood collecting. It gives you time to listen and watch the things which are going on around you - and what you are doing is helping those things to stay that way!

Finally, if you find it too mundane a job - get the Kids to do it !

Oct 2008 - I've received quite a few emails about drying time. It is best to make logs during the summer month's and leave them on a window sill or in the Greenhouse.
After the weather starts getting cooler, try putting them inside the Airing / Water Heater Cupboard, or stack under a Radiator (where safe to do so). If you have a Rayburn or Aga, try putting the paper logs in the Plate Warmer Compartment - but again, always be wary

Open Fires
All open fires will burn house coal and some smokeless fuels. House coal is available in various sizes and an Approved Coal Merchant will give you details about the qualities available. Coal or wood must not be burnt in Smoke Control Areas.

The larger sized manufactured smokeless fuels are ideal for open fires, while open fires with fan assistance or under-floor draught may also burn smaller manufactured fuels and Anthracite large nuts.

Roomheaters, Cookers and Boilers
Closed appliances (except gravity feed types) burn a wide variety of manufactured smokeless fuels and Anthracite large nuts. These are smaller than open fire fuels and give a denser fire-bed and a more efficient performance. Multi-fuel appliances can burn open fire smokeless fuels.

If you don't live in a Smoke Control Area you can also burn house coal or wood. The Environmental Health Department can provide more information about Smoke Control Areas.

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Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
St. Francis of Assisi
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