The high cost of travelling west to east

We got in touch with Tesco to find out more. “We have had difficulties in transferring a small number of balance transfer payments from Tesco to another bank,” a spokesman said. “We are currently working through the issue with the bank, with the support of IPSO, and hope to have the matter resolved shortly for those customers.”

Why some kiln-dried logs can be all hot air

Last week we reviewed fuels and said that kiln-dried logs were better than air-dried ones. A number of readers took exception to this, including Joe Barry, a man who knows a thing or two about wood having been the chairman of environmental organisation Crann and “a life-long promoter of home-grown, sustainable Irish wood”.

“There were four items reviewed in the value for money section and the first was the peat briquette. While briquettes are handy, they produce a lot of dust and obviously burning peat from our remaining bogland is not really a good option,” he writes

He points out that peat is a fossil fuel and therefore burning it contributes to our CO2 emissions. “Coal is also a high-carbon fuel and does likewise. Burning straw logs looks a more friendly alternative but it can contribute to the corrosion of the iron in stoves and, as you pointed out, they tend to expand alarmingly.”

He then comes to the kiln-dried logs from a company called Hot Logs. He says they sell an excellent product “but some of the other so-called kiln-dried logs on the market are not fully dried and can contain a high moisture content in the centre of the log. Also, in order to dry the logs, oil or electricity are used to generate the necessary heat to remove moisture and are therefore not environmentally friendly.

“You suggested that air-dried timber was in some way inferior and, while many cowboy operators do sell wet logs that are not properly air dried, many others sell a properly dried product, and this is far superior as a fuel and as an environmentally friendly product.”

He points out that the wood-fuel business is relatively new and largely unregulated so home owners need to be aware of the facts. “Air-dried timber, once it is correctly seasoned, is in fact a superior product to the others mentioned.”

He also says his son has been selling air-dried fuel from his family’s woods in Meath for seven years now ( logonfirewood.ie) “and we are very aware of the damage wet fuel can do to stoves and the need to ensure the produce is always properly seasoned. His business has grown on repeat orders. One delivery of wet fuel and you have lost a customer for life.”