Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Woodburners not so healthy after all..

I remember them well and still occasionally use them for my non-PC log burner.

What, no septic tank issues Dave..???

Sorry could not resist it, though living just a field away from the edge of suburbia and under the arms of a very large national grid HV Tower, it was ever a tad frustrating to be without electricity due to our once old and fragile distribution network while viewing all the lights on in the housing estate down the hill... Over 30 years ago I paid out circa £3k to have a mains gas pipe laid along out local single track road in order stop the need for coal storage and deliveries burning coal and for the convenience of programming heating, Two gas boilers, which do not operate without electricity thus one open gas fire, electric cooking with camping gas cooker as standby, the usual torches, camping light and candles.

During one lengthy power outage the supply authority guys connected a temporary generator to serve out small community, unfortunately they wired it up incorrectly and connected our normal single phase supply across two phases... fortunately, I go round switching all the kit that might be sensitive to surge and just use a table lamp to indicate when a stable supply becomes available once more, but the electricity meter suffered somewhat requiring replacement..

Fortunately an old folks home was built further up the hill and as such they upgraded the electricity supply, thus the hope is for fewer power outages..

Have spent quite a bit of time effort and money self build extending and insulating the place, the latter definitely paid immediate and long lasting dividends. I am ideally located for solar, though the cost benefit analysis does not work given my age, which is a pity as I do like the idea behind it all, though some of the Tesla technology seems to have room for improvement..

Road maintenance... been there done that, the road serving our eight home community is single track and private, with two recent businesses set up, a dog exercise area and glamping, and in road maintenance terms, everyone does their bit...NOT...Shrug, Road maintenance was mostly a solo effort over many decades... by guess who...? (-:

Septic tank..? Yeah well it seems there may well be issues for all those homes in the UK that have a septic tank not compliant with a recent regulation re-write. Sorry if I have added to your list of complexities relative to countryside living Dave.

None of the above is in any way a complaint, as for me it is ALL worth it, compared to living cheek by jowl and the possible downsides of that way of life...I was brought up in a city tenement...

If the profits of doom are to be believed it seems city dwellers may have to learn some degree of self reliance in time too, regardless of which political party might be in power.... ?

Septic tank.. whats that We upgraded our septic tank to a twin tank air injected sewage treatment system 3 years ago.. I did not complain as I do believe it was the correct thing to do.. The blurb says its outfall is drinkable, but I will miss testing on that one... . Ironically, the air injection needs a reliable electrical supply...

Don't necessarily believe everything these eco-socialists say. Wood as a heating source is the last energy source that they do not have complete control over. That is of course not desirable.

Jens, your last seems to suggest that there may be no such thing as eco-conservatives...? (-:

Dave that is quite a fancy septic system you have installed... My self installed and upgrade system cost me circa £4k less than I bought this place for some decades back...! I chose to go with a system independent of electrical input, for obvious reasons..? (-:

Our biggest mistake was assuming that the local grid power supply would be well maintained.. it appears not... One good outcome of this is I am now thinking of ways to engineer around the issue.. alas most fixs are costly to sort.. Alternatively as my wife wants, we could move out to Southern Greece and start again in an area that has shorter winters. I have pointed out to her that the electrical supply there would be just as on/off..

Dave really sorry to read this relative hardship purely by living in the sticks,

Our Son and his wife lived totally off grid in their wood cabin for 7 years, that is a choice thing though not at all comparable as the mindset is vastly different and they now just spend fun time there as they cultivate and orchard 2 acres but can't wait to get back home for a shower after a day out on the land.

Hello Richard, we have lived here since the early 1980's, invested a lot in an old house and its garden, as the location for us was great. When I open the curtains in the morning and look out over the main valley toward Exmoor I can only see two houses in the far distance ( the local villages are lost in the small valleys inbetween ), that view and the feelings that go with it are good for the soul... keeps us going.

Dave and I thought it was only here in Germany that there are incompetent politicians without any school education.

Hello Dave, I can imagine your view having spent a lot of time visiting farms in the area and there are some splendid views and empty areas.

Exmoor is a place that we are very fond of as well as our playground of Dartmoor.