The best money I ever spent was buying our Stanley Number 8 range. We got it second hand ten years ago for 280 euros, from a woman who was getting rid of it and replacing it with an oil burner. This machine supplies our household with all most all of its space heating, water heating and cooking.
Our house is a passive solar building so the sun provides a good deal of space heat. We have no electric water heaters, immersion or kettle, so all our hot water comes from the Stanley, except what comes from our Kelly Kettle. We have no other means of cooking except the Stanley.
For fuel we use birchwood that we cut about half a mile from home, on an abandoned bog. Due to the kindness of our neighbours we do not have to pay for this wood, except the fuel to cut it and the labour to haul it out and get it home. At last years oil prices it cost about eight euros worth of oil to cut a years supply of timber. We draw the timber home on a handcart.
I have never counted how many hours labour it takes to cut, draw, chop and stack a years supply of firewood, but it’s a lot. However I don’t mind, it keeps us fit, get us out in the open air and is a way for our children to make a real contribution to the households wealth.
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| Our Kelly Kettle |
Of course the Stanley has to be lit and fed, ashes have to be emptied and every few weeks it needs cleaning. But it allows us to heat our house, heat our water and cook our food at an annual cash cost of only 8 euros.
Yes it takes a lot hard work, but then so does earning the money to buy a tank of heating oil. And if oil prices double it takes twice as much labour to buy the tank of oil. It will still require the same amount of labour to save a years supply of firewood, so in this regard our household is protected from the perils of fuel price inflation.
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| Our Handcart |
Kelly Kettles available from http://www.kellykettle.com/
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