sbrumby wrote:I know this is going of the bikes a bit, but I have a bit of experience with heating, started off with AGA solid fuel, load of junk, changed to multifueled boiler, very good but this would burn 350lbs or 159kg of wood in a 12hour period, it kept you warm just keeping it going, the 12hour nights it had to be out. But as the wood was free it just had to be collected. Wood is OK but it is a relatively low grade fuel that is very labour intensive. ( felling with a chainsaw, logging with circular saw, splitting with hydraulic ram then storeing for 12 months) So I wish you well with your venture it will certainly keep you fit.
I accept some of what you say, but have been living in France now for seven years with only wood burning stoves for heating.
We use Villager stoves as they are genuinly designed for wood. They have no lower grill for air or ash disposal. but a firebrick lined combustion chamber with regulated air admitted from above. The big one in the lounge will easily run for over 15 hours on a couple of decent sized logs ( say +6" diam 50cm long). The wood had to be dry. Expect that to take two years. We used to run three fires through the winter and used roughly ( very roughly, depends on severity of the winter) 17 steres ( cu metres of wood) This has been significantly reduced by switching the kitchen over to an oil burner (it will happily burn filtered used lube oil ) I probably have about 50 stere of cut firewood in the barn with a large reserve on the 'hoof' as pollard oak trees which are mostly well overdue for pollarding again. Currently planting out about 3 acres of mixed wood. theory here is when I am too old to wield a chainsaw, some lad from the village will put 20 stere of cut wood in my barn for me, and cart off 20-30 stere for his trouble. (probably yeild 50 stere per year on a 12-14 year rotation). This will give me free heating forever, and my grandchildren. The cooking stove would be a true wood burner, and the secret of them is to have a proper firebrick lined combustion chamber, and to use wood of a sufficient size to not need constant attention. Most ( probably all) commercial wood burning stoves for cooking do not meet either requirement.
After my initial 3 acres I may continue to plant more coppice trees eleswhere to possibly generate income, , for somebody even if not me
AS for consumption, the big fire burns 5 wheel barrowfuls of wood each week. 10 barrows to the stere when running 24/7.
(i don't know for sure if it had the same issues last winter) The compression feels fine, valve play is okay. after almost 30. K, the perormance is better then ever. 
