[News] Wood burners

[Superphil]

I've got one, but in recent years stopped using it when winds fall light and always run it hot.

If you get a decent one they are quite efficient, open fires far less so. Look pretty but close to useless for generating heat.

You say that, but when we light ours we are able to shut off both radiators and the log fire heats the entire room pretty well. It's not a small room, and it's not a very big fire, but does a lovely job of warming us up and looking lovely.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Do quick google for news featuring wood burners. Get back links, up in arms, from the Mail, Express and GB News, one of which features Brighton Council.

Certainly checks out.

 

[Brian Potter]

Got a big old beast of a multi-fuel burner with a back boiler. Downstairs is toasty, water gets heated. along with one radiator in each of 2 bedrooms

 

[Hastings gull]

You say that, but when we light ours we are able to shut off both radiators and the log fire heats the entire room pretty well. It's not a small room, and it's not a very big fire, but does a lovely job of warming us up and looking lovely.

Yes, ours is really good and heats up the large room and beyond really well. We have the efficient and eco-friendly (as far as possible) version, according to the chap who fitted it. We are in the country -there is no gas -and like many others in the village rely on our log burner. We only burn dried wood and not any old crap, which might adversely affect the clean air readings.

 

[El Turi]

Someone has one near us and it stinks. I assume they are burning the wrong type of wood?

 

[RandyWanger]

Gone through about 2 cubic meters of wood this winter in ours. I love having it on, not only for the ambiance but the heat it generates is so much nicer than the central heating. Also keeps the gas bill down so those robbing bastards record breaking profits aren't funded by me which is nice.

 

[abc]

Apparently but if that’s the most deadly form of pollution…. and woodburners create more of it than “All the UK’s road traffic” ?? Then I am (some on here will pleased to know) speechless.

Indeed. It’s the same train of thought with cows etc - bovines have been around forever and the methane cycle means that the emmision concerns are greatly exaggerated. The real climate change baddies are cars, lorries and air travel which if not addressed make every other measure pretty pointless. But properly dealing with transport issues will be massively unpopular and have significant economic ramifications. Thus politicians ignore them and go for the easy wins and headlines.

 

[Bodian]

The Guardian have been running stories on this for a few years now. Which I find a little hypocritical, given that I would guess that quite a few of their journalists will have log-stoves - it's very much their sort of thing. I also recently read one of their 'cosy country pubs' (or similar) articles - quite a decent number of them were accompanied by mentions of the 'toasty open fire', sitting with a drink on a cold day by the 'roaring wood-burner'. And so on.

 

[MJsGhost]

Apparently but if that’s the most deadly form of pollution…. and woodburners create more of it than “All the UK’s road traffic” ?? Then I am (some on here will pleased to know) speechless.

Yes it sounds implausible woodburners cause more pollution than cars

But that they produce more of one dangerous particulate? i could believe that.

I looked into this when we were expecting our first child about 4 years ago - domestic wood burning is a significant source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions. For that reason, we've only used the wood burner a handful of times since (though with no mains gas, our CH is oil-fired, so still not ideal)

I found some more recent numbers:
According to Defra, domestic combustion contributed an estimated 29% of total PM2.5 emissions in 2022, with most emissions coming from households using wood-burning stoves or open fireplaces.

Defra's emissions of air pollutants publication 2024 - Woodsure

Defra has published its latest data on emissions of air pollutants in the UK, with the publication containing statistics on annual emissions for the period 1970 to 2022. The annual publication provides estimates of UK emissions of particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), nitrogen oxides, ammonia...

www.woodsure.co.uk

The transport sector, including all forms of domestic transport, accounted for 22% of PM2.5 emissions in the same year.

Transport and environment statistics: 2024

Environmental impacts of transport, including greenhouse gases and air pollutants emitted from different transport modes for the United Kingdom.

www.gov.uk

TL/DR?
As @Nobby Cybergoat suggests, it's a specific particle (which happens to be very dangerous) rather than pollution in general that is being compared. In 2022, 29% of the UK's total PM2.5 emissions were produced by domestic burning of wood for heat, compared to 22% by vehicles.

 

[schmunk]

My original point is that I simply don’t believe that woodburners create more pollution than “All the UK’s road traffic”

Your points are valid and the world is changing but I am suspicious of anything that is put higher up the list than traffic really

Your woodburner doesn't have a catalytic converter...

 

[dejavuatbtn]

New neighbour put one in and it stinks our place out. Can’t open the windows for smoke billowing in.

 

[nicko31]

You say that, but when we light ours we are able to shut off both radiators and the log fire heats the entire room pretty well. It's not a small room, and it's not a very big fire, but does a lovely job of warming us up and looking lovely.

I don't doubt this, but there is little control over the burn and 75% of the heat goes up the chimney. With most woodburners 75% stays in the room

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Underfloor heating is the way to go.

 

[Rdodge30]

I don't doubt this, but there is little control over the burn and 75% of the heat goes up the chimney. With most woodburners 75% stays in the room

We used to squat an old house that had a damper in the chimney, you pulled it forward with the hook on the end of the poker and it heated a back boiler. That was back in the 80’s though and the house was old then. I managed to get my pot belly stove up the stairs into an upstairs bedroom, took a pane of glass out the window and replaced it with a board with a hole in and had a bit of flexi pipe on top of the stove pipe going out through the hole! The ‘s bend’ in the flexi pipe meant it didn’t half draw !!

 

[joydivisionovengloves]

I bloody love my woodburner, Ive put one in every house I owned,
They've always been Defra cert ones and living out in the countryside I think its fine, If I moved back into town again though I think Id think twice.

 

[nicko31]

Underfloor heating is the way to go.

Off a heat pump, should be the future for new builds

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Off a heat pump, should be the future for new builds

Takes a while to get the hang of temperature wise, but once you have had it there’s no going back.

 

[schmunk]

Indeed. It’s the same train of thought with cows etc - bovines have been around forever and the methane cycle means that the emmision concerns are greatly exaggerated. The real climate change baddies are cars, lorries and air travel which if not addressed make every other measure pretty pointless. But properly dealing with transport issues will be massively unpopular and have significant economic ramifications. Thus politicians ignore them and go for the easy wins and headlines.

You're comparing the global warming effects of various polluters whereas the main concern with log burners is the public health effects.

A field of tobacco burning in China is going to cause lots more pollution than a box of tobacco sticks burned one by one in your mouth, but the latter is more individually concerning.

 

[Rdodge30]

I miss those days on site, dried ferns and birch twigs, split ash. I was only telling junior the other day about my fire lighter - a small block of magnesium with a long flint along the top with a small piece of hacksaw blade attached with string.

 

[Sorrel]

New neighbour put one in and it stinks our place out. Can’t open the windows for smoke billowing in.

Modern wood burners have to meet emission guidelines; they don’t emit much smoke at all. What route does the smoke take to reach your window? Maybe it isn’t a log-burner?

All the “findings” against them assume people have older/more polluting burners, not modern ones.