I am not going to stop burning wood. I burn kiln dried, it burns incredibly clean.
The amount of times I’ve had to send wood sellers packing because their wood is 40%+ moisture, is silly though. There’s clearly no enforcement in regards to the sale of wood and it’s annoying as a consumer.
Many people are starting to burn wood due to the cost of gas, not because it looks nice. They only have the option of burning wood or freezing.
It’s not an option for these people.
The government could start by removing the VAT on home energy and make all new homes have solar.
I’m renovating a Victorian house in a city centre. I was going to put in a log burner but decided against it. I don’t think it will be long before they are completely banned in urban areas. They are dreadful for particle levels and make the city smell dreadful if it’s cold and foggy.
Here in the US we also have an anti wood burning push. The thing they ALWAYS leave out is that heating with wood costs a fraction of the cost of natural gas/propane/electric and it the only affordable way for many poor people to heat their homes.
Do many people in cities in the UK use wood for heat, or is it a more rural thing like it is here in the US?
There’s a reason people who live in smoke control areas can’t burn wood in fireplaces – because of the pollution they are known to create. Basically you can only burnt authorised fuels, basically smokeless coal.
I’m not trying to stir the controversy pot here but it seems fucking WILD to me that they’re trying to ban the form of heating that pre-dates civilisation as we know it.
Another thing that’s put in the category of “it’s middle class because I don’t have one”. I’m not middle class, got an old wood burner in our rented home, started burning wood because it’s cheaper and warms the house more efficiently than putting the radiators on.
Sounds like we aren’t reducing road pollution hard enough if a few fires can undo all our hard work
This is so misleading if you burn wood on a modern woodburner there is hardly any particles leaving the chimney!
Dont forget this is from the guardian 🤣
In the place I just moved out of, it was cheaper for me to use my wood burner than to pay for gas an electricity. It’s simply down to money. I always ensured I was using the cleanest burning recycled materials.
They really degrade indoor air quality as well even the modern ones with supposedly clean burning fuel.
Will be a wood stove enjoyer when I move into my house later this year, provided I close on the one I want. Until the government develops a valid energy plan that is the way it will have to be. They can pay for a heat pump if they like since it’s a new-build efficient house. Or they can come up with a nuclear strategy rather than keeping us reliant on cheap russian gas now that the world order is shifting.
So this sub defends people burning wood even though it pollutes because of the cost of electricity but is more than happy to defend ULEZ even though it’s disadvantagely affected poorer people that have had to shell out money they don’t have for a less polluting car that is going to be driven just as much….
Surprised a few more of you don’t have whiplash haha
I don’t have figures but my own anecdotal experiences of the past three years have suggested a huge rise in log burners. If I took the dog out 3 years ago you wouldn’t smell a single one. Not one. Now? Every few paces you can smell a new one burning away.
Those of you making the claim that they cost thousands to install… yes and no. You can get a kitchen fitted for 700 quid. Or you can get a kitchen fitted for 35 grand. Sure you can go and spend a couple of grand on a snazzy burner and then have a really complex install, but anyone even half handy in the toolbox can buy and install a wood burner very cheaply.
I have a stove with a back boiler. Not only does it heat the living room, it heats the whole house, really well. I also only burn reclaimed timber, mostly old pallets, which come for free. You have to be sensible about it and only burn the ones that are made from heat treated wood.
Neighbours put theirs on more often than I’d like and never with any sort of warning. They also don’t seem to be particularly concerned about what wood they’re burning as my garden occasionally looks like victorian London.
The result is me running around the house trying to close the windows and pull the washing off the line as soon as I get a whiff of it.
Judging by the cars on the drive they’re not short on money so I can only assume they’re doing it just for the aesthetics.
I think people are making a massive assumption that new adoption of wood burning stoves is due to poor people in rural communities. Those stoves already existed. The issue is new ones are being fitted (not cheap) in urban / semi-urban environments. I know of 3-4 houses on the street that I grew up on where my parents tell me they have had wood burning stoves fitted, and that its causing soot build up on the side of their house.
I am not sure if I believe the conclusions they are drawing. I recall previously there was a really high estimate given of the percentage of the pm2.5 pollution caused by wood burning, and it turned out the report assumed everyone with a wood burning stove was running it for 40 hours per week all year round. It was not based on actual measurements.
>Emissions of PM2.5 and PM10 from domestic combustion – heating homes using solid fuel such as wood – increased by 19% between 2012 and 2022, counteracting efforts made to travel and produce commercial energy in less polluting ways.
This seems excessive. I think it means that it has gone up, which has reduced the effect of switching to EVs, hybrids, wind generation etc, not that it has negated it all.
My parents live in the country and my dads a tradie so they always have off cuts to burn but I have heard stories of others burning shit like MDF in thier fires which is a no no.
Unfortunately due to several storms in recent years, my electricity has gone off many times, sometimes for several days during winter. No electric = no heating/gas.
If I had a log burner at least I’d have an alternative source of heating which would be helpful if this trend of severe storms continues.
It’s just unfortunate that more reliance on wood burning stoves will accelerate climate change.
Funny that when you allow gas and electric companies to up the price of heating people turn to other means.
Speak to anyone installing log burners, they’ve never been busier.
Maybe, just maybe, if you do your job as a fucking government and protect people from commericial extortion people wont turn to other means.
I find it absolutely hilarious they are trying to now demonise log burners. You never saw an article about these ever, now i seem to see one every month or 2. Almost like they are trying to create an issue to stop people from using cheap fuel sources.
Used to live next to a place that constantly burned huge piles of wood pallets in their yard and the whole area constantly reeked of a bonfire. You’d call the council, they’d go round, it would stop for a bit but like clockwork it would kick off again after a short while. Didn’t realise how bad it was pollution wise until I saw all the soot around the trickle vents in my windows.
If they make electricity cheap enough I would be mor ethen happy enough to use an electric radiator. The thing is it would cost a fortune to run a 4kw electric radiator at the moment and in the past. Wood is dirt cheap esspecially when you get it for free, it just takes time to process a tree and logs and season them but I enjoy doing it so it’s cool for me.
Reminds me to order my wood burning stove pronto before those pesky greens manage to get them banned. Need to replace ugly gas “pretend coals” fire.
Wood-burning stoves, and fires in general, are horrifically bad for your health. People seem “blinded” by the warmth and comfort.
Even Germany has had to start burning coal after switching off their nuclear power plants.
The problem with the Green party is its goal is communism not an actual functioning society.
The problem is the government and by extension any mps from either side have lost all credibility to be dictating to people that we need to stop burning wood when they hand out oil licences like chocolate.
I understand when used correctly, they barely emit any smoke or smell. But I don’t think everyone realises how obnoxious these things can be in the wrong hands. Our neighbours have one and if the wind is blowing towards us I end up smelling of smoke just taking the bins out. They also keep using it well into Spring.
I go for walks around town in the evening in the winter and you can smell burning wood pretty much continuously. So I can only conclude that there must be a lot of people using then wrong or that the smell from one stove can cover a large area. I suspect there are probably vendors selling cheap unseasoned wood with customers all over town.
I understand some people like the smell of burning wood but I prefer fresh air. I think the smoky smell is nasty, especially how it seems to cling to your clothes and skin. Crisp winter air is a thing of the past here.
I don’t think it’s fair to stop people burning responsibly, especially not if they have no other source or it’s cheaper for them. But I also don’t think the current situation is fair for all the people who don’t want to be inhaling other people’s wood smoke.
I think going after vendors selling unseasoned wood could be a sensible step.
Yeah and I betcha all the dongle-heads from JSO probably live in houses with a wood stove in every frigging room.
This is meaningless when Taylor Swift took TWO private jets to Japan in case one had mechanical problems. Just seen another post where 525 planes flew in and out of Vegas for the SuperBowl. Fuck it.
unlike the luxury of a car, the wood burning stove maybe the only souce of heat when its at freezing…
32 comments
I am not going to stop burning wood. I burn kiln dried, it burns incredibly clean.
The amount of times I’ve had to send wood sellers packing because their wood is 40%+ moisture, is silly though. There’s clearly no enforcement in regards to the sale of wood and it’s annoying as a consumer.
Many people are starting to burn wood due to the cost of gas, not because it looks nice. They only have the option of burning wood or freezing.
It’s not an option for these people.
The government could start by removing the VAT on home energy and make all new homes have solar.
I’m renovating a Victorian house in a city centre. I was going to put in a log burner but decided against it. I don’t think it will be long before they are completely banned in urban areas. They are dreadful for particle levels and make the city smell dreadful if it’s cold and foggy.
Here in the US we also have an anti wood burning push. The thing they ALWAYS leave out is that heating with wood costs a fraction of the cost of natural gas/propane/electric and it the only affordable way for many poor people to heat their homes.
Do many people in cities in the UK use wood for heat, or is it a more rural thing like it is here in the US?
There’s a reason people who live in smoke control areas can’t burn wood in fireplaces – because of the pollution they are known to create. Basically you can only burnt authorised fuels, basically smokeless coal.
The government even provides a map (for England at least) https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/data/sca/
I’m not trying to stir the controversy pot here but it seems fucking WILD to me that they’re trying to ban the form of heating that pre-dates civilisation as we know it.
Another thing that’s put in the category of “it’s middle class because I don’t have one”. I’m not middle class, got an old wood burner in our rented home, started burning wood because it’s cheaper and warms the house more efficiently than putting the radiators on.
Sounds like we aren’t reducing road pollution hard enough if a few fires can undo all our hard work
This is so misleading if you burn wood on a modern woodburner there is hardly any particles leaving the chimney!
Dont forget this is from the guardian 🤣
In the place I just moved out of, it was cheaper for me to use my wood burner than to pay for gas an electricity. It’s simply down to money. I always ensured I was using the cleanest burning recycled materials.
They really degrade indoor air quality as well even the modern ones with supposedly clean burning fuel.
Will be a wood stove enjoyer when I move into my house later this year, provided I close on the one I want. Until the government develops a valid energy plan that is the way it will have to be. They can pay for a heat pump if they like since it’s a new-build efficient house. Or they can come up with a nuclear strategy rather than keeping us reliant on cheap russian gas now that the world order is shifting.
So this sub defends people burning wood even though it pollutes because of the cost of electricity but is more than happy to defend ULEZ even though it’s disadvantagely affected poorer people that have had to shell out money they don’t have for a less polluting car that is going to be driven just as much….
Surprised a few more of you don’t have whiplash haha
I don’t have figures but my own anecdotal experiences of the past three years have suggested a huge rise in log burners. If I took the dog out 3 years ago you wouldn’t smell a single one. Not one. Now? Every few paces you can smell a new one burning away.
Those of you making the claim that they cost thousands to install… yes and no. You can get a kitchen fitted for 700 quid. Or you can get a kitchen fitted for 35 grand. Sure you can go and spend a couple of grand on a snazzy burner and then have a really complex install, but anyone even half handy in the toolbox can buy and install a wood burner very cheaply.
I have a stove with a back boiler. Not only does it heat the living room, it heats the whole house, really well. I also only burn reclaimed timber, mostly old pallets, which come for free. You have to be sensible about it and only burn the ones that are made from heat treated wood.
Neighbours put theirs on more often than I’d like and never with any sort of warning. They also don’t seem to be particularly concerned about what wood they’re burning as my garden occasionally looks like victorian London.
The result is me running around the house trying to close the windows and pull the washing off the line as soon as I get a whiff of it.
Judging by the cars on the drive they’re not short on money so I can only assume they’re doing it just for the aesthetics.
I think people are making a massive assumption that new adoption of wood burning stoves is due to poor people in rural communities. Those stoves already existed. The issue is new ones are being fitted (not cheap) in urban / semi-urban environments. I know of 3-4 houses on the street that I grew up on where my parents tell me they have had wood burning stoves fitted, and that its causing soot build up on the side of their house.
The guardian will [not stop](https://www.google.co.uk/search?as_q=wood+burning&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&lr=&cr=&as_qdr=all&as_sitesearch=www.theguardian.com&as_occt=any&as_filetype=&tbs=#ip=1) going for wood burners will they. The last article I saw them do on them admitted the actual pollution was actually half of what they had previously reported, but it appears its jumped again.
I really doubt there are enough woodburners in the UK that rival the pollution of the millions of ICE vehicles on the road
I am not sure if I believe the conclusions they are drawing. I recall previously there was a really high estimate given of the percentage of the pm2.5 pollution caused by wood burning, and it turned out the report assumed everyone with a wood burning stove was running it for 40 hours per week all year round. It was not based on actual measurements.
>Emissions of PM2.5 and PM10 from domestic combustion – heating homes using solid fuel such as wood – increased by 19% between 2012 and 2022, counteracting efforts made to travel and produce commercial energy in less polluting ways.
This seems excessive. I think it means that it has gone up, which has reduced the effect of switching to EVs, hybrids, wind generation etc, not that it has negated it all.
My parents live in the country and my dads a tradie so they always have off cuts to burn but I have heard stories of others burning shit like MDF in thier fires which is a no no.
Unfortunately due to several storms in recent years, my electricity has gone off many times, sometimes for several days during winter. No electric = no heating/gas.
If I had a log burner at least I’d have an alternative source of heating which would be helpful if this trend of severe storms continues.
It’s just unfortunate that more reliance on wood burning stoves will accelerate climate change.
Funny that when you allow gas and electric companies to up the price of heating people turn to other means.
Speak to anyone installing log burners, they’ve never been busier.
Maybe, just maybe, if you do your job as a fucking government and protect people from commericial extortion people wont turn to other means.
I find it absolutely hilarious they are trying to now demonise log burners. You never saw an article about these ever, now i seem to see one every month or 2. Almost like they are trying to create an issue to stop people from using cheap fuel sources.
Used to live next to a place that constantly burned huge piles of wood pallets in their yard and the whole area constantly reeked of a bonfire. You’d call the council, they’d go round, it would stop for a bit but like clockwork it would kick off again after a short while. Didn’t realise how bad it was pollution wise until I saw all the soot around the trickle vents in my windows.
If they make electricity cheap enough I would be mor ethen happy enough to use an electric radiator. The thing is it would cost a fortune to run a 4kw electric radiator at the moment and in the past. Wood is dirt cheap esspecially when you get it for free, it just takes time to process a tree and logs and season them but I enjoy doing it so it’s cool for me.
Reminds me to order my wood burning stove pronto before those pesky greens manage to get them banned. Need to replace ugly gas “pretend coals” fire.
Wood-burning stoves, and fires in general, are horrifically bad for your health. People seem “blinded” by the warmth and comfort.
Even Germany has had to start burning coal after switching off their nuclear power plants.
The problem with the Green party is its goal is communism not an actual functioning society.
The problem is the government and by extension any mps from either side have lost all credibility to be dictating to people that we need to stop burning wood when they hand out oil licences like chocolate.
I understand when used correctly, they barely emit any smoke or smell. But I don’t think everyone realises how obnoxious these things can be in the wrong hands. Our neighbours have one and if the wind is blowing towards us I end up smelling of smoke just taking the bins out. They also keep using it well into Spring.
I go for walks around town in the evening in the winter and you can smell burning wood pretty much continuously. So I can only conclude that there must be a lot of people using then wrong or that the smell from one stove can cover a large area. I suspect there are probably vendors selling cheap unseasoned wood with customers all over town.
I understand some people like the smell of burning wood but I prefer fresh air. I think the smoky smell is nasty, especially how it seems to cling to your clothes and skin. Crisp winter air is a thing of the past here.
I don’t think it’s fair to stop people burning responsibly, especially not if they have no other source or it’s cheaper for them. But I also don’t think the current situation is fair for all the people who don’t want to be inhaling other people’s wood smoke.
I think going after vendors selling unseasoned wood could be a sensible step.
Yeah and I betcha all the dongle-heads from JSO probably live in houses with a wood stove in every frigging room.
This is meaningless when Taylor Swift took TWO private jets to Japan in case one had mechanical problems. Just seen another post where 525 planes flew in and out of Vegas for the SuperBowl. Fuck it.
unlike the luxury of a car, the wood burning stove maybe the only souce of heat when its at freezing…
when are cremations going to be stopped?