Wood smoke making kids ill

That makes no sense for a properly working burner. Even our own doesn't do that in our house! Are you adjoined to another house? Maybe they haven't swept and there is an issue with a joint chimney?

We live in a rural village that’s off-grid. Consequently many of us have wood burners. We must be a responsible lot as there’s never acrid smoke in the air or a detectable smell.

We only buy seasoned wood and generally store our wood for 2 years before we use it. We’re lucky to have a large wood store and my husband has a strict system.

We replaced our 25 year old wood burner with a new one. It’s so efficient and has a really low smoke particle level.

yanbu
they stink if people don't burn properly dried wood or low quality fuel.

and even if they do, the micro particles are seriously bad for you.

and they are not even cheap to run, unless you have your own wood source.

Nope, you re burning a carbon dense product, with some moisture, at a low - relative - heat, incomplete combustion is guaranteed.

Even manufacturers say efficiency is around 80% for the v best designs.

Yes i agree, many people use WB's incorrectly and of course many are still using very old 'burners, badly maintained.

We went from an old Villager to a modern ecodesign stove the efficiency is off the scale, halved wood consumption for more heat but it still gives some smoke under certain atmospheric conditions

I think people who deny it have wood burning stoves and are not irritated by it at the lower levels that others are. Like those same people who spray aerosols in enclosed spaces. I suppose it's more convenient to imagine that people are subject to neighbours with poor techniques/ stoves or that people are being dramatic, than to accept that this is a problem and you'll continue with it anyway.

Have you reported it? It can’t be challenged unless people know about it.

We’re in bed, having a cuppa before getting up, with the window open to let in the fresh air, I’m asthmatic so it really helps to get some fresh air flow. Nose has started streaming, eyes are stinging and throat is scratchy, just realised the next door neighbour has lit his fire. So now I’ll have to shut the window.

Lovely neighbour and I’d never complain to him but this is the impact of it. I suppose those who don’t want to see, won’t, regardless of all the evidence - a bit like flat earthers or climate change deniers

Yes, we have this with our neighbours. Totally unnecessary for them as we live in an estate of modern, well insulated homes. In the ten years I've lived here we've had a ten minute power cut - so hardly the life preserver that would be needed in the sticks. I have a house full of air purifiers as I have severe asthma that is aggregated by the smoke/ particulates that leaches into the house.

Seems to be conflation of issues here. Woodburners aren't inherently problematic if you know how to manage the fire. If you light it well and use the right materials then you can get a good low heat off one log for hours and hours.

The people you are describing are clearly using the wrong materials and then probably having to get it roasting hot running through 6 logs an hour or something which then creates all the smoke.

A few examples also seem like they've not had their chimney lined, or are getting the air exchange all wrong.

Never understood people who burn wet wood, it clogs the flue and gives off v little heat.

I live in the sticks, got a woodburner, as no gas and oil is very expensive, its an eco design, with high grade flue, correctly installed but on still days, with low air pressure, despite drawing extremely well & burning 20% or less logs, it gives of smoke that lingers, v glad i don't have nr neighbours!

In towns/villages, these things should be banned.

Wood burners give off all sorts of pollutants, some you can smell and some you can’t. Just because you can’t smell the smoke, doesn’t mean it is fine and dandy.

It’s appalling how we fell for the whole woodburner fashion. I’m relieved that we couldn’t get one due to the design of our house. It had definitely been on my wish list.

My sons used to get sick at my parents’ old house from the residue of years of fires.

Just like the toxins from smoking cigarettes, the stuff lingers long after the fire is out.

If you are using a woodburner, even responsibly, chances are some of your neighbours are struggling. Rural property is different, less population dense and fewer alternatives.

I think a lot of people are oblivious and genuinely don’t realise the harm they can cause.

Sadly there are a number of owners on here who have the I’m alright Jack attitude and can’t see how other people can be affected (or the possible unseen harm they could be doing to themselves). All you need is a poor installation, no maintenance and burning things you shouldn’t for people to be affected. Staring up the burner can also impact those nearby. We can occasionally smell smoke in our property from a wood burner across the road. At times they burn things they shouldn’t be burning and if the wind is in the wrong direction, it can be smelt in the rooms at the front of our property. The only other wood burner in our street is no longer used as they have a little one and are not prepared to take the health risks of using a wood burner when there is a child in the household.

Even if they are not smelt indoors by the majority of people, you can smell them when you are outside and see some belching out.

Wood burners are really bad for air quality and climate change. So yep it is selfish to be enjoying a cosy fire while impacting the lungs of the children in your neighborhood.
Government and council know this too - they just don't want to anger middle class voters. Complain to your council and MP. At least then they will start to see they are annoying other voters!

No, I don’t. We used to have an open fire many years ago which didn’t make the rooms smell like this. But DH can’t smell it so I don’t know!

Me neither. I live in a very old house that relies on these for heat and so have them burning regularly and do not experience this or have coughs.

If you can smell neighbour’s smoke in the attached rooms something is very wrong. I hope you have got carbon monoxide detectors.

We don't have gas and can't get oil where we live so we are very glad of our stove what with the price of electricity and the uselessness of storage heaters.

We don't use wood on it though we use smokeless coal. Our feckless next door neighbours used to leave their wood outside to get wood and then try to burn that, they would have smoke billowing out of the chimney and blowing across to us. We just shut our windows and it was fine.

If you close all your windows from 4pm to 10pm OP you shouldn't be able to smell it. Who wants their windows open at that time in this weather anyway? It must cost you a fortune to heat your house and have the windows open all the time. Just air the house earlier in the day.

The whole street stinks here with the smell of wood burners. You go out and even if it's only for a few minutes you come back in stinking of it. I can understand they make your house feel cozy and are cheaper to run but they're polluting the air. Feels like we've gone backwards with things like this.

If your smelling smoke from a neighbour attached to you I'd be worried about a leak in the chimney flue. That is dangerous as it's a fire risk. Definitely talk to the neighbour in that case, and if you have an open flue get it checked by a chimney sweep even if you don't use it - they set off a smoke bomb and check which chimney it comes out of. If it comes out of your neighbour's chimney (or one of yours it shouldn't connect to) then the flues have a leak

You should get the chimney swept every year even if not in use - can get blocked by debris/bird's nests which is a fire hazard

All our near neighbours have and use either a coal fire or wood burning stove. We never smell the smoke indoors. We don’t live in a town or city.

However, I do remember when smokeless zones in urban areas were rigidly enforced. They were set up for a reason.

They are so environmentally unfriendly. Cant believe people still get them put in.

I believe you.

1 GET THAT FILTER. It’s true that poor air quality has health impacts. It’s not fair you should have to pay out but poor air has lifelong impacts and you must try to reduce those for your kids

2 Make this the council’s problem too. Get envtl health involved. Send them the readings from the air purifier. Do this every week. Get your councillor involved. Write to your MP.

3 Join Mums for Lungs and get some of their posters etc and put them up locally

I fucking hate wood burners in cities. It should be illegal. There's no good excuse for using a mediaeval fuel and it's so antisocial. And no, clean dry wood is still poluting and carcinogenic before all the apologist I'm alright Jacks pile in

I only have one neighbour who heats their house with a wood burner and I can smell it all down the street. Absolutely reeks. Definitely a big source of pollution.

Anyone defending this just enjoys a fire!!! I enjoy a fire, it's a very primal human thing and there is nothing quite like the cosiness of the warmth and glow. However, in a busy city, 100s of people wanting to hark back to a simpler time adds up to a lot of air pollution.

There is a real desire amongst a lot of people to be able to live independently and off grid, and I do know folk who've genuinely achieved this, wood burning is part of that as well. I massively get it. However, if we actually wanted to solve problems like pollution, working together and using innovative technologies like solar, wind etc is what we need, not going all freeman-on-the-land and burning lead-polluted off-cuts from building sites in built up areas.

Short-sighted, selfish behaviour.

We have two big air purifiers for the same problem but they’re not a miracle cure. Ours went down to 0% last weekend - turns out our neighbours chimney has a crack so the smoke was coming in to ours. Thankfully they’re decent people so won’t burn until they’ve had it fixed.

You’d need a big air purifier in every room, closed windows, and new filters often, which aren’t cheap if you want the smoke-removing ones… and even then, if they’re not burning good wood and your house is letting it in, I don’t think it’d be enough.