Wood burner ban...

Not necessarily the case. Mine’s a good one, HETAS approved but doesn’t heat our 3 storey Victorian terrace. Tbh, it only heats the room it’s in.

Nope, science actually suggests that 3 hours of a newer log burner is less dangerous than 3 minutes of using your toaster.

Where are you getting your statistics from please?

Having previously worked adjacent to medical coding I was never aware of any auditing of the domestic heat sources of any patients (lots of coding relating to accidents obviously)!

A camping stove isn't going to heat anyone ever btw.

We had a row of houses built in our very rural , ( no mains gas , only got mains drainage in the last few years ) village about two years ago . As per regulations , all fitted with the latest heat pump tech , plus solar panels and insulation .They got sold , went through their first winter , and then the following summer, every last resident got a woodburner , because , to quote one occupant “we either froze our fucking nuts off, or took a bank loan out for the electric bill “

We have our own wood supply, and about 8 - 10 tonnes of wood either chopped and seasoned, or on the stages of seasoning at any given point. We don’t burn crap , and the wood burner is new defra compliant version. I’d be more likely to die from the cold and damp .

It’s easy to be sanctimonious when you have alternatives . Not everyone does .

Love my gas fired “wood” burner. Can turn it on at the touch of a button and it would work in a power cut - ok maybe not a full blown apocalypse if we lose mains gas too, but your regular storm induced power cut.

Not true.

• Research from the University of Sheffield showed that regular four-hour stove use tripled indoor harmful particle levels, with massive surges occurring every time the door was opened to refuel.
• More toxic chemical makeup. Wood smoke contains carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), carbon monoxide, benzene, and heavy metals (especially if treated or waste wood is burned). Toast particles are mostly organic carbon and ethanol from baking yeast.
• Severe public health impact. Domestic wood burning is one of the largest sources of fine particle pollution in the UK. Public health data links residential wood and coal burning in the UK to roughly 2,500 deaths, 3,700 new diabetes cases, and 1,500 new asthma cases annually.

They are really bad for you. I thought they were a bit passé. They were quite popular abot 15-20 years ago. We never had one as we had a young child.

I nearly got one about 15 years ago, then read the research and decided against it.

Unless a camping stove specifically states it is designed for indoor use you should NEVER use one indoors. If it states it's for indoor use you should always have a carbon monoxide monitor to hand. You should not leave a gas canister inside a stove you are not using, remove after each use. People die from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by using heating or cooking appliances indoors when they were never designed for it.

Exactly this …

Not sure if believe that figure... maybe for an old fashioned open fire where they burn crap, but not a defra approved burner using smokeless fuels.

Once lit, you can't smell our burner inside or out.

Umm, you understand that global heating is driven by releasing net new CO2 into the atmosphere right? Burning firewood is carbon neutral, unlike oil, which is the only other option in the rural areas where wood burners are ubiquitous.

Do those other public health risks make the risk of wood burning stoves go away? Or are they all independent risk factors?

Any wood burner is dangerous to health. Of course some are worse than others

18 hours a day, 7 months of the year? Unless that poster lives somewhere much further north than the UK I don't believe it either.

If your electricity goes so does your gas (or oil) central heating - the boiler needs electricity to operate the igniter, blower, pump and valves.

I live in a village with no access to gas. We have a tank of heating oil in the garden that fuels our central heating. We also have 2 wood burners and a shed full of logs. All my neighbours have wood burners. It's how we keep warm. Oil is unbelievably expensive at the moment and there is no cap on the price. They can charge whatever they wish . I know several people who aren't filling their oil tanks but are using their wood burners because they have access to free firewood. People in cities dont need them. Those of us who don't live in cities live differently. My house is a large Victorian property built in 1877. It would cost an absolute fortune to fit a ground or air source heat pump which is unlikely to work properly in a single skin,non cavity wall ,very old house. So wood burners it is.

We have a multi-fuel burner with a really good sealed flue but it still affects our breathing even though we are careful what we burn @BusyGreySnail where we live is a conservation area with restrictions on what can be burned but I only have to go outside when people have fires and it exacerbates my asthma. Lots of people here ignore the rules on what can be burned.

I have asthma. It is triggered by cigarette smoke, stress ,joss sticks and strong perfume. I have 2 wood burners. They are both lit this evening. They dont cause me any issues. My mother's asthma is triggered by smoke from an open fire. The wood burners dont cause her a problem. She comes to my house every week.The fire will be lit because my grandchildren are always here on a Monday and without them the house is cold.

I've got 12 chimney pots on the roof of my house. They've been there since 1877. They won't be going anywhere even if log burners are banned.

Try an extractor fan or dehumidifier perhaps?

We have two working open fires. I would never give them up. We live rurally and grow our own wood. We use coal too. I’d rather be warm and die at 75 than freezing and live to 80. The government encouraged /forced people to give up their fires and don’t ensure gas , oil , electric is an affordable alternative? So now we will die of hypothermia instead of asthma?

This is very true

I was surprised by how short the minimum distance they need to be sited from an opening window actually is. They had it installed in a single storey extension and it must affect them too but they chose that, we didn't. FWIW I don't think people who already have them should be stopped from using them but I do think new installations in urban areas shouldn't be allowed. Wood burners may be better than oil or coal in remote areas but they aren't better than gas boilers or renewables in urban areas. They feel like a step backwards when we have less polluting alternatives.

You're absolutely right, FOJN. It was stupid of me to suggest. Thank you pointing out the danger.